I'm taken with the multipart/archive idea, but I'm not sure that it is
well-enough specified to add it to the RFC at this late date. It sounds
to me like the kind of thing that can easily be added later, with its
own RFC.
In fact, I think this is symptomatic of a general trend on this list:
one of the goals of the RFC was to create a framework in which new and
useful content-types can be added in the future. I think we've clearly
succeeded on that score. But also, all along, we've all been trying to
add such content-types to THIS RFC, in the expectation that whatever's
included here is more likely to be implemented. Certainly I've been at
least as guilty of this as anyone else.
My inclination now, however, is to say that it is too late. Anything
that CAN be defined just as well in a separate RFC, at this late date
SHOULD be. So while I like the basic idea of multipart/archive, I'd
really like to avoid adding it to the RFC.
Unfortunately, much though I would like to do so, I can't really put the
checksum issue into that category -- it strikes me as more basic. But
ANY new content-types will be a very hard sell for me at this point. --
Nathaniel