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Hi Paul, My purpose wasn't to say if the practice is good or bad, but to acknowledge it's common ;=) ... Paul Tchistopolskii wrote: > > From: Eric van der Vlist > > > It can be seen as weird, but not more that serving HTML documents with > > .php or .asp extensions since in this case it's also the result and not > > the source that is sent to the browser. > > I think this practice exists only because there is no simple and clear > URL-rewriting layers in most of the HTTP servers I've seen. I am not so sure. I rather think it depends on the semantic you are attaching to a HTTP URL. If you see it as a kind of FTP request and attach a meaning like "get me that file" then, yes, you'd expect that the extension will be coherent with what you get back. If you see HTTP as a service request (ala CGI) then there are other and better means to specify the mime type(s) you are expecting back than relying on an extension. If you see a HTTP request as "execute this service and get me some results back", then this actual syntax of the HTTP request becomes dependent of the naming strategy used by the site and IMHO the HTTP headers that have been defined for this usage should be used to determine the mime type that will be returned rather than the extension. > I think situation is somehow similiar to HTML. What you ( and many > others, including myself ) are saying : "URI is confuizing? Big deal - > it works" , is in fact close to saying : "HTML is not well-formed? > Big deal - it works". They are confusing as long you overload them with extra semantics ;) ! They are kind of multilayered names and we shouldn't add semantics to names (you'd be wrong by concluding from my name that I am born near the Dutch river named "Vlist": I have never seen it and I am not even Dutch). For a HTTP URL what is important is that the scheme (http://) is correct, that the host address is understandable and what's following is (except for the syntax rules regarding the GET form requests) an identifier for the HTTP server and its syntax should be left to the responsibility of the site designer... > Rgds.Paul. > > PS. Oh, gosh. It comes to the basics again. "What is URI" ? > "Why namespaces are using URIs - is it really reasonable?" :) Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric van der Vlist Dyomedea http://dyomedea.com http://xmlfr.org http://4xt.org http://ducotede.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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