usefor-article-10 April 2003

6.21.2.  Content-Type

   If the contents of an article is something other than plain text in
   the US-ASCII charset (these being the default assumptions), an
   appropriate Content-Type-header MUST be included.

   When the Content-Type is "text/plain", the recommendations and limits
   on line lengths set out in section 4.5 Ought to be observed.

   The acceptability of other subtypes of Content-Type: "text" (such as
   "text/html") is a matter of policy (see 1.1), and posters Ought Not
   to use them unless established policy or custom in the particular
   hierarchies or groups involved so allows.  Moreover, even in those
   cases, for the benefit of readers who see it only in its transmitted
   form, the material SHOULD be "pretty-printed" (for example by
   restricting its line length as above and by keeping sequences which
   control its layout or style separate from the meaningful text).

   In the same way, Content-Types requiring special processing for their
   display, such as "application", "image", "audio", "video" and
   "multipart/related" are discouraged except in groups specifically
   intended (by policy or custom) to include them. Exceptionally, those
   application types defined in [RFC 1847] and [RFC 3156] for use within
   "multipart/signed" articles, and the type "application/pgp-keys" (or
   other similar types containing digital certificates) may be used
   freely.

   Reading agents SHOULD NOT, unless explicitly configured otherwise,
   act automatically on Application types which could change the state
   of that agent (e.g. by writing or modifying files), except in the
   case of those prescribed for use in control messages (7.2.1.2 and
   7.2.4.1).

--- ../usefor-article-09/Content-Type.out          February 2003
+++ ../usefor-article-10/Content-Type.out          April 2003