Re: Investigate expected results to http://www.hixie.ch/tests/adhoc/http/content-type/sniffing/ tests in collaboration with the IETF HTTP WG (ACTION-44)

Julian Reschke wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> two weeks ago I got the task 
> (<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/tracker/actions/44>) to collect feedback 
> from HTTP WG with respect to the content sniffing specified in HTML5 in 
> general, and the test cases at 
> <http://www.hixie.ch/tests/adhoc/http/content-type/sniffing/> specifically.
> 
> The discussion thread is archived at 
> <http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/2008JanMar/thread.html#msg120>. 
> There was also some discussion over here, which I have tried to include.
> 
> Below is my attempt to summarize what has been said:

Adding two updates for archival...:

> 3) "illegal characters"
> 
> Some test cases, such as 16, claim the contents contains "invalid 
> text/plain characters". At least case 16 doesn't. 
> (<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg/2008JanMar/0122.html>)

UPDATE: as explained in 
<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Feb/0108.html>, 
this is based on a requirement made in RFC2046 
(<http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2046#page-9>).

> 6) conflict with Webarch and TAG finding
> 
> The current text in HTML5 contradicts WebArch 
> (<http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#error-handling>) and the TAG finding 
> "mime respect", in particular "avoid silent recovery" 
> (<http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/mime-respect.html#silent-recovery>).
> 
> There seems to be broad agreement that it's good to document what widely 
> deployed user agents actually do with respect to content sniffing. 
> However, there was *no* agreement that it's HTML5's task to make that a 
> "MUST" level requirement 
> (<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2008Jan/0214.html>).

UPDATE: in the meantime, the latest editor's draft 
(<http://www.w3.org/html/wg/html5/> makes content type sniffing optional 
in at least one case.

 > ...

BR, Julian

Received on Friday, 15 February 2008 12:23:35 UTC