Re: i67: quoting charsets

At 14:55 08/04/04, Mark Nottingham wrote:
>
><http://tools.ietf.org/wg/httpbis/trac/ticket/67>
>
>Earlier related thread at:
>http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/ietf-http-wg-old/2001JanApr/0020.html
>
>Roy wrote in the issue;
>> There is some confusion here. First, HTTP allows both quoted and  
>> unquoted forms in Content-Type, and that certainly isn't going to  
>> change. However, HTTP only uses the charset ABNF production in  
>> Accept-Charset, and thus is currently defined to only allow tokens  
>> in Accept-Charset.
>>
>> Should Accept-Charset allow charset quoted strings? I don't think  
>> so. Should the charset production be removed to reduce the  
>> confusion? Perhaps. This is really a design issue.
>>
>> This would be a lot easier if IANA kept a decent registry for  
>> charset that only included the "MIME preferred names". We may need  
>> to request that in the IANA considerations

As the secondary reviewer for that registry (Ned Free is the
primary reviewer), I would like to understand what exactly
would be easier here.

Does HTTP say anything about MIME preferred names vs. other
charset names or should it?

Is this simply another call for cleanup for the charset
registry, where we all agree that it's a mess.

Do MIME preferred names have more stringent restrictions on
their syntax that is more in line with some parts of HTTP?
(e.g. they never need quotes?)

I don't think that a removal of everything not labeled
MIME preferred name in the charset registry (at
http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets)
would be appropiate at all. I think that doing so via
a new HTTP spec would be even less appropriate.
Proposing individual cleanup actions may be a good idea
in some cases, please always feel free to make proposals
directly along the process for that registry
(see RFC 2978). There are of course many other protocols
using this registry.

Regards,    Martin.



#-#-#  Martin J. Du"rst, Assoc. Professor, Aoyama Gakuin University
#-#-#  http://www.sw.it.aoyama.ac.jp       mailto:duerst@it.aoyama.ac.jp

Received on Friday, 4 April 2008 07:16:29 UTC