- From: Koen Holtman <koen@win.tue.nl>
- Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 18:27:33 +0200 (MET DST)
- To: connolly@w3.org (Dan Connolly)
- Cc: dberansky@ucsd.edu, www-talk@w3.org
Dan Connolly: > >Dmitry Beransky wrote: >> >> It seems that despite the fact that most agents (at least the ones I pulled >> off my server logs) follow the format specified in the HTTP spec, it's >> still impossible to determine with 100% accuracy the agent's make, model, >> os platform, etc., since most of this info is stored in an unstructured >> comment field. Is there any work done on trying to further standardize the >> agent data? > >Not that I'm aware of. Some additional observations: the HTTP spec implies that the User-Agent field is free-form, and in at least one browser (Lynx), the end users can set this field to anything they want. This implies to me that developing a standard format for the User-Agent field is a lost cause. The best hope with respect to reliable browser identification is the wide deployment of one of the content negotiation mechanisms referenced elsewhere in this thread. >Dan Connolly, W3C Koen.
Received on Tuesday, 14 September 1999 12:27:42 UTC