HTTP MIme content-type parameters

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Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1993 10:26:02 -0500
From: Jim Davis <davis@dri.cornell.edu>
Message-id: <199312031526.AA18189@willow.tc.cornell.edu>
To: www-talk@nxoc01.cern.ch
Subject: HTTP MIme content-type parameters

The HTTP draft RFC violates the MIME RFC 1341 specification for the
use of parameters in content types.  There are two problems.

1) The MIME RFC states that parameters are separated from the subtype
by a semi-colon, e.g.

 text/plain; charset=us-ascii

But the HTTP draft says uses semi-colon to separate alternative
content-types, and uses comma to separate parameters.

HTTP should change to conform to MIME, e.g. the example on p 8 should
be:

Accept: text/x-dvi; q=.8;mxb=10000;xmt=5.0, text/x-c

2) The MIME spec considers period to be a tspecial, which means it is
forbidden to use it within a token.  It must instead be quoted.  So
the example on page 8 should be:

Accept: text/x-dvi; q=".8";mxb=10000;xmt="5.0", text/x-c

Can we agree to bring the HTTP spec in line with MIME standard?

As far as I know, no one (besides me) is using or caring about
parameters for content types.