dns media type registration tree

[ben at morrow.me.uk]

At  6pm on  3/03/04 you (Mark Nottingham) wrote:
> Hi Ned,
> 
> >I've been following this discussion for a while now, and while it 
> >pains me to
> >object to something that would lessen my own workload, I find that I 
> >have to
> >agree with Keith about this. The stability problems associated with 
> >DNS names
> >are just too great.
> [...]
> >Given the huge amount of damage that's been inflicted on the
> >world by badly designed media types, I am forced to see further 
> >reduction
> >of the barriers as a reckless step in the wrong direction.
> 
> I agree these are the biggest -- and serious -- concerns with the 
> proposal. However, the status quo doesn't seem to be working too well; 
> rather than discouraging frivolous or poorly-considered media types, it 
> encourages people into the "x-" space. This is borne out when you 
> examine mime.types files and Web browser configurations; deployed 
> software and formats are ignoring the process quite freely.

I would strongly second this. Even very well-known types such as
Macromedia Flash still universally go by names like
application/x-shockwave-flash, which helps noone. There is no review of
these names, and no means to prevent them clashing.

If using the DNS for providing unique names is seen as a bad idea, both
because the names are volatile and because it is misusing a system that
was never designed to provide GUIDs, then how about creating a separate
registry of 'organisations' which can then manage their own trees? So,
e.g., Macromedia could register */org.macromedia.* with the IETF, and
then manage that namespace themselves. The idea of each MIME type
carrying a parameter giving a URL with a human-readable description of
the format is also well worth preserving.

Ben

-- 
Every twenty-four hours about 34k children die from the effects of poverty.
Meanwhile, the latest estimate is that 2800 people died on 9/11, so it's like
that image, that ghastly, grey-billowing, double-barrelled fall, repeated
twelve times every day. Full of children. [Iain Banks]         ben at morrow.me.uk