Re: ALT revisited (short-term)

> What I was suggesting relies on the fact that the header fields
> exchanged in HTTP can carry metadata about the message body.  A
> server can provide a description of the image as the value of a
> Content-Description: header or indirectly via something like an
> X-Content-Description-References: header.

There is no Content-Description in HTTP1.1 so this would have to be an
extension.

This is unlikely to happen soon given the speed at which 1.1 itself is
penetrating the market.

> For a client program with image display set off by user
> preference, the client can send an HTTP request with method HEAD
> and get the description without spending the net bandwidth and
> time to transfer the binary image file.

Using HEAD on an image to get a description is possible, I think Dave
Raggett mentioned it to me a while ago. The semantics is clear too,
e.g. if the image format itself has some 'comments' in the file, this
is a way to get at it without transfering the whole file.

Received on Wednesday, 2 July 1997 10:25:06 UTC