HTTP Authentication vs raw SSL encryption for username/password?

[TechBoyJK]

I've read people recommend using http authentication for sending usernames and passwords.

I've never been able to get excited about using it because I've always assumed I would be using a reasonably stiff SSL connection to pass the data, and as such I would just post username/password as form values like the rest of the form. Or in the case of ajax/jason I would just include the user/pass as an argument. It takes extra work to include using http authentication, and that seems unnecessary to me since I'm using SSL.

I basically don't see the pointing in forking off the credentials and adding additional lines of coding when I could just send the stuff with the rest of the data I'm already sending anyway.

Thoughts? Am I missing something?

 

[beginner99]

Depends on what your goal is. They key here is state. If you don't mind about state (and hence are NOT creating something RESTful) then go with a session login. http basic has some issues but one advanatge is that it is stateless.