'Why HTTP_REFERER is single r, not HTTP_REFERRER?

Sometimes my facebook friend confuses HTTP_REFERER and HTTP_REFERRER, because in the dictionary there is referrer only. Why does that misspelled standard protocol define, and why they don't try to correct the bug?



Solution 1:[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_referrer

Origin of the term referer

The misspelling referer originated in the original proposal by computer scientist Phillip Hallam-Baker to incorporate the field into the HTTP specification.[1] The misspelling was set in stone by the time of its incorporation into the standards document Request for Comments (RFC) 1945; document co-author Roy Fielding has remarked that neither "referrer" nor the misspelling "referer" were recognized by the standard Unix spell checker of the period.[2] "Referer" has since become a widely used spelling in the industry when discussing HTTP referrers; usage of the misspelling is not universal, though, as the correct spelling of "referrer" is used in some web specifications such as the Document Object Model.

Solution 2:[2]

See wikipedia

The misspelling referer originated in the original proposal by computer scientist Phillip Hallam-Baker to incorporate the field into the HTTP specification.[1] The misspelling was set in stone by the time of its incorporation into the standards document Request for Comments (RFC) 1945; document co-author Roy Fielding has remarked that neither "referrer" nor the misspelling "referer" were recognized by the standard Unix spell checker of the period.[2] "Referer" has since become a widely used spelling in the industry when discussing HTTP referrers; usage of the misspelling is not universal, though, as the correct spelling of "referrer" is used in some web specifications such as the Document Object Model.

Solution 3:[3]

You may have noticed the word “referrer” is misspelled as “referer”. Unfortunately it made into the official HTTP specifications like that and got stuck.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 sagi
Solution 2 Ron Sijm
Solution 3 isherwood