David Powell wrote:
I'm not really convinced. I can think of a few examples where settings
type information is opened by a click in the browser, and it generally
works very well:
<snip>
MIME dispatching adds some value to each of these applications, and I
believe that it would add value to AtomPP. I think that the
applications above would all be worse if they chose HTML-browseability
instead of MIME dispatching.
+1.
There is a trade-off. Which is better: MIME dispatched XOXO, or
browser-readable XOXO? I'd say the former.
Out of these two options, definitely the former.
I agree that things *could* work without a custom MIME type, but I
think the result would be a poorer experience. The browser is most
people's gateway to the Internet, rummaging around my start menu
looking for an application to open my document in feels a bit "Windows
3.1" to me.
+1
Also dispatching on MIME type is part of the architecture of the web
stack [1], even if it does fall apart a bit by the time you get as
high up the stack as XML. (See <http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Stack>)
I'm less bothered about whether we use XOXO or a custom XML format,
but XOXO loses some of it's advantages if it can't be viewed in a
browser.
+1
- James
