[Etherboot-developers] MIE and the content-disposition bug

[Marty C. <md...@th...>]

On 2/14/2001 12:26 PM Bob Andrews bo...@in... wrote:
>For a simple form that gives a file result, it would seem that you have to
>go out of your way to make it work on netscape and not ie. 

For those with real, honest curiosity about the issue please see:

   http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q267/9/91.ASP

This article describes a bug in Explorer, which is supposedly fixed in 
Internet Explorer version 5.5 Service Pack 1.

It is a known problem for people (like me) who write things like this:

      Header("Content-Type: application/x-octet-stream; " .
	     "name=$nicfilename");
      Header("Content-Disposition: attachment; " .
	     "Filename=$nicfilename");
      Header("Content-Location: $nicfilename");
      Header("Content-Length: $len");

Microsoft has improperly implemented response to the Content-Disposition 
header.  When the type is "attachment" it is supposed to prompt the user. 
 It's a known bug. 

I don't know exactly what version(s) of MIE have the bug, but 5.0 on 
Win98 seems to work alright.  They may have broken it in 5.5, so then 
they put out a service pack to fix it. 

It took me just a few moments of search in Google and Microsoft 
searchable knowledge base to find the answer.

Rom-o-matic.net dynamically generates the ROM image, and when you press 
"Get ROM" it sends it to your browser.  I could mail it, but that seemed 
less elegant than the immediacy of sending it in real-time.  There's 
actually quite a bit going on in those 3 seconds or so (mkdir, untar, gen 
Config file from options, make, 10 gccs, a few as86s).

And of course email offered the possibility of abuse/spam.

Anyway, I know there are improvements that can be made, and I appreciate 
honest, well-meaning feedback, and (has been demonstrated) I will track 
bugs down with enthusiasm.

>And to blame
>Microsoft because one can not write a simple cgi is extremely lame.

Thanks for your well-researched and considered input on this topic.

Regards,

Marty

---
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   Name: Martin D. Connor
US Mail: Entity Cyber, Inc.; P.O. Box 391827; Cambridge, MA 02139; USA
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