[vorbis-dev] Mime Type and Ogg (More)

[Maciej Stachowiak]

Anthony Arcieri <bascule at holly.ColoState.EDU> writes:

> 
> I don't see this as the real problem.  I believe MIME's problem stems from
> the fact that it can only list one property of a particular file, which
> seems very shortsighted, especially when attempting to describe container
> formats.  
>

The goal of mime types is not to describe every possible piece of
information about a pice of data, but to say enough about it that you
know what program to open it with or what method to use to display
it. Recall that mime types were originally invented in the context of
email and having the receiving program figure out how to open and
display sent data.

This is in many ways a judgement call. There certainly aren't any
first principles to work from for where to draw the line. You have to
draw the line between letting users and programs make useful
distinctions, and going into too much detail.

> Likewise, I think the point the majority of the Ogg developers
> have been trying to get across is that MIME is not an effective tool for
> describing both the type and contents of container formats. 

That's true, but uninteresting. Users don't care about the container,
they care about the contents and how they will use it. The primary
purpose in life of a mime type is to help general programs figure out
what specific programs to use to open a data stream. Thus, mime types
should be designed, to the extent possible, to suit this end well.

> The question I think we should be asking is if there is some
> standard, alternative content description system which works better.

I sure don't know of any, especially not one that works with email and
the web.

 - Maciej

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