Steve,
I agree that this is a valid way of approaching the problem. I don't have
any issues with doing it this way instead. Doing it in the MIME has the
ability to compress lots of different types of data in different ways and
leading to growth as the compression algorithms of choice are altered. If
we think that the best place to put this is in MIME, then I think that MIME
needs to solve the problems of how to communicate the compressions
understood.
jim
-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Stephen Henson [mailto:shenson(_at_)bigfoot(_dot_)com]
Sent: Monday, May 18, 1998 3:45 PM
To: Ietf-Smime (E-mail)
Subject: Re: Compressed Content Type
I would suggest that this might be better handled at a MIME level and
would thus not be restricted to S/MIME but MIME in general and would be
outside the scope of this list.
E.g. a MIME type application/super-compression means "decompress using
the super-compression algorithm and treat the result as a MIME entity".
There is no guarantee that the recipient supports this but then again
the recipient can't specify what MIME types they can view either. Maybe
we should have a "supported MIME types" authenticated attribute, or then
again maybe not.
Steve.
--
Dr Stephen N. Henson.
UK based freelance Cryptographic Consultant. For info see homepage.
Homepage: http://www.drh-consultancy.demon.co.uk/
Email: shenson(_at_)bigfoot(_dot_)com
PGP key: via homepage.