What is the formal term: mime or media type?

[JAB Creations]

I'm curious as to when I reference text/html and application/xhtml+xml if I should be referencing them as mimes or as media types? For example I can't stand people who refer to elements as "tags".

- John

[encyclo]

MIME = Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions

See: [tools.ietf.org...]

Whilst initially used for email, these same media types are used for many different internet applications including the web.

MIME type or media type are both acceptable.

[Robin_reala]

I believe 'media type' usurped MIME when it started being used outside of email. Not sure if it was ever officially declared as a replacement though.

[JAB Creations]

I've been thinking media type is the way to go, thanks for your posts.

- John

[Fotiman]

The MIME standard contains a MIME header "Content-Type" which indicates the Internet media type of the message content. Note, this is a "MIME header" which identifies the "media type". text/html would be a "media type", as would "application/xhtml+xml". And the media types are used in the "Content-Type" MIME header.

Hope that helps.