In a recent post to his blog Chris Hartjes looks at the idea of better HTTP Request/Response functionality in PHP, more than just the superglobal handling and PECL HTTP extension it has now.

I think the fact that we have $_POST and $_GET lulls some of us into the false sense that we should have $_PUT and $_DELETE objects, since that would map to the commonly-desired set of HTTP verbs that REST likes to use. But what should be inside those things, or should we be moving towards a more Pythonesque solution where a Request object, as part of core or via a only-really-for-the-brave- PECL extension?

He mentions opinions from other PHP community members (Laura Thompson and Elizabeth Smith) and a bit about what he (and I'm sure other developers) are looking for in a more full-featured request/response handling feature.