[transplant some of the notes from new-dispatch-model
dan**20030616152617] {
hunk ./doc/handlers.html 15
-<p>Look at static-file-handler.lisp and redirect-handler.lisp for a
-couple of examples.  To see more complicated stuff, grab the 
-source for <a href="http://www.cliki.net/CLiki">CLiki</a> and poke
-around in there.
+<p>A dispatching handler calls authentication and authorization methods,
+then dispatches on the sub-handler, then logs.
hunk ./doc/handlers.html 18
+<p>The HTTP methods is a specialisable argument - it's not unusual to
+do different things for GET and POST at the same url.
+
hunk ./doc/handlers.html 39
+<h2>Handler invocation</h2>
+
+<p>When a request comes in, the *root-handler*'s handle-request method
+is invoked on it.  *root-handler* is a dispatching-handler, so calls
+whichever appropriate subhandler you've installed for the URL.  If you
+install more dispatching-handlers, the dispatch will happen again.
+
+<p>At each level of dispatch, another clause is pushed onto the request's
+HANDLED-BY slot value.  This is a list of lists
+
+<pre>
+((handler index)
+ (handler index)
+ ...)
+</pre>
+
+where index is the element after the last position in the urlstring
+that was used for discrimination.
+
hunk ./doc/handlers.html 67
-<h2>Authentication and authorization</h2>
+<h2>Authentication and authorization methods</h2>
hunk ./doc/handlers.html 73
-Typically, we arrange that the authentication handler is responsible
+Typically, we arrange that the authentication method is responsible
hunk ./doc/handlers.html 80
-The authorization handler has to check if the requested action is allowed
+The authorization method has to check if the requested action is allowed
hunk ./doc/handlers.html 139
+<h2>Examples</h2>
+
+<p>Look at static-file-handler.lisp and redirect-handler.lisp for a
+couple of examples.  To see more complicated stuff, grab the 
+source for <a href="http://www.cliki.net/CLiki">CLiki</a> and poke
+around in there.
}