[whatwg] RWD Heaven: if browsers reported device capabilities in a request header

[Glenn Maynard]

On Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 9:52 AM, Matthew Wilcox <mail at matthewwilcox.com>wrote:

> I agree that headers are expensive. But are they expensive compared to a
> few hundred kilobytes of saved bandwidth because we were able
> to successfully negotiate content?


Yes.  The problem is the word "we".  Everyone in the world has to pay the
cost for someone else's savings.  Find an approach that doesn't introduce a
cost to every HTTP request made by every browser.

That's not the only problem here--screen size isn't enough, you need to
know the device's effective DPI, as well as the issues Boris points out,
and there are probably tons of other details--but it's the biggest.

-- 
Glenn Maynard