HTTP protocol: HTML only?

My informatics teacher explained that HTTP can really be used exclusively开发者_Go百科 to transfer unencoded ASCII, and as soon as an image or the like have to be downloaded from the server, FTP is used instead.

Is this true?

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No, it isn't. HTTP contains a header and data part, the latter gets interpreted by the receipent according to the CONTENT-TYPE header. HTTP can transfer arbitrary data.

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If you want any more specific information about the HTTP protocol, the full RFC (request for comments) document is available here: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.html

An RFC is where the various different parties who have a stake in these protocols are presented the current version and invited to give their opinion. It's the method by which most of the internet has been built :)