Re: MPEG asks for MIME review for the MPEG21 file format

[Chris Lilley <chris@xxxxxx>]

On Friday, May 18, 2007, 5:27:52 PM, Dave wrote:

(I'm snipping the parts already covered by Martin)

DS> Is a ZIP compressed XML file servable under a +xml MIME type? 
DS> "encoding='zipped Shift_JIS'"?

I suspect you mean gzip, which is a compression method; zip is an archive format (often compressed internally).

If you started with foo.xml in Shift_JIS, the encoding declaration would say just that. If you then make foo.xml.gz the encoding declaration (when decompressed) says exactly the same thing. The fact that is been gzipped is conveyed out of band, in the http headers:

Content-Encoding: gzip

There is scope for confusion, since XML uses 'encoding' for 'character encoding' (although that's a big advance on calling it 'charset'). HTTP uses content-encoding. The two uses of the concept 'encoding' occur at different levels in the stack.

In consequence, using gzip content-encoding is compatible with +xml media types.


-- 
 Chris Lilley                    mailto:chris@xxxxxx
 Interaction Domain Leader
 Co-Chair, W3C SVG Working Group
 W3C Graphics Activity Lead
 Co-Chair, W3C Hypertext CG