Hello Karl, Interesting series of articles. For this one, there's quite a lot to be said, and fitting it all in in a way the novice can understand in progressive steps it is a bit of a challenge.
Just a few thoughts [1] "For text/html it is best to define the character encoding in the HTTP header rather than hard code <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> into your pages or templates." I think the question of character encoding declarations is skimped a little. At the W3C we looked at best practises for character encoding declarations. You can find our conclusions at http://www.w3.org/International/tutorials/tutorial-char-enc/en/all.html#Slide0240 Note that HTTP isn't always the best way to go. There are pros and cons, depending on the usage and the developer. [2] The main thrust of this article seems to be how to use application/text+xml to allow for forward compatability. I wondered whether it might be better to split the article into more general introductions to content negotiation, xml declaration, etc. then discuss use of application/xml+xhtml, and in another article bring everything together with an example PHP application. Just an idea. [3] "The XML Declaration is required for character sets other than UTF-8 and UTF-16" s/character sets/character encodings/ For example, utf-8 and utf-16 are both exactly the same character set, though different encodings (see http://www.w3.org/International/tutorials/tutorial-char-enc/en/slides/Slide0060.html ) [4] "You will need to ensure that all other character references are numeric in nature." It would be good to explain the reason you say this. hth RI ============ Richard Ishida Internationalization Lead W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) http://www.w3.org/People/Ishida/ http://www.w3.org/International/ http://people.w3.org/rishida/blog/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ishida/ ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Karl Dawson Sent: 16 January 2006 09:21 To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: [WSG] Article: MIME and Content Negotiation Hi, Apologies in advance if you see this cross-posted: "From the Top" is a series of articles that I am publishing to concisely explain how and why to construct a high quality, web-standards compliant head section for a web page. The second article, just released, examines MIME and Content Negotiation. http://www.thatstandardsguy.co.uk/2006/01/16/content-negotiation/ Comments, especially error-spotting and general "bravo" very welcome, it all helps with my work position. Regards, -- Karl Dawson Crusader for Web Standards and Accessibility http://www.thatstandardsguy.co.uk -------------------------------------------------- Accessites Team Member - http://www.accessites.org/ -------------------------------------------------- "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." Tim Berners-Lee - W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
