Re: Auto-Download tags/function?

Martijn Koster (m.koster@nexor.co.uk)
Thu, 19 May 1994 09:34:22 +0100

Dan wrote:

> A looooooong time ago, I suggested:
>
> <A HREF="ftp://host/file.tar.Z" CONTENT-TYPE="application/x-tarZ">
> a tar file</a>

I don't think this should be in the link either, it rules out protocol
specific type negotiation.

> which would be enough information for the browser to decide that
> the tar file is not something it can display in the reading window.
>
> The concept was introduced in the MIME RFC. I thought we should
> use it. I got vetoed, cuz timbl (and others) thought such things belong in
> the protol. But this rules out FTP as a protocol. But wait! we
> do use FTP protocol. So we end up with the current broken situation.

Different systems (protocols) need different methods to determine this
sort of thing. I don't see why a broswser couldn't use filenames
extensions as a type indication when using FTP only. After all that
is how a manual FTP session works.

-- Martijn
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