Re: [media-types] Proposal for "script" top-level Media Type

[Harald Alvestrand <[e-mail]>]

Hello,

what is your definition of "script"?

Your examples seem to roughly correspond to "text that conforms to a 
programming language specification". I'm not sure what the use for such 
a top level type would be - what situations do you foresee where a 
"scropt" top level type would be useful?

Harald

On 9/25/23 01:34, Aaron Franke wrote:
> Hello IETF,
> 
> https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml 
> <https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml>
> 
> IETF / IANA currently defines several top-level media types: 
> application, audio, font, example, image, message, model, multipart, 
> text, video, and the proposed haptics.
> 
> However, there is a major category missing: script. Currently scripts 
> are split across the application and text top-level types.
> * Many scripts are text-based, but also many are not (such as visual 
> scripting languages like Scratch or Unreal Blueprints), so not all 
> scripts fit under the text type. Since "application/javascript" has been 
> deprecated in favor of "text/javascript", this suggests that IETF / IANA 
> wants to standardize scripts under "text", but this is not suitable for 
> all types of scripts.
> * Scripts make sense under "application", but that is very broad, while 
> "script" would be much more descriptive. Scripts are unique in that they 
> are intended to be executed somehow, they are not just blobs of 
> application-specific data.
> 
> I propose adding a new "script" top-level Media Type. This may cause 
> confusion in the short term since existing types would still be under 
> "application" or "text", but in the long run it will be much more organized.
> * Note that most scripting and programming languages do not currently 
> have Media Types registered with IETF / IANA, so now is the perfect time 
> to standardize a "script" top-level type. While JavaScript and 
> PostScript have registered Media Types, other languages like Python, 
> Lua, Perl, PHP, C#, C++, Rust, shell scripts, and more do not. It would 
> be great to register "script/python", "script/lua", etc as the Media 
> Types for these formats.
> * Should it exist, I would like to use "script" as the top-level Media 
> Type for the visual scripting language being developed at The Mirror 
> (the company I work at), and I would also like to use it for the 
> GDScript programming language in Godot which currently does not have a 
> registered Media Type (proposed value: "script/gdscript").
> 
> As far as I know, the process for submitting top-level media types has 
> not yet been formalized, so I am writing this email as a proposal. I 
> originally sent this to IANA and was told by Amanda Baber tocontact the 
> mediaman group about this. I have also read though 
> draft-ietf-mediaman-toplevel-03, I do not know how to create a Standards 
> Track RFC but I believe this meets the criteria laid out in the draft, 
> the set of types that can be included under the proposed script type is 
> very large and very straightforward (it's either a script in a 
> programming language, or it's not), security is not a concern because 
> JavaScript is already an example of a scripting language with a media 
> type which shows distributing arbitrary scripts is a secure, valid, 
> common, and desired use case, I as the proposer am able to implement 
> this type in my applications, and it helps human understanding of the 
> types. It does fail the negative criteria of "SHOULD NOT generate 
> aliases for existing widely used types or subtypes" iff JavaScript is 
> desired to be "script/javascript", however that is optional (we can keep 
> it as "text/javascript" if desired). Also I see that this "must be done 
> via standards-track RFC; no other mechanism can be used", so I would 
> appreciate help with creating such an RFC.
> 
> Thank you for your consideration,
> 
> Aaron Franke
> 
> The Mirror Megaverse Inc & Godot Engine
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> media-types mailing list
> [e-mail]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/media-types