Re: backburner question: Checking HTTP Headers (was: Sites to see headers)

Very good.
Here are some comments:

1) The notation (X)HTML is confusing. Let's not use it. Earlier, I thought
this referred to any of XML, XHTML, HTML. I have since learned that it is used
to refer to only XHTML and HTML and excludes XML.
Since it is non-standard and not well known, the Q&A should be explicit and
reference HTML and XHTML.

2) The question is really about checking charset, so we should make it more
precise. Change

How can I check the HTTP headers with which my Web documents are served?
to something like:

How can I verify the value of CHARSET in the HTTP headers served with my web
documents?

3) When describing that the reader should look for "charset=", it should be
mentioned that it may not be provided.
They should look for Content-type and confirm that charset is provided and
then confirm the value associated with it.
Otherwise people may look for charset and not realize they are looking at a
content-type with no charset setting.

4) When I use the validator with xhtml it gives me some warning about not
detecting or using charsets and using some default, if I recall. I can go
retry it if needed. Before we document using the validator, does it work
properly with xhtml and encodings now?

5) in the paragraph on the extended interface, the reference to conversions is
perhaps confusing. Also the specific use of UTF-8. Perhaps, the text should
mention that pages should be served with the correct charset for the content
of the page. The visual check (assuming the right fonts and browser
configuration) should show the correct characters if the charset encoding is
correct for the page being served.

6) on transcoding servers- Is there a way to detect if this is going on?
Something we can tell the reader to evaluate?

hth
tex

Martin Duerst wrote:
> 
> I just made a question out of the list of sites to see
> HTTP headers. Thanks to Andrew and Tex for their help.
> 
> This is for my next round, so we don't have to
> discuss this on this Wednesday. Please see
> http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-headers-charset.html
> 
> Olivier, I have copied you because this mentions the validator.
> 
> Richard, I'm not sure I got the
> <div class="content"> markup right. It's not clear
> what it is for, but it seems to affect styling in
> somewhat strange ways. In general, to reduce overhead,
> it is easiest to mark up all the other parts and leave
> the unmarked parts as simple content, but maybe I got
> something wrong.
> 
> Regards,     Martin.
> 
> At 09:52 03/06/12 +1000, Andrew Cunningham wrote:
> 
> >Martin Duerst wrote:
> >>There are the sites I know to check
> >>http://webtools.mozilla.org/web-sniffer/
> >>http://www.delorie.com/web/headers.html
> >
> >http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html
> >
> >
> >likewise if your interested in the http request
> >
> >http://www.delorie.com:81/some/url.html
> >http://www.i18ngurus.com/cgi-bin/TestLang.pl
> >
> >
> >
> >--
> >Andrew Cunningham
> >Multilingual Technical Officer
> >Online Projects Team, Vicnet
> >State Library of Victoria
> >328 Swanston Street
> >Melbourne  VIC  3000
> >Australia
> >
> >andrewc@vicnet.net.au
> >
> >Ph. +61-3-8664-7430
> >Fax: +61-3-9639-2175
> >
> >http://www.openroad.net.au/
> >http://www.libraries.vic.gov.au/
> >http://www.vicnet.net.au/

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Received on Monday, 16 June 2003 22:46:31 UTC