Re: default return is "text/html"?
Garrett Arch Blythe (doslynx@falcon.cc.ukans.edu)
Wed, 13 Jul 1994 22:34:16 +0200
On Wed, 13 Jul 1994 Guido.van.Rossum@cwi.nl wrote:
> > Since content-type: is optional on the return value from a HTTP GET,
> > the spec should say what the default is. I propose that the spec say
> > that the default is text/html. (The spec currently doesn't say, as far
> > as I can tell). This corresponds closely to the original spirit of
> > HTTP 0.9 (where everything was text/html), is the presumption of
> > Mosaic, and could easily be of Lynx, and it's better to have a
> > default.
>
> I prefer that the default be text/plain. This is the default for
> MIME, but more importantly, I much prefer seeing the occasional HTML
> source interpreted as plain text (when text/html was omitted) than
> seeing a non-HTML text file mangled by a "forgiving" HTML parser. I
> don't buy the argument about compatibility with HTTP 0.9 (there HTML
> was the only reasonable choice) nor with Mosaic (it's still called
> "World-Wide Web", not "Mosaic" :-).
>
> > HTTP servers probably should try to include a content-type: text/html
> > anyway, if that's what they mean.
>
> Exactly.
Sorry, but lets just switch positions for just a moment. Say that we
consider text/html as the default. Say that you wanted to download a
text/plain document. Then the above would read:
HTTP servers probably should try to include a content-type: text/plain
anyway, if that's what they mean.
I mean, come on. We are connecting to HTTP, "HyperText" Transfer
Protocol, shouldn't the default be text/html?
Garrett.
Trodden Soil
I am trodden soil.
Dust covers my face.
Soles crush my nature
Revealing a hard empty space.
Garrett Arch Blythe (913)864-0436
User Services Student Programmer/Consultant
University of Kansas Computer Center
<doslynx@falcon.cc.ukans.edu>