problem: type/* content-types and HTTP/1.0

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Date: Fri, 1 Oct 93 00:51:25 -0500
From: marca@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Marc Andreessen)
Message-id: <9310010551.AA25473@wintermute.ncsa.uiuc.edu>
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Subject: problem: type/* content-types and HTTP/1.0
X-Md4-Signature: 91550e2d38350004d1d2583d4ae04b81

The latest CERN server seems to not recognize that when a client says
it accepts "image/*" or the like that "image/gif" and "image/jpeg"
etc. are indeed accepted.

This doesn't seem to be explicitly spelled out one way or the other in
the HTTP/1.0 spec, but the mailcap spec makes it pretty explicit --
"If the subtype is specified as "*", it is intended to match all
subtypes of the named content-type."

I'd strongly encourage adoption of this methodology by HTTP/1.0 and
the servers, as it makes the user's life much easier and it makes it
possible for browsers to conform to RFC 1343.

Marc