Re: lynx-dev Revised patch for HTFTP.c

[Doug Kaufman]

On Sat, 19 Aug 2000 address@hidden wrote:

> Me too.  Accommodating broken servers can only serve to encourage them.

This is only true if you have some clout with those who make the
servers. I doubt that lynx does, other than as a voice in the
wilderness asking for adherence to standards.

I still don't see where any servers are broken. I thought that we
had agreed (correct me if I am in error) that the responsibility for
deciding mode of transfer is held by the client. It seems that lynx
is specifically requesting transfer in ascii mode of files which are
not "text" files, if "text" is defined as being in the native text
format of the server. Any other files should be considered binary,
including files with DOS EOLs residing on a unix server. The problem
is that lynx is requesting them in ascii transfer mode, which is
inappropriate. Note that the current implementation does this ONLY
when the files are to be rendered on screen. "lynx -dump" of these
same files retrieves them in binary and send the rendered version to
standard output. I had suggested (via the patch) to make the default
transfer mode binary, since lynx has no need of the file conversion
done by the server. Ascii transfer could still be done by adding
";type=A" to the URL.
                              Doug
__ 
Doug Kaufman
Internet: address@hidden


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