[uf-new] Separating File Content from File Format

[Scott Reynen]

On Apr 5, 2007, at 2:56 PM, Charles Iliya Krempeaux wrote:

> Hello Scott,
>
> You can find more info about Content Types here...
>
> Section 14.17 of RFC 2616
> http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.17

Hmm, reading that gives me the impression that parameters are defined  
when media types are registered, and aren't something we can add to  
suit our needs.  That links to this:

http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec3.html#sec3.7

Which says "The presence or absence of a parameter might be  
significant to the processing of a media-type, depending on its  
definition within the media type registry."

So the media type registry determines the significance of parameters  
for that media type.  In the text/html registry [1], for example, I  
see "Optional parameters: charset".  But in the audio/mpeg registry,  
I see "Optional parameters: none".  I couldn't find any discussion of  
parameters specific to video/mpeg, but video/mp4 [3] also says  
"Optional parameters: none", as does video/quicktime [4].  Microsoft  
has, of course, used unregistered X- content types.  So what exactly  
does "Optional parameters: none" mean?  It seems to suggest we don't  
have the option of parameters on these content types, but maybe I'm  
reading that too literally?

[1] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2854
[2] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3003
[3] http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4337
[4] http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/video/quicktime

--
Scott Reynen
MakeDataMakeSense.com