Re: Auto-Download tags/function?
Daniel W. Connolly (connolly@hal.com)
Thu, 19 May 1994 13:33:28 -0500
In message <199405191756.MAA01263@austin.BSDI.COM>, Tony Sanders writes:
>"Daniel W. Connolly" writes:
>> >> HREF="http://host/path;content-type=applicaiton/postscript"
>> I believe that a reference should be able to express:
>> "See _the_postscript_version_ of document xxxx"
>> I think this is just a desirable feature that we don't have.
>>
>> I beleive it must not be a private agreement between client and server,
>> so that, for instance, if a proxy server has the postscript version
>> cached, it can serve it up, even though there is a possibility that
>> the document exists in other formats on the original server.
>
>What you propose should be solved using the URI: header. URI: can tell
>you the URL for *exactly* what you have now or it can tell which attributes
>can be varied. That's all it should need to know and that's a *LOT* more
>information than coding a content-type in a URL *and* it doesn't break
>existing practice.
I don't see how this is relevant.
The way I understand it, the URI: header is a way for the server
to tell the client "here's the name for the document I'm sending you.
It's available in these formats, and that's it."
I don't understand how that allows me to represent, in a document,
a link to a specific format of a document.
And about some earlier solutions...
All these ".dump", ".saveme" methods are fine if you own both ends of
the link. But what if the file you're linking to is on somebody
_else_'s FTP server? What if there's a report in postscript format,
and the filename doesn't end in .ps? Without the ability to express
the content type in the link, we're SOL.
Dan