[Mongrel] [SURVEY] MIME types questions for Mongrel 1.0 RC1

[David Heinemeier Hansson]

> So, let's put this to the test:
>
> 1) Should Mongrel support a larger set of default mime types?

I'm strongly in favor of this. Especially for core defaults like xml,  
atom, and rss. It would mean that Rails page caching would Just Work  
even for these common caching types.

> 2) What should those defaults be?  Post a YAML file somewhere so I  
> can compare the various answers.

existing +
application/atom+xml
application/rss+xml
application/xml
text/calendar
text/csv
application/x-yaml

...that also just happens to correspond with the default Mime types  
that Rails ships with ;)

> 3) What should be the default mime type if a file doesn't match?

application/octet-stream. That causes browsers to force the file to  
be downloaded. Which is most likely what you'll want since unknown  
file types are usually of a binary format. Like flash/wmp/quicktime  
movies, PDFs, etc.

> 3a) Where do you get this default?

Preferably it would just ship in Mongrel, but be override-able by -- 
default-mime-type

> 4) Would anyone object to Mongrel moving the default mime type list  
> into a YAML file in the source tree that it loads?  **You'd still  
> be able to override like normal.**

+1

> 5) If your favorite web server does it a particular way, do you  
> actually think this is the real standard or just what that web  
> server does?

There are no "real" standards on this as far as I know. Just defacto  
standards (like application/octet-stream for unknown types).

> 5a) Do you think this default could be improved on depending on the  
> situation?  Think development vs. production deployments.

I'd prefer consistent behavior from the web server across the  
environments. For the same reason that I tend to want to run the same  
version of Apache, lighttpd, MySQL, and Ruby between development and  
production.
--
David Heinemeier Hansson


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