Re: text/xhtml+xml vs. application/xhtml+xml

Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu> Wed, 18 October 2000 21:22 UTC

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From: Keith Moore <moore@cs.utk.edu>
To: Mark Baker <mark.baker@Canada.Sun.COM>
cc: Dan Kohn <dan@dankohn.com>, ietf-xml-mime@imc.org
Subject: Re: text/xhtml+xml vs. application/xhtml+xml
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 18 Oct 2000 14:53:44 EDT." <39EDF1B8.FF4EEED4@canada.sun.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 17:26:51 -0400
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> While this doesn't go into as much depth as draft-murata-xml does, the
> HTML WG believes, despite the DOCTYPE/xmlns/HTML-header preamble, that
> the bulk (i.e. body) of most XHTML documents will useful, to "some
> extent" (per above), to casual users.

I think the general consensus of the MIME community is that making HTML
a subtype of "text/" was a mistake.  While it is possible to write HTML 
which is readable "to some extent" as plain text, the HTML that is 
generated by a typical MUA or HTML editor is so full of useless cruft
that it doesn't qualify.  Perhaps a determined human being can read the 
text "to some extent" but the typical human gives up.

So IMHO we should learn from this experience and make XHTML and other
XML-ish things subtypes of application/.

Keith