content negotiation from Jeff de la Beaujardiere on 1997-05-01 (www-html@w3.org from May 1997)

From: Jeff de la Beaujardiere <delabeau@iniki.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 10:08:16 -0400
To: davidp@earthlink.net
CC: galactus@htmlhelp.com, www-html@w3.org
Message-Id: <199705011408.KAA03425@iniki.gsfc.nasa.gov>

David Perrell writes:
> Would it not be better to have an HTTP variable "HTTP_FEATURES" or
> somesuch that would be a list of identifiers indicating which features
> were currently active? There would be no need to make assumptions -- if
> "frames" were not in the list, an intelligent server would know not to
> deliver a framed set of documents.

I believe that transparent content negotiation in HTTP (see
http://gewis.win.tue.nl/~koen/conneg/) will provide that functionality.
Clients can negotiate on the basis of media type, charset, language, and
features.  Feature negotiation uses "feature tags" to identify "a capability
of a user agent or a preference of a user."

--Jeff

  = J-F Pitot de La Beaujardiere
  = delabeau@iniki.gsfc.nasa.gov
  = http://globe2.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Received on Thursday, 1 May 1997 10:08:33 UTC