Re: [syndication] Correct sort of MIME type for other stuff?

["S. Mike Dierken" <mdierken@hotmail.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@hotmail.com>

> Can anyone chime in with some commentary on the whole rationale
> behind using text/ vs application/ and the x- prefixes?

<In my opinion...>

I think the application media type was intended to be dispatched to
applications outside a client that had only simple viewer capability.
The major media type groups are :  audio,  image, model (3D I think), text,
video, application, message, multipart
The last two (message, multipart) are for the delivery system itself. The
first ones are for categories of 'multimedia'. The 'text' area is for
content whose intent is that it be read by a human. 'text' media doesn't
have to do with the byte-by-byte encoding (all XML would fall into that
category then), but rather the kind of displaying and manipulation it is
appropriate for (an image of text isn't a 'text' media). Some XML is for
human consumption and some isn't - but they all need post-processing to get
onto a screen. If the browser can show it and the data is 'readable' (words,
sentences, selectable text, etc.) then it is a 'text' media. If it is a
drawing in SVG (which is XML and which is also text data) then (probably) it
should be an 'image' media.


http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/media-types/