Re: Mailcap extensions (was Re: Client Compliance)

Marc VanHeyningen (mvanheyn@cs.indiana.edu)
Mon, 29 Aug 1994 08:45:29 -0500


> > It's never been very clear to me what a server should do if it cannot
> > present an item in a format the client will accept. Return an error?
> > Which one?
>
> The Windows-NT server from EMWAC tries to do this, but has a few problems
> when it sees multiple Accept: headers instead of having one huge one. I
> believe it just returns one of the more generic error codes (401 or
> something like that).

Quite understandable, given the lack of clearness on what to do.
Unfortunately, this makes it impossible for the client to respond
appropriately (with something like "This document is only available in
formats I do not understand. Woud you like to download it anyway?", ideally
enumerating which formats it *is* available in and allowing the user to
choose one.)

In the meanwhile, let me guess, it responds with those famous words,
"The information server either is not accessible or is refusing to serve the
document to you." :-)

-- 
Marc VanHeyningen  <http://www.cs.indiana.edu/hyplan/mvanheyn.html>