Re: LINK TYPE=override/type

On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, Ian Graham wrote:

> This assumes that you can self-consistently manage all linked documents,
> which is not the case.  For example, someone linking to your document might 
> specify the type of your document using TYPE. But, if you subseqently 
> change the type, their documents will break.   
> 

I think that if you're going to be changing the MIME type of documents
you're bound to have problems whether or not someone was using TYPE.

> 
> At the same time, I believe TYPE should play a role in error handling 
> -- for example, if the HTTP-specified type seems to be in error, then 
> the browser could fall back to the TYPE-specified value, and see if that
> works. And if that doesn't work, the browser could try heuristics on the
> file, to try and determine the correct type (i.e. ... guess!)
> 

No, a browser can not ever do this, because there is no way for a
browser to know or guess if a server is mis-configured. Any browser that
tries something like that is going to mess things up very much.

Either the browser should always use the HTTP MIME type or it should
always use some author-specified TYPE value. A browser should not be
using the server's type value in certain cases while ignoring it if it
"thinks" the server is in error. According to HTTP we must assume that
the server is never in error. 



Bill Bereza  bereza@pobox.com  http://www.pobox.com/~bereza/

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

Received on Friday, 23 January 1998 01:16:35 UTC