This came off XML-dev; I'm sure a lot of you have heard about it. I've cut
it down to the paragraph that's most directly relevant to MIME content
types, as it raises some important issues.
From: "Tim Berners-Lee" <timbl(_at_)w3(_dot_)org>
To: "xml-dev" <xml-dev(_at_)ic(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk>
Subject: Fw: XHTML 1.0 returned to HTML WG
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 1999 16:33:41 -0500
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4
Sender: owner-xml-dev(_at_)ic(_dot_)ac(_dot_)uk
Reply-To: "Tim Berners-Lee" <timbl(_at_)w3(_dot_)org>
XHTML 1.0 is hereby sent back to the HTML working group for further work.
A few respondents were also concerned about the use of the text/xml
media type for delivering xHTML, considering this to be "premature".
If a document conforming to XML 1.0 and XML Namespaces is not to be
considered "text/xml", this raises an important issue as to what is.
I'd appreciate hearing opinions on this. Apart from a preference for
application/xml over text/xml, the more important issue for me is whether
we should discuss
1) transmitting entities of text/html-xml identified as text/xml
2) transmitting entities of application/html-xml identified as application/xml
Does the -xml suffix described in the I-D permit such 'fallback'? This is
where I wish things were more hierarchically structured. It seems clear to
me that permitting transmission of text/html as text/xml is perverse, but
the use of the suffix seems like it might justify such usage.
The namespaces issues may carry more emotional/intellectual baggage, but I
think these content-type issues need to be addressed, here as well as in
the W3C.
Simon St.Laurent
XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
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http://www.simonstl.com