Re: Validator has become case-sensitive to the MEAT tag param CHARSET

On Thu, 20 Sep 2007, Rui del-Negro wrote:

>>> http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2616.html
>>
>> Yes - RFC 2616 deals only with the "real thing" but not with
>> <meta http-equiv>. Note that section 3.7.1 of RFC 2616 requires
>> the charset parameter (if it is not to be the default value of
>> ISO-8859-1 for text/*.
>
> In that case, Andreas, where are the case-sensitivity rules for this
> attribute name defined? All the rules for the other elements seem to be
> the same as for the "real deal" HTTP header. Why should the string
> "charset=" be treated differently depending on whether it comes in the
> HHTP header or through an http-equiv?

RFC 2616 says: "Unless stated otherwise, the text is case-insensitive."
which is the same in all protocols (for e-mail, news, etc.).

The body is a completely different thing. As you know, HTML is often
case-insensitive, but XHTML is case-sensitive. The rules of HTTP
are not changed by this.

> That is the original (Rick's) question, and you haven't really addressed it.

If someone asks "How can I shoot myself in the foot?" then it is better
not to address this question literally but to explain why it is not
a good idea to shoot oneself in the foot.