Last modified: 2011-07-13 21:52:37 UTC
could be nice, especially for clients expecting xml parseable data to be retrievable when connection MW, to not get a headake when recieving a 503, as they usually parse the data before thinking about the 503.
What is maxlag and what it has to do with 503 (HTTP error code?)
[[mw:Manual:Maxlag parameter]] IMO, the client should be checking the HTTP status code before looking at the content.
I don't see what it would achieve to make it xml/html then. The clients would just work wrong in an another way.
The bug appears to be that clients will ignore the error that explicitly tells them that the request was not handled, and will attempt to parse the response anyway, and get confused. The solution is to pay attention to the HTTP error when one is provided. Making this message as simple as possible is in the best interests of the devs, and while there obviously isn't a performance reason not to wrap the output in the necessary HTML fluff, there isn't a good reason to do that either. It's not like returning HTML would give the ignorant client everything it asked for, it would just be a little bit bigger. For these reasons, closing this invalid.
