[Wylug-discuss] a webdesign query / mini rant

[Dave Fisher]

On Fri, Jan 13, 2006 at 04:52:28PM +0000, John Hodrien wrote:
> Dave Fisher wrote:
> >On Fri, Jan 13, 2006 at 10:01:23AM +0000, Dave Fisher wrote:
> >>  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
> >
> >Oops, bad copy and paste error.
> >
> >As Steve Garton pointed out, that should have been something like:
> >
> >  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="images/rebs.ico" type="image/x-icon">
> >
> >The mime type attribute should matter, but is frequently lacking from
> >elements which it aught to be declared on.
> 
> I'm confused, I don't see what's wrong with the first one.  Why is the the 
> type required?

I have just taken a quick glance around the HTML 4.01 spec and found
nothing which suggests that the mime type is either required or advised.

Having noted that, I still think that it is good practice to specify
mime types, especially when using the <link> element.

Not least among my reasons for saying so, is the habitual tendency for
MS-oriented software to ommit the mime type when it really is necessary.

It's been quite common for Firefox and others to ignore stylesheet links
if they ommit or misdefine the mime type, or webservers serve
stylesheets with the wrong headers (text/html is one mistaken mime type
declaration for css stylesheets that I've seen quite often).

Besides which, MS really aught to be taken to task for determing file
types by filename extensions  .. that's just mad.

Dave