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Re: Towards resolution of httpRange-14

From: Patrick Stickler <patrick.stickler@nokia.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 18:31:34 -0500
Message-Id: <8fb5c835b1a9de361e1c5650864e643b@nokia.com>
Cc: public-www-archive@w3.org
To: "ext Tim Berners-Lee" <timbl@w3.org>


On Mar 11, 2005, at 17:10, ext Tim Berners-Lee wrote:

>>
>> On Mar 11, 2005, at 11:17, Patrick Stickler wrote:
>>
>>> Are you saying then, that some stream of bits served as
>>> text/plain is a distinct representation from a stream of bits
>>> served as text/xml?
>>
>> I.e. the *same* stream served with different MIME types...
>>
>> Patrick
>
> Absolutely.
>
> A representation carries meaning. A string of bits is not
> sufficient, as it is not self-describing.
>
> If something is served as text/plain then a human user
> would be expected to be served the text.
> A browser which fishes for <html> or <!xml> is
> is not behaving according to the architecture.
> Every now and again, something breaks when it is not done properly.
>
> This is fairly well established, and described in AWWW.
>
> Tim

Right. I can see why the associated media type is important,
as two otherwise bit-equal streams may have very different
interpretations depending on the media type and thus
constitute different bodies of information.

Still, this is not central to httpRange-14, so sorry for
the digression.

Patrick
Received on Monday, 14 March 2005 13:25:21 GMT

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