[thelist] What is wrong with this site?

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Mon Aug 18 20:47:26 CDT 2003


see, i *don't* want the browser to make a guess based on a file 
extension when the mime type is clearly something else... if i choose 
to passa an .html file as plaintext for some reason, i would want the 
browser to honor that, and i would hope that the developer would have 
enough skill to have *chosen* to configure the server that way...

and yes, there are cases where i've wanted to pass a page with an 
.htm, .html, or even .asp extension as plain text...

but think of another scenario, one that comes up on this list semi-
frequently... you have an MS Word file, with a .doc extension that 
you want users to download, but you don't want to have to stuff it 
into a .zip or otherwise modify it...

one of the ways many developers handle this is by changing its mime 
type to application/octet-stream, forcing the browser to ask what to 
do with the file, instead of just opening it within the browser...

so, in this case, would you prefer the browser to honor the file 
extension, or the mime type set by the server?

(wow, two posts in one month... maybe i'm coming back...)

-- 
yet another book:
  The Web Professional's Handbook
  http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1904151221/evoltorg02-20
  ISBN: 1904151221





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