Re: [Netsurf-develop] How to handle lying file extensions?

[David J. R. <dr...@dr...>]

On 21 Apr 2007 Simon Smith <sim...@ze...> wrote:


> I occasionally encounter files of one filetype, named as if they were
> another. For example,

> http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/asia_pac_in
> side_north_korea/img/10.jpg

> is a .gif with a jpg extension, as are pictures 1-9 in that series. I have
> also seen Windows BMPs filetyped as PNG, I think it was. I've complained
> about the BBC one;

I've come across this several times, and it takes and escalation up to 
the website developers before you find someone that understands the 
problem. Then the response is usually a "so what, IE and FF handle it 
ok", or "can you show me a browser that doesn't work on". That makes 
things a little difficult as although there is now an experimental 
Windows version of NetSurf, its not easily available.

I usually bullshit them by saying I'm using a development browser 
which rejects mistyped files for security reasons (which is entirely 
legitimate) and the these checks will incorporated in the next version 
of all major browsers (which they might just beleive).

> Netsurf refuses to display these images, but also makes it difficult to save
> them so that they can be retyped appropriately. Not a bug in Netsurf,
> really, but are there any plans afoot to work around web sites that
> misbehave in this particular way?

I suspect not, WebSurf's developers are very much wedded to the 
principle of doing things right or not at all.

Cheers
---Dave

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David J. Ruck   Phone: +44- (0)7974 108301   Email: dr...@dr...
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