MIME type chemical/*

[Chris Newman <[e-mail]>]

I oppose this proposal, and believe it should be killed or given to working
group review.

Top level MIME types have an additional cost above and beyond subtypes of
application.  While most MIME clients can be easily configured to support new
subtypes, many would require a new release to support new top-level types.

In addition, there was a discussion a few months ago on the
media-types list about what conditions should be met to merit a new
top-level MIME type.  Rough concensus was never reached, but the
majority opinion was that additional hardware should be necessary to
view the type.  The chemical MIME type does not meet this litmus test.

		- Chris Newman
		Carnegie Mellon University Computing Services
		Cyrus Mail Project