RE: What to do about file:

At 7:45 PM -0700 8/19/04, Larry Masinter wrote:
>  > At 3:16 PM -0700 8/19/04, Larry Masinter wrote:
>>  >    When possible, describe what file: URI creators can do
>>  >     to be compatible with the most common file: URI consumers.
>>
>>  What will the process be to determine which the most common file: URI
>>  consumers are? If we determine them, how do we determine definitively
>>  what their processing rules are?
>
>It sounds like you think this is hard.

Correct. I think it will be hard to find consensus as to what the 
"most common" consumers are, and it will be even harder to know what 
their processing rules are.

>  I don't think it's necessary to
>be exhaustive or insure we have 'the most common' file URI consumers,
>as long as we don't miss the important platforms.

Whew, that's much easier.

>As for determining processing rules: the first step is to look for
>documentation, and secondly to ask the implementers. Sometimes it's
>easier go get a response if we draft something that purports to
>describe an implementation (based on what we can tell) and then
>ask for review.

Sounds reasonable, although it will clearly take a long time unless 
we know folks who work on each of the current common consumers.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium