Re: LINK TYPE=override/type

On 22 Jan 98, Jukka Korpela <jkorpela@cc.hut.fi> wrote:
> [..]
> b) If a user agent detects MIME type mismatch between the TYPE value
>    and the Content-Type header, what should it do? I'd say it should
>    try to give some warning. But which type should it use to determine
>    the processing method?

The UA should use the value specified in the TYPE value, since presumably 
the author knows better than the server (which may be misconfigured or 
not configured for a new type of file, or is unable to determine what 
type of file it is).

There may be other reasons as well... if I would like to display a file 
as a different type than it is. An example:

  <A HREF="mysrc.pl">The Perl source code</A>

may be treated by some servers as "application/perl" or as "unknown". 
Browsers may handle this differently, giving a choice to download & save 
or to open in an opplication, or if one is lucky to view it as text. As 
the author I may want users to view it as text though (or have that 
option):

  <A HREF="mysrc.pl" TYPE="text/plain">The Perl source code</A>

Which brings to mine a potentially useful hack for embedding HTML source:

  <OBJECT DATA="example.html" TYPE="text/plain" ...>
  </OBJECT>

Anticipating a potential "well, the server should be properly configured
and if you're a bozo who doesn't care about that it's your problem"
reply, (1) most authors are authors, not system administrators and do
not have the access to configure the server on their ISPs; (2) new file
types that the server has not been properly confgured for yet; and (3)
unusual cases where the server is unable to determine the MIME type

Rob

Received on Friday, 23 January 1998 11:24:12 UTC