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From: Timm Murray <hardburn@runbox.com>
To: gopher@complete.org
Subject: [gopher] Encouraging MIME types
Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 22:14:32 -0500
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Gopher+ makes it possible to use MIME types in a Gopher item.  I belive using 
MIME types in Gopher should be encouraged due to their greater flexibility.  
A single character item is actually less flexible than the DOS 3 char 
filename extension.

I'd like to see the following implemented:

1)  For backwards compatibility, servers must send the defined type associated 
with a file if it matches exactly with the type (with the exception layed out 
in [3]).  A file that would have a MIME type of text/text will still have a  
type of '0', GIF files will still have a type of 'g', etc.  Note that files 
with similar types would *not* use the standard Gopher types.  For instance, 
a text/html document would never be sent as a Gopher type of '0'.

2)  A new Gopher type, 'm', is to be implemented which tells a client to check 
the MIME type in the Gopher+ space.

3)  The 'I' type is to be either completely deprecated or used as a synonym 
for 'm'.  GIF files can still use the 'g' type, but any other images should 
be sent with the 'm' type and their proper MIME type.

4)  No new Gopher types are to be defined--MIME types are to be used as a 
complete replacement.  The only possible exception to this is for research 
purpases, but even then, MIME types are encouraged.

- -- 
We all know LInux is great . . . it does infinite loops in 5 seconds.
		--Linus Torvalds
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