Re: (ACCEPT*) Draft text for Accept headers

Koen wrote:

% If you have comments on this text, now is the time to comment.  I
% intend to close this issue at the end of the week.  This means that I
% will send a last call for disagreement with perceived consensus,
% together with a possibly improved version of the text below, in a few
% days.

%    If no Accept header is present, then it is assumed that the client
% |  accepts all media types.  If Accept headers are present, and if the
% |  resource cannot send a response which is acceptable according to
% |  the Accept headers, then the server should send an error response
% |  with the 413 (not acceptable) status code, though the sending of an
% |  un-acceptable response is also allowed.

I don't agree with this: let's suppose I want an audio file, but I can
read only .wav and no .au . Should I get the whole .au file and then notice
that it is unreadable for me? It does not seem sensitive, especially
since there is already a default to get any type (namely, no Accept line
at all)

Is it possible at least to state things in such a way that in 1.2 the 
situation will change (I don't know, maybe adding an Accept-Only
header if people believe that my view is stupid)? After all, we have
already a SHOULD, so it should not be that difficult to promote it to
a MUST in the next version...

.mau.

Received on Thursday, 4 April 1996 06:11:18 UTC