ietf-822
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Query on a nit: Application vs. Text conten-type

1993-10-25 07:12:12
I notice that the tendency with nearly all of the specifications
produced in recent months is to class a new subtype under
Content-type:Application.  Some of these involve data that are
text (usually standard, simple ASCII) and would be moderately (or
even highly) understandable to a human if the content were
presented to their screen.

I wonder whether such data would not be better classed under
Content-type: Text?

Not a big deal?  Probably not.

However under Content-type:Application typical mail readers will
take the most conservative stance, restricting all handling of the
data to processing it through a separate program; hence if they don't
know the sub-type, they won't process it.  Under Content-type:text,
minimal handling, by displaying to the screen, would seem entirely
reasonable.

Do folks care about this?  Any suggestion for language to give guidance
to Mime body-part spec writers?

Dave