# URLs and types: concentrate on FTP

Larry Masinter (masinter@parc.xerox.com)
Thu, 3 Jun 1993 13:42:55 PDT

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    To: uri@bunyip.com

    Subject: URLs and types: concentrate on FTP

    From: Larry Masinter <masinter@parc.xerox.com>

    Message-Id: <93Jun3.134302pdt.2741@golden.parc.xerox.com>

    Date: 	Thu, 3 Jun 1993 13:42:55 PDT

The discussion seems to have been primarily philosophical, whether
'URLs' should or shouldn't contain meta-information.

Let me back off from the philosphy, and make a more concrete
suggestion:

FTP URLs should have a way to specify type.

Right now, we have to rely on the heuristics of file extensions.
Unlike HTTP or Gopher+ URLs, there's not as much chance of extending
FTP semantics to allow some out of bound method of finding.

I'd even support making the 'type' of a FTP url optional:
If the path ends in '.ps' assume it is postscript
If it ends in '.xxx.Z' assume it is compressed of whatever .xxx is.
etc.

and, otherwise, maybe allow #mimetype at the end of the URL, e.g.,

ftp://thumper.bellcore.com/pub/nsb/Internet.npr#audio/basic

I want to argue for this on practical grounds: there's no other place
to encode the information.

Now, on more aesthetic grounds, we can pursue whether such optional
content-types should *also* be available for gopher, http, etc., but I
agree that those arguments are less compelling on practical grounds.

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