At 02:50 PM 3/20/00 -0500, Keith Moore wrote:
or to put it another way, if we're going to invent a new syntatical
convention for describing content-type characteristics, let's
pick one that actually works with content negotiation
rather than one which requires drastic changes to content
negotiation frameworks.
in a sense, it doesn't break anything. in another sense, it
creates a new feature of content-type names that can be exploited,
and people will demand that they be exploited. so it requires
changes of existing implementations. and if the -xml feature catches
on then it will creep into content-type negotiation schemes. this is
not an intended consequence, but it is a likely one.
Your concern here, then, is what people *might* do to abuse the feature in
future?
Given that the *intent* of the '-xml' seems to be quite benign, and is
perceived by many to be quite useful, may I suggest that:
(a) the proposal is presented as nothing more than a naming *convention*,
plastered with health warnings about NOT using it for content negotiation,
or any purpose other than local identification of XML for possible
fall-back submission to a generic XML handler, and
(b) introduce at the same time a proposal that will allow people to
definitively tag XML for the purposes of content negotiation, and refer to
this proposal from (a).
My thinking is a "carrot and stick" approach to resisting the harmful usage
that concerns you: be very clear that bad things will happen if the
feature is abused, AND provide a mechanism to achieve the desired results
(for content negotiation, etc.) without incurring the harm.
I think there are two distinct sets of requirements here:
(a) is a local convention that can be used transparently as far as existing
agents are concerned,
and
(b) relates to new capabilities (hence new/upgraded software) that require
the active cooperation of two or more communicating parties.
I think much of the present debate arises because these requirements are
being confused.
#g
------------
Graham Klyne
(GK(_at_)ACM(_dot_)ORG)