Content negotiation: GIF v. PNG

Some time ago (late '99), Terje gave the following explanation as to why
there was no ".gif" or ".png" extension on the validator <img> tags,
i.e., those generated for validated pages, ala:

  <p>
    <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img border="0"
        src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401"
        alt="Valid HTML 4.01!" height="31" width="88"></a>
  </p>

Terje wrote:
> The filename extension is left out to let the server negotiate with the
> client whether to return a GIF file or a PNG file. PNG is the preferred
> format but not all clients can handle it so there has to be a fallback
> to the GIF files. This will of course fail if the server running the
> validator does not have content negotiation enabled.

Although more an Apache question, exactly what directives are required for
this to happen?  The above code works unchanged on my ISP's server,
presuming I have an .htaccess file with an "Options MultiViews" entry, but
on my personal server it doesn't...  What other directives besides
"Options Multiviews' might be required?

Brian

>  Brian Gilkison           | http://w3.one.net/~gilkison/ <
>  gilkison@one.net         | finger for PGP Public key    <
>                                                          <
>    Don't steal. The government hates the competition.    <

Received on Monday, 5 March 2001 15:14:41 UTC