Technical Summary
This document updates the ECMAScript media types to prefer "text/
javascript", obsoletes other related media types, and introduces the
new .mjs extension for JavaScript modules in order to align with
implementation experience and industry practice. This document obsoletes
RFC4329, "Scripting Media Types".
Working Group Summary
When this document was adopted by DISPATCH, it was a fairly simple
update of RFC 4329 to update the IANA registrations to prefer "text/
javascript" and to mark other related media types as "OBSOLETE". The
draft was changed to obsolete RFC 4329 due to WGLC feedback. That
document has issues primarily related to how one determines text
encoding and the use of file extensions to determine whether content
should be interpreted as a module or script. This draft makes minor
updates to that original text to align with current operational reality,
but it does not attempt to "fix" them in ways that do not reflect
current practice. This resulted in some discontent among reviewers who
would prefer cleaner fixes vs. document existing practice.
There have also been discontent about unnecessary and somewhat
convoluted normative language in RFC 4329. This draft does not attempt
to fix that in general, although it has made some simplifications in the
text about determining the character-encoding scheme.
Document Quality
The procedures in the draft are understood by this shepherd to be
implemented by most web browsers.
The draft has undergone i18n and media-type reviews. John Levine
performed a helpful early i18n review of version 07 on 8 May 2020. That
review and follow on discussion resulted in improvements in version 08.
The draft was posted to the media-type mailing list on 17 May, 2021. The
resulting media-type discussion mainly rehashed issues already discussed
(see "Working Group Summary")
Personnel
The responsible AD is Francesca Palombini. The shepherd is Ben Campbell.
RFC Editor Note
Please add the IESG Note.
IESG Note
This document records the relationship between the work of Ecma
International's Technical Committee 39 and the media types used to
identify relevant payloads.
That relationship was developed outside of the IETF, and as a result is
unfortunately not aligned with the best practices of BCP 13.
Consequently, consensus exists in the IETF to document the relationship
and update the relevant IANA registrations for those media types, but
this is not an IETF endorsement of the media types chosen for this work.