HTTPbis - what does bis mean?

Question

I often saw an encore added to protocol versions (such as v.34bis or httpbis).

What does bis mean or mean?

A communications engineer who, as I know, believes this may be French in origin.

Answer 1

As others have said, an encore comes from "twice" or "repeat . " He used to indicate the second version of something (although usually with minor variations that do not require a new name).

In the context of HTTP, HTTPbis is the name of the workgroup responsible for updating HTTP. According to its charter :

HTTP is one of the most successful and widely used protocols on the Internet today. However, its specification has several editorial issues. In addition, after many years of implementation and expansion, several ambiguities became apparent, which impairs interoperability and the ability to easily implement and use HTTP.

The working group will update RFC2616 to:

• Including errors and updates (e.g. links, IANA, ABNF registries)
• Fix editorial issues that lead to a misunderstanding of the spec.
• Refine Compliance Requirements
• Remove the known ambiguities in which they affect interoperability.
• Clarify existing extensibility methods
• Remove or discard features that are not widespread and that unduly affect interoperability.
• Add implementation recommendations if necessary
• Document HTTP security properties and related mechanisms (e.g. Basic and Digest authentication, cookies, TLS) for regular applications

It will also include the general authentication framework from RFC 2617, without reinstalling or updating this definition of the specification of basic and digest schemes.

Finally, it will include the relevant parts of RFC 2817 (in particular, the CONNECT method and recommendations for using Upgrade), so this specification can be transferred to historical status.

It should be borne in mind:

• Implementation Experience
• Demonstrated Use of HTTP
• Impact on existing implementations and deployments.

The workgroup should not introduce a new version of HTTP and should not add new features to HTTP. The WG is not tasked with producing new methods, headers, or extension mechanisms, but protocol elements can, if necessary, as part of a review of existing functionality that has proven problematic.

The last paragraph (focus) explains why they used the encore in this context, since they clearly do not want the new version.

Answer 2

bis

The word (also used as a prefix or suffix) bis, applied to some standard protocol protocols, is "Old Latin" for "repetition" (akin to the ancient high German "twice"). When the protocol ends with "bis", it means that this is the second version of this protocol.

Similarly, ter from Old Latin means "three times." The suffix terbo in the V.xx modem protocol is an invented word based on Old Latin ter and the word turbo (Latin for "swirl peak" or "whirlwind"), which means "speed". V.32terbo is the third version developed for the V.32 modem protocol.

(from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci211669,00.html )