MIME types and file extensions for XML (was XSchema Question 5)

[Simon St.Laurent]

I remember that earlier on the list, there was a discussion of MIME types and 
XML, and I think the general consensus was that XML should use 
"application/xml" and not "text/xml".

That's fine, except that I also remember a discussion about file extensions, 
where someone was complaining about the use of .xml as a file extension.  
(Maybe this was on XML-L; I can't find it in any case.) .xml, they argued, was 
way too generic and didn't really tell an application about how it should 
process the file it was going to get. Imagine thousands of XML files for all 
kinds of different applications lounging in a file system with no way to tell 
which goes where...

As I'm pondering the top-level XSchema element, it's occurred to me that it 
might be useful to provide MIME type information and recommended file 
extensions for documents that use this XSchema, as well as the version 
information I currently plan on providing.

Is there any discussion, a NOTE or something, that I can reference for 
guidelines on XML MIME types and/or file extensions?  

Simon St.Laurent
Dynamic HTML: A Primer / XML: A Primer / Cookies


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