[whatwg] Is there any reason for the continued existence of enctype attribute at the form element

[Ian Hickson]

On Mon, 12 Oct 2009, Mark Kaplun wrote:
> > 
> > I've certainl written CGI scripts without libraries where the CGI 
> > script only supports one enctype. I doubt I'm alone in this.
>
> Ian, if posting was implemented my way (browser selects best encoding as 
> default) when you wrote the CGI, your work was harder, easier or no 
> change at all?

Harder, at least in the scenario I described earlier -- I'd have written 
the code assuming the multipart enctype, tested it, found it working fine, 
and then if at the last minute I made the file upload control not be 
always present, it would have broken in ways that I wouldn't immediately 
have understood.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'