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- From: John Cowan <cowan@locke.ccil.org>
- To: XML Dev <xml-dev@ic.ac.uk>
- Date: Fri, 09 Apr 1999 12:04:39 -0400
Rick Jelliffe wrote:
> Given that an XML processor may transcode the document without knowing
> the meanings of the elements (i.e., that the meta tag means something),
> the XML encoding has to have priority over the HTML meta tag value. And
> given that a proxies can transcode text/* files without knowing what
> kind of text it is (i.e., that it is XML, and so has a label), the MIME
> header has to have priority over the XML header PI. I think that is the
> logical order: generic operations must be allowed.
All extremely sound.
> However, it is all spoiled if there are systems which corrupt the
> labels: for example by rewriting the charset parameter incorrectly. It
> is far better to send the XML file without a charset parameter than to
> send it with a wrong one.
But there's the snag: in text/xml documents, a missing charset parameter
does not mean "Charset unspecified"; it means "Charset specified
as US-ASCII". There is no way to fail to specify a charset in
text/* documents, and rightly so, because text without a charset
is uninterpretable.
In SGML terms, omitting the charset in text/* documents is a mere
minimization, whereas in application/* documents it is a true #IMPLIED.
--
John Cowan http://www.ccil.org/~cowan cowan@ccil.org
You tollerday donsk? N. You tolkatiff scowegian? Nn.
You spigotty anglease? Nnn. You phonio saxo? Nnnn.
Clear all so! 'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)
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