Re: Really Quick Guide to Good HTML

At 03:42 PM 2/20/96 -0800, Charles Peyton Taylor wrote:
>A question, though:  I used to think that the <html></html>
>tags were there to let the browser software know that 
>the document was in HTML format.  But if that's so, then 
>why is it defined as a MIME type on the server?

HTML documents can be processed in situations that are unrelated to server
MIME types.  For instance, some operating systems use HTML as the standard
online help format.  Some people use HTML files on CD-ROMs.  The issue of
figuring out the data type of an HTML file is a little more involved than
I've made it sound, because there is another, more explicit ways of
indicating the HTML format (called a doctype) and other, implicit mechanisms
like file attributes and extensions.  It is important to realize that HTML
can be used outside of an HTTP transaction and must be designed as a
standalone language.

 Paul Prescod

Received on Tuesday, 20 February 1996 19:40:58 UTC