(This is a resend due to a LISTSERV problem.
It was originally CCed to the URI list, but please reply only to
ietf-822)
Going over the recent debate, I thought I'd show two ways of implementing
CID: and MID: URLs without modifying browser code.
Both follow the "UA->RA->Viewer" model that I think Ed Levinson
used first.
1) MODIFY THE HTML
UA: Passes the whole multipart/related to the RA
RA: Stores all parts in separate files, replaces all occurences of
the Cid: and Mid: URL with file: URLs.
Browser: does its thing.
2) PROXY THE COMMANDS
This depends critically on the theory that browser implementors
will have an easy way of using the xyzzy_proxy environment variable
when an xyzzy: URL is encountered.
UA: Passes the whole multipart/related to the RA
RA: Indexes the body (maybe saving it to file, maybe not), starts
listening on port 12345 (random), and sets mid_proxy and cid_proxy
to localhost:12345 before invoking the browser
Browser: Does its thing.
If I can think of two ways, there must be more.....
(NOTE: I set the followup-to to ietf-822, since that list seems to
be the only one blessed with both of the message threads that I scanned
to come up with this message...)
Harald A