HTTP guidelines (was: Re: Language information)

>>> <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org> (Nir Dagan) 12/12 8:47 AM >>>
Daniel wrote:
"The more generic issue is whether or not we should
have a section on HTTP server guidelines, that would 
talk about not doing browser sniffing&discrimination, 
supporting language/content negociation, etc."

Yes. I think so. HTTP is important for content providing. 

I would go even to a more basic level.
Authors should be first told that they have set 
Content-Type headers correctly rather than write 
"Click with the right mouse button to save the file to disc" 
and only after they do that, we should tell them: also set 
the type attribute in your anchors.
<<<
Agree on the server issues and the need for addressing them somewhere. I'm not convinced that the Author Guidelines are the best place.

While it may not be true of the majority of readers of this list, I believe most authors have no control over their server settings. They don't have their own domain name; they're hosted as a user web under their web presence provider. They have neither the authority, skills, nor inclination to modify server settings.

I don't think W3C currently has any appropriate location for such issues, since it doesn't fall under Authors, Authoring Tools, or User Agents. Maybe W3C needs to add "Webmaster Guidelines" to identify the responsibilities and skillsets involved in optimizing server settings for accessibility considerations.

<author>Chris Kreussling</author> 
<disclaimer>The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or the Federal Reserve System.</disclaimer>

Received on Tuesday, 15 December 1998 12:29:10 UTC