- From: Ian Graham <igraham@smaug.java.utoronto.ca>
- Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 16:43:43 -0500 (EST)
- To: www-html@w3.org
The HTTP specification states that the HTTP header explicitly gives
the correct mime type of any content of the HTTP message. The fact
that a server can be misconfigured to send the wrong type, or
that an author may want to process or view the resource by some
mechanism other than the browser's default handling for the given
type, is no argument for using TYPE to arbitrarily override the
server's information.
Indeed, one can just as easily argue for HTTP overriding TYPE --
suppose I update a single stylesheet so that it now corresponds to
(and is served out as) the MIME type text/css; level=2. Should the
documents that link to this style sheet be then able to use a TYPE
attribute to override this and assume it is in DSSSL?
I think that this discussion is having problems because there are
actually two issues under discussion:
1) how to handle MIME type errors, such as the server sending
the wrong mime type for a given piece of data
2) how to get the browser to handle a specific MIME type in an
author-configurable way.
By my reading of the HTML specification, TYPE is designed to handle (1),
and OBJECT to handle (2).
Ian
Received on Thursday, 22 January 1998 16:44:01 UTC