Re: ACTION-242 OPEN add file extension remark to security context information list Stephen Farrell 2007-06-01

On 2007-06-05 10:38:21 +0100, Stephen Farrell wrote:

> So the action is on me to somehow add MIME file extensions
> to the list of things in 7.2 of the use cases note, which
> currently says (in part):
>
> 	- MIME type of the content
>
> I'd like it to say:
>
> 	- MIME type of the content and related information, e.g.
> 		file extension
>
> I don't think I've write access to the draft note though
> (do I?) so I guess I need an editor to whack that in.

In a way this illustrates the problem that I have with the list
approach:  Security context information that is relevant here
includes (a) the MIME type of the media that is intended by the
site, (b) the one that is communicated through Content-Type headers,
(c) the one that is communicated through file extensions (though
that's not standardized), and (d) the one that the browser picks.

(a) is sometimes not communicated at all, (b) is sometimes different
from (a), (c) is often (a) or (b) (and we don't know), and (d) is
often (c), sometimes not (a), and seldom (b) (unless it's the same
as (c)).

We certainly have that knowledge as a group, and should reflect it
in the document if we think it's useful as a glossary-like thing,
but the current text stops short of that, and I don't see us having
the energy to get it into proper shape in time for the note.

Anyway, I've made my case to drop the list from the note that we're
working on now at the face-to-face and lost that discussion, so I'll
shut up.

Cheers,
-- 
Thomas Roessler, W3C  <tlr@w3.org>

Received on Wednesday, 6 June 2007 15:05:22 UTC