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Referer or Referrer
To paraphrase Wikipedia
In HTTP, "Referer" (a misspelling of Referrer) is an optional HTTP header field that identifies the address of the previous web page visited by the client.
Given the spec spells it wrong, which do you think should be used in technical settings (i.e log files, documentation, etc)?
W3C members are human too!
- How do you prefer to refer to the htttp "referer"33 votes
- Referrer48.48%
- Referer51.52%
Comments
Personally, I use Referer if I am refering (pun intended) to the HTTP Header, and referrer everywhere else.
In technical docs, it should be as it is called.
I don't know what htttp is.
Please vote before reading but I very much agree with @FAT32 (also about puns)
In regard to software however I do find it interesting that nginx error logs (but not
ngx_http_referer_module) usereferrer: "http://google.com". It certainly got me thinking perhaps my choice was wrong.As per @FAT32's reply, use the correct spelling everywhere except the places that are mandated by spec to the wrong spelling.
I remember suddenly realising once years ago, that I had written pages and pages of code passing around a variable definition and name "XColor colour" in various function definitions and I hadn't even consciously noticed the difference before then. XColor was just what the type was, colour was just my name. And this was years before IDEs wrote your code for you, this was all manually typed! So, it's definitely easy to get your head into this way of thinking.
Another alternative, is just define a constants for all the headers you care about, and just use the correct spelling for the constant names everywhere. This is far better than having literals for the headers everywhere as sooner-or-later you'll mistype one and it'll just be silently ignored, and if you mistype the name of the constant you'll get an error when compiling / testing.
As a side note, I think this header would have been better named "Referenced-By:" in any case.
Our HTTP servers are highly intelligent.
Careful, mcvities might sue you for tax purposes
https://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/chrislawbore/2020/10/14/jaffa-cakes-not-such-a-piece-of-a-cake/#:~:text=In 1991 in United Biscuits,to the standard 17.5% rate.
It should be referer, IMO. As in refer-er; you wouldn't say, refer-rer. My keyboard dictionary likes both spellings, so alias that bitch and move on.
There has been some real swings in the voting.
I did some thinking on it last night and I think I decided on referer for anything http. Simply to reduce defects. If there is only ONE spelling there is a right and a wrong way, if there is TWO then its potentially vauge as to which to use.
In nearly all code we will be using
http_refererorhttpReferer(as appropriate) to make that clear. Tehnical documentation will use Referer for anything http related.Bad enough having color & center.
Reeferer.
In IETF RFC documents the header field is referenced as "Referer".
In simple words http is RFC 2068.
Further Readings: