Re: Do you understand this?

[Robert J. Chassell]

Jason Rumney rightly noted that

    In the Emacs manual, we need to explain how the user configures
    this in Emacs.  Describing what RFC2616 says is not very useful
    ...

Good point.  How about putting the explanation in a comment in

    emacs/lisp/url/url-vars.el

just after

(defvar url-mime-accept-string nil
  "String to send to the server in the Accept: field in HTTP requests.")

?  Or perhaps in the `Commentary:' section of 

    emacs/lisp/url/url.el

with some other remarks, too.  (I do not know enough to have any idea
what the `other remarks' should say.)


Here is the explanation, slightly changed from before, in a format for
an Emacs Lisp library.  Please check this wording.  I think it is a
little clearer than before.


;; An `Accept:' or `Accept-Charset' statement, or a `headers' as it is
;; often called, allows you, a client, to specify the priority or
;; weighing of the type of statement you would like a server to
;; accept.
;; 
;; In contrast to their precedence in English text, commas separate
;; _bigger_ groupings than semi-colons, which are used to prefix
;; weightings or priority values.  Priority values go from 0.0 to 1.0,
;; with 1.0 being highest.  When a priority or weighting value is not
;; listed the value is presumed to be 1.0.  Moreover, an `Accept:' or
;; `Accept-Charset' list need not be in priority or precedence order.
;; 
;; Thus, an accept statement such as
;; 
;;      Accept: text/plain;
;;              q=0.5, text/html, text/x-dvi;
;;              q=0.8, text/x-c
;; 
;; could be reformatted as
;; 
;;      Accept: text/plain; q=0.5,
;;              text/x-dvi; q=0.8,
;;              text/html ; q=1.0,
;;              text/x-c  ; q=1.0
;; 
;; This latter expression shows the list in order from lower to higher
;; priority.  Both `text/html' and `text/x-c' are of equal (and
;; highest) priority.
;; 
;; When a client sends in an HTTP request for a resource, the above
;; `Accept:' statement tells the server that the user prefers either
;; an HTML or text/x-c document.  If neither of those reprsentations
;; is available, then DVI is next preference.  If none of those three
;; are available, then plain text should be sent.  If neither plain
;; text, DVI, HTML nor x-c are available, then the server's response
;; should indicate that it is failing to find a representation that
;; satisfies the request.

-- 
    Robert J. Chassell                         
    address@hidden                         GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
    http://www.rattlesnake.com                  http://www.teak.cc