On Wed, May 02, 2001 at 07:57:04PM -0500, Brandon wrote:
>
> > > Why not just use the Content-Type field and set it to application/x-gzip?
> > > Why add another metadata field?
> >
> > Because that's actually a technically wrong use of Content-Type. I forget
> > which RFC I read about this in, but it was one of the HTTP or MIME ones.
> > Content-Type is supposed to be set to, well, the content type, which is
> > independent of how the content is encoded .. hence the Transfer-Encoding
> > header in HTTP.
>
> The metadata field is not an HTTP header field, it is a Dublic Core
> metadata field. When using FProxy, an HTTP header field with a confusingly
> similar name is generated in order for FProxy to act appropriately as a
> web proxy. However, the meanings of HTTP header fields with similar names
> is totally irrelevant to the metadata standard, which is not based on
> HTTP. So arguements about misusing the meanings of headers are irrelevant.
>
> The question is, do we need an encoding header in addition to a content
> type header? I don't think we do, as explicated below.
Brandon, I mentioned the parallels with HTTP and MIME because the same
arguments that make it technically wrong to conflate Content-Type with
Transfer-Encoding apply to us as well.
> > Think about it, how can the browser distinguish HTML from text or
> > anything else if you put application/x-gzip in the ContentType?
>
> If the content is sent to the browser zipped, then it's not text or HTML,
> it's gzip. If the content is automatically unzipped by the client (FProxy
> if we're talking about interfacing to a web browser) then the content type
> of the contained information will be sent to the browser instead.
The correct behavior would be to send the compressed data along to the
browser without touching it, while setting the Transfer-Encoding HTTP
header to gzip. If the browser is incapable of handling that
Transfer-Encoding then you can unzip it yourself and send it along.
But how are you supposed to reliably determine the Content-Type to
send to the browser if we're sticking application/x-gzip in our
ContentType Info field? Filename guessing is not sufficient..
Let's do this the right way.
--
# tavin cole
#
# "The process of scientific discovery is, in effect,
# a continual flight from wonder."
# - Albert Einstein
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