Re: Last Call: <draft-levine-application-gzip-02.txt> (The application/zlib and application/gzip media types) to Informational RFC

[[e-mail]]

> >I do believe that, someday, someone should try to write up an
> >up-to-date description of the difference that recognizes the
> >fact that compressed files are in use as media types with
> >application/zip (in assorted spellings) and application/gzip
> >(from this spec and in assorted spellings) as examples.  But I
> >now believe it is a separate task that should not block this
> >document or registration.

That pretty much sums up my view as well.

> I'll be happy to do that if I can ever find enough spare time to write
> it.

> You're right, it would be nice if there were some way to distinguish
> containers from content in MIME types.  But given the existing
> historical mess, and that some kinds of compression are just a
> different way to encode a bunch of bits (zlib) whereas others are more
> like a small filesystem (zip and tgz), even if we could start with a
> clean sheet it's not obvious to me what would be the best thing to do.

This is further complicated by the fact that there are now a number of types
defined that are actually zip with specific semantics attached to the content.
There are also types defined for use only within such containers.

				Ned