I mildly prefer header-set to multipart/foo. I prefer either to
multipart/references without the start parameter, and definitely unprefer
the start parameter.
Header-set has two advantages over multipart/foo. One, the "header" part
is known a priori to be optional, and readers that don't understand it know
that ignoring it is ok (unlike multipart/unknown-foo, which gets treated
like mixed). Two, by making the header part multipart, you can associate
multiple sets of header info without repeating the data part. The drawback
is that you don't know what the aggregate is until you look inside; for my
implementation, this is no problem at all.
multipart/references (without start) is a bit more complex, and offers no
advantage to what *I* want to do right *now* (AppleDouble). I can see that
it's more powerful, but without some concrete examples of how that power is
going to be used, I can't say it puts the cream in my coffee.
The start parameter is trouble for me. It could force me into using temp
files, something I don't need to do for the other three alternatives.
--
Steve Dorner, Qualcomm Inc.
Sometimes it's easier to let your cockatoo eat your shoes
than to hear him scream.