When action=raw is used to retrieve the wikitext of an article, but no such
article exists, MediaWiki should respond with HTTP error 404 "Not Found".
Currently, it simply returns an empty text. Thus, there's no way for scripts to
tell if a page does not exist, or if it is simply blank. If a HTML message
should accompany the 404 code, or again an empty page, i'm not sure. The former
is nicer if tried with a browser, the latter is better for backward
compatibility with existing scripts.
Returning 404 for non-existing pages *regardles* if action=raw is used or not
should also be considered - but I expect there meight be issues with "smart"
error pages in some "advanced" browsers.
Not returning the 404 code if a nonexisting page is requested is actually
against the HTTP spec, so I marked this as minor bug, rather than a feature
request.
Version: 1.6.x
Severity: minor
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aslkdkfjalskdfj?action=raw