RE: Document sniffing for type information

> What I am objecting to in the TAG finding is the idea that "thou
> shalt not" offer the user a guess when the indicated type clearly
> fails to match the content.

The example that started this discussion wasn't an example of this. A text
document which could be a valid HTML document with a MIME change is still a
text file. Browsers failing to treat it as a text file cause all manner of
problems (IE's MIME behaviour can often be quite bizarre indeed).

If the type completely fails to match the content then you have an error.
The general idea of browsers "fixing" errors the encounter is the source of
many of the problems we now have (however it did allow for
forwards-compatibility in many cases). If something is a clear error then
it's much better to let the user know that (especially if the "let me guess"
and "don't ask me about this again" options are clear).

Received on Tuesday, 3 December 2002 09:11:39 UTC