Editor's Note: Minutes received 12/21/92 CURRENT_MEETING_REPORT_ Reported by George L. Johnston/MIT Minutes of the NAPLPS Graphics and Character Sets as a MIME BOF (NAPMIME) The Chairs began the session by emphasizing the reality that the Internet is, and will continue to be, a highly heterogeneous network, in which some use will involve small systems with pc-level graphics and low-bandwidth connections. On the basis of this reality, they argued that a MIME extension which permits the encoding of pictorial information (including limited animation) and alphanumeric text (including limited animation) with great economy of file size would be very desirable. They asserted that NAPLPS meets these criteria. They introduced Mr. G. Kenneth Holman, Technical Vice President of Microstar Software Ltd., of Nepean, Ontario, Canada, one of the leading developers of NAPLPS software, including the NAPLPS drivers for Prodigy, a videotex service of IBM and Sears, to provide expert information on NAPLPS, including its relation to other international standards. The Chairs and Mr. Holman described the history of NAPLPS and its status as an international standard. Particularly important is the fact that it is based on the ISO 2022 7 and 8 bit extension standard, which uses escape characters to select in-use tables from a repertoire of such tables. The standard has been extended to include audio and still compressed images (JPEG), as well as sixteen bit characters to represent languages which have such requirements. Dave Hughes demonstrated NAPLPS by means of TeleDraw, an integrated NAPLPS/ASCII terminal emulator, drawing program, and symbol processor (for the creation of DRCS -- dynamically redefinable character set provided by the standard) for MS-DOS computers developed by his company. A person attending the session complained that he and, he believed, others attending the session felt that they were being sold something. George Johnston responded that they were being introduced to a standard with which many were unfamiliar, because it comes from videotex and teletext, and that it is important to demonstrate the functionality of the standard and that it has been widely implemented. The same person commented that MIME involves a deliberate decision to avoid ISO 2022, in favor of fully formed characters that can be processed by the party receiving them. He stated that MIME favors a multi-part approach instead of pulling everything together, in one file, as NAPLPS does. In response, it was stated that the presentation level approach allows pictorial and character information to be placed in deliberate spatial relationship with each other. Persons attending the session provided helpful suggestions concerning the question of how NAPLPS might be related to MIME in terms of content type. It was stated that one can try to have MIME revised, or go to IANA for registration within an existing content type. The latter approach is clearly the path of least resistance. The content type 1 _image_, with the subtype _naplps_, i.e., _image/naplps_, seems a natural choice for consideration. Less desirable would be _image/x-naplps_. An alternative to content type _image_ would be _application_, i.e., _application/naplps_. A person attending the session stated that a goal of MIME is to do unique labeling. The proponents of NAPLPS as a MIME extension should decide how they want it to be designated. He added that there is little interest in vector graphics. George Johnston reiterated that the Internet is an inhomogeneous network, with some low-end computers and connections, and therefore it is desirable to have a MIME extension which permits the economical encoding of pictorial and character information. The session concluded with a statement by Ken Holman that he would begin to draft an application to IANA for registration of NAPLPS as content type _image/naplps_. Attendees Kay Chang chang@chang.austin.ibm.com Letha Dugas 4371362@mcimail.com Erik Fair fair@apple.com Sallie Fellows sallie%ed@psc.plymouth.edu Ned Freed ned@innosoft.com Thomas Hacker hacker@citi.umich.edu Russ Hobby rdhobby@ucdavis.edu G. Ken Holman holman@tmn.com David Hughes dave@oldcolo.com George Johnston glj@nerus.pfc.mit.edu John Klensin klensin@infoods.unu.edu Jim Knowles jknowles@binky.arc.nasa.gov Charlotte Mooers mooers@nnsc.nsf.net