Re: Toward Closure on HTML

Marc Andreessen (marca@eit.COM)
Thu, 7 Apr 1994 06:16:32 GMT


Chris Lilley, Computer Graphics Unit writes:
> The problem is that the accept: types are being ignored, I think.

Accept types aren't a general answer, which is (I think) why they're
being generally ignored. See below.

> When a user switches off inline images, the browser should adjust
> its list of accepted MIME types to not include any image types.

No, because I may want to download an external GIF if that's all
that's on the other end of the link, but I also may not want an HTML
document (if *that's* what's on the other end of the link) to have
inlined GIF images. What do I then put in the Accept line?

I don't think the Accept thing was sufficiently thought through. I
think there has to be some notion of context -- e.g., I accept these
formats as inlined images; I accept these formats as external images
and other media types; I may accept these formats (if only just to
save to local disk and view on another system somewhere else later)
but prompt me before you go ahead and download the data so I can
decide on a case-by-case basis.

> Browsers should accept (and be able to handle) MIME multipart
> messages.

Agreed.

(I will however point out that HUNDREDS of people have said this in
the past, and yet no one has implemented it. Classic problem, hm?)

Marc