Re: Guessing based on file extension

["François Pinard" <pinard@iro.umontreal.ca>]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org> écrit:

> François suggested the following definition of this function [...]
> If the type is "application/octet-stream", then we look at the thing
> after the dot, and use that as the "real" type.

The few replies we saw show that opinions seem to be a bit split, and it
might be difficult to reach a real consensus.  On the other hand, status
quo, just for avoiding the choice, might not be the ideal solution either.

> On the one hand, this is user friendly.  On the other hand, guessing is
> yucky.  One could add a used config variable to control whether to do it
> or not, but if that defaults to nil, then that won't be very used friendly.

One negative side-effect would be that, if Gnus gets too clever at deciding
the MIME type despite application/octet-stream, Gnus users might lean more
easily towards just letting it default in, or might use Gnus as a proof
of concept against more proper usage.  But as a receiving user, I would
like that Gnus be more helpful at recognising types despite the laziness
of the submitter programs, and use proper in-lining whenever possible.

Simon Josefsson <jas@pdc.kth.se> writes:

> [...] viewing the attachment as a application/ms-word file might be the
> Wrong Thing under some circumstances and leave the choice to the user.

This is probably an orthogonal issue, so we have to be careful here at
seeing both aspects well separate, with clear mind.  The bad of a thing
is not necessarily the bad of the other.

If someone wants to prohibit automatic in-lining of application/ms-word
MIME entities, say (I do not even know if Gnus currently allows it, but
just let's suppose it can, for the argument), then the Gnus behaviour is
already fine-tunable.  Lars gave us a lot of variables to customise how
various MIME types get in-lined, preferred, and displayed.  Let's presume
Gnus has already been set to user's taste, in this area.

What would be interesting, in practice, is letting Gnus derive the MIME
type from the file extension, given we have application/octet-stream.
The customisation will then apply over that derived MIME type, as usual.

It is surely sad that so many messages use that application/octet-stream as
a catch-all type.  As a user receiving many such messages, I would prefer
that Gnus does not make me more sad than the situation is already.  It could
help better, and the little code I submitted is an attempt in that direction.

-- 
François Pinard   http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~pinard