Return-Path: 
 <apache-docs-return-1909-apmail-apache-docs-archive=apache.org@apache.org>
Delivered-To: apmail-apache-docs-archive@apache.org
Received: (qmail 2661 invoked by uid 500); 25 Aug 2001 03:00:29 -0000
Mailing-List: contact apache-docs-help@apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
list-help: <mailto:apache-docs-help@apache.org>
list-unsubscribe: <mailto:apache-docs-unsubscribe@apache.org>
list-post: <mailto:apache-docs@apache.org>
Reply-To: apache-docs@apache.org
Delivered-To: mailing list apache-docs@apache.org
Received: (qmail 2652 invoked from network); 25 Aug 2001 03:00:29 -0000
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 23:00:32 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
From: Joshua Slive <joshua@slive.ca>
To: Apache Documentation Project <apache-docs@apache.org>
Subject: Re: mod_mime and encoding
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.33.0108242204020.18967-100000@rhiannon.rcbowen.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.WNT.4.33.0108242253470.-1680827-100000@jgcomputer>
X-X-Sender: slive@finance.commerce.ubc.ca
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
X-Spam-Rating: h31.sny.collab.net 1.6.2 0/1000/N


On Fri, 24 Aug 2001, Rich Bowen wrote:
> Question 1: Does the following seem to be a reasonable explanation of
> what "encoding" means?

Yes.

>
> Question 2: Should this go into the mod_mime docs, or is there
> somewhere else where this would fit better?

Yes, in mod_mime.html.



>
> -----------------------------------------
>
> A file of a particular MIME type can additionally be encoded a
> particular way to simplify transmission over the Internet. While this
> usually will refer to compression, it can also refer to encryption, or
> to an encoding such as UUencoding, which is designed for transmitting
> a binary file in an ASCII (text) format.
>
> By using more than one file extension (see Section about multiple file
> extensions - link here), you can indicate that a file is of a particular
> <em>type</em>, and also has a particular <em>encoding</em>.
>
> For example, you may have a file which is a Microsoft Word document,
> which is pkzipped to reduce its size. If the .doc extension is
> associated with the Microsoft Word file type, and the .zip
> extension is associated with the pkzip file encoding, then the file
> Resume.doc.zip would be known to be a pkzipp'ed Word document.
>

I like the concreteness.  For reference, the RFC says:

The Content-Encoding entity-header field is used as a modifier to the
media-type. When present, its value indicates what additional content
coding has been applied to the resource, and thus what decoding mechanism
must be applied in order to obtain the media-type referenced by the
Content-Type header field. The Content-Encoding is primarily used to allow
a document to be compressed without losing the identity of its underlying
media type.

I think this is fairly clear, and I am tempted to suggest replacing your
first paragraph directly with this paragraph.

Joshua.


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: apache-docs-unsubscribe@apache.org
For additional commands, e-mail: apache-docs-help@apache.org