Alexander Johannesen wrote:
>
> One question we haven't asked is if we really need a MIME type for MARCXML. :)
>   

PPS: Yes, it has been asked, and it's pretty obvious to me that we do.

Because I write lots of software that will be fetching MARCXML from the 
web, and needs to know what it's got. Much of this software is capable 
of fetching information in many formats, or even arbitrarily in any 
format, which doesn't mean it'll know what to _do_ with any arbitrary 
format.  It needs to identify the content type and decide if it knows 
what to do with it. [One example is OpenURL rft_ref].

If you start to come up with reasons why you don't need an Internet 
Content Type (nee MIME Type) to identify what arbitrary content is, then 
please see the Appendix A  to RFC 3023, where they provide easily 
readable and compelling arguments for why a Content Type makes this 
_much_ more convenient, reliable, and efficient.  As someone 
contemplating writing such software, I agree with their arguments. 

Jonathan


>
> Alex
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