Re: NEW ISSUE: content sniffing

On Apr 1, 2009, at 4:48 PM, Adam Barth wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 1, 2009 at 4:45 PM, Mark Baker <mark@coactus.com> wrote:
>> Right.  The information you're talking about is irrelevant to most
>> non-browser HTTP agents and so doesn't belong in the HTTP
>> specification.
>
> It's relevant to any HTTP user agent that wishes to interoperate with
> existing Web content.  For example, Imageshop (described earlier in
> this thread) is not a browser but is interested in knowing when its
> users expect an HTTP response to be treated as an image.

No, it isn't relevant at all.  If the purpose of the user agent is
to find errors in metadata, then your prescribed sniffing requirements
would obviously be false.  A testing client (like MOMspider) is one
such user agent.

What you are talking about is error recovery from the perspective
of a particular type of casual user, not the protocol.
The protocol is stating the communication from the sender.  If the
communication is false, the protocol is being violated and that
violation is shown by failing to meet one of the protocol requirements.
The fact that different user agents deal with protocol violations in
different ways is a good thing.

The whole philosophy that protocol specs, as opposed to browser
implementation specs, must describe the error-handling quirks
of browsers is bankrupt.  HTTP is not defined by browser reactions
to HTTP messages.  The correct way to interoperate with broken Web
content is to display a very large error message that explains why
it is broken.  The fact that *some* HTTP user agents, notably the
big browser vendors, choose not to display those errors in a usable
way is a design choice for those user agents.  It does not in any way
change the semantics of the HTTP messages and the meaning of metadata
within those messages.

The common browser behavior does not need to be standardized in HTTP
because it is not common to the vast majority of user agent
implementations, which far outnumber the general purpose browsers.
It cannot be standardized in a way that would be safe for safety- 
critical
environments such as health care, where failure to display the errors
could very well result in serious injury or death.  And I have no
doubt that MSIE will change its sniffing behavior shortly after a
few lawsuits demonstrate their stupidity.

....Roy

Received on Thursday, 2 April 2009 00:44:20 UTC