[whatwg] [WA1] Specifying Character Encoding

[Julian Reschke]

Ian Hickson schrieb:
 > ...
>> For X(HT)ML, according to the Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume 
>> One - Media types for XML [2]:
>> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-webarch-20041215/#xml-media-types
>>
>> | In general, a representation provider SHOULD NOT specify the character
>> | encoding for XML data in protocol headers since the data is
>> | self-describing.
> 
> I personally disagree with the arguments above (transcoding proxies mean 
> that the content really can't know what its content is, and therefore it 
> shouldn't be saying what its encoding is). I could see an argument for 
> removing the advice from the HTML5 spec altogether, though. What do you 
> think?
> ...

If a proxy transcodes xhtml today, and does not modify the XML 
declaration (when present), it will break the content, right?

So yes, unless there's clear agreement on what the spec should say, it 
be better silent on that matter.

Best regards, Julian