Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 08:50:47 -0500
Message-Id: <199703311350.IAA16715@delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: bd733 AT rgfn DOT epcc DOT Edu
CC: mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca, opendos AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <9703310735.AA25627@rgfn.epcc.Edu> (bd733@rgfn.epcc.Edu)
Subject: Re: [opendos] Wishlist v2.0


> I'm not sure, but I think you have to have your browser set up to handle 
> the x-gzip (or x-whatever) MIME type. Otherwise, it'll display some sort 
> of "unknown mime type" message and prompt for an action.

The server will not send an application/x-gzip MIME type.  It will
send an x-gzip content transfer encoding, which is something
completely different.

The MIME type indicates the type of the underlying data (before it was
compressed).  The transfer encoding indicates how the content was
"packaged for shipment".  Thus, the *type* of the file can never be
"app/x-gzip" because that doesn't describe the content, it describes
the packaging.  For most web servers, an arbitrary compressed file
(like foo.gz) would result in a default MIME type (like text/plain)
and an x-gzip encoding.

For more information on type vs encoding, the HTTP/1.0 spec (RFC-1945)
is at (among other places):

  http://www.cabletron.com/support/internet/RFC/rfc1945.txt

Note: Cabletron maintains an RFC search engine in that "internet"
directory - very useful.

Sections 10.3 and 10.5 are the interesting ones, as well as 7.2.