Re: default return is "text/html"?

Larry Masinter (masinter@parc.xerox.com)
Mon, 18 Jul 1994 09:47:18 PDT


The discussion continues to combine the questions of:

a) what should clients assume if the stream back from a HTTP GET
doesn't contain a Content-Type: header, and

b) what should a server assume, in determining what Content-Type
it should return, for files that it is serving.

These are certainly different questions: the first is important for
the design of the PROTOCOL while the second is important for the
design of a class of HTTP servers that implement the protocol.

The answer for (a) has to be the same for all servers/clients on the
network. The answer for (b) could easily vary for different
platforms, sets of documents, operating systems, etc.