Re: misconceptions about MIME [long]

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Message-id: <0etjyNa0M2Yt56y3N_@thumper.bellcore.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1992 15:23:05 -0400 (EDT)
From: Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@thumper.bellcore.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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To: Larry Masinter <masinter@parc.xerox.com>
Subject: Re: misconceptions about MIME [long]
Cc: gopher@boombox.micro.umn.edu, wais-talk@quake.think.com,
        www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch, connolly@pixel.convex.com,
        Ned Freed <ned@innosoft.com>
In-Reply-To: <92Oct22.113048pdt.101795@poplar.parc.xerox.com>
References: <92Oct22.113048pdt.101795@poplar.parc.xerox.com>

I think Ned (who I just added to the growing distribution list on this
exchange!)'s argument was that formats such as Postscript and Gif have
developed or are developing ways of specifying such things IN-band, that
is, in the actual data stream itself rather than in an out-of-band
location such as the MIME content-type header.  Insofar as this is true,
I think it makes much more sense NOT to further complicate matters by
introducing a way to specify these matters out-of-band.  In other words,
including information in a place like the MIME Content-type header
should only be done if there's no way for including the information in
part of the actual data, that is, the MIME body part.  I think that's
the essential philosophy behind that choice, at any rate.  -- Nathaniel