Nathaniel,
First of all, a "point of information": Ned already pointed out that
we are arguing about a concept (do types other than text have a
content charset) rather than the packaging. I'm assuming that
your message means that you're willing to accept the concept.
About the packing:
Personally, I find the idea of chained attributes on the content-type
line a complete "dual" of putting those attributes on separate header
lines. I made this point in writing to the list when the first draft
that had this came out, but no one ever commented on it.
At Atlanta I brought this up again, and a compromise came out:
optional headers are put in a separate header; those headers that
are required are put within the content-type line.
This, of course, has those aspects of a compromise: you need all
the code of both proposals, but each side got to hold on to something
that they felt important: manadatory headers are represented all together
on the content-type line; optional headers appear just like any other
optional header in today's world (as a separate header line).
This isn't my preferred choice, but it is an alternative I can live
with.
Neil
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