ietf-xml-mime
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Re: MIME types and content negotiation

2000-03-17 10:30:05
At 06:21 PM 3/17/00 +0100, Chris Lilley wrote:
To me, it seems like there should be a way for a client to say "You can
send me your XML, and I'll give it my best shot", rather than "these are
the only twenty types I know of".

Accept: */*-xml;q=0.7, application/xml;q=0.5, text/xml;q=0.001

That sounds very good to me - it seems like another place where the suffix
is useful.  

However, it isn't clear from HTTP 1.1 that */*-xml is acceptable in this
use case - the BNF for media range looks like it accepts */* and type/*,
where * can only be used for an entire subtype name.

That's why I'm not so positive that this intriguing possibility actually
helps my argument, at least pending a revision of HTTP 1.1.  

On the other hand, I don't think it hurts it.

Simon St.Laurent
XML Elements of Style / XML: A Primer, 2nd Ed.
Building XML Applications
Inside XML DTDs: Scientific and Technical
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http://www.simonstl.com