Re: LYNX-DEV Is This Lynx's Fault?

[Al Gilman]

  From: Louis Epstein <address@hidden>

  I've been noting that a Web page full of text files only allows those with
  ".txt" filename extinctions to be read by Lynx...those with other
  extensions produce a
  "application/octet-stream D)ownload, or C)ancel" when one tries to
  follow the link.
  
  Is this a browser problem,or a server problem?
  
This sounds like the primary problem is at the server.  The
classification of the page as "application/octet-stream" is done
at the server and Lynx is just informing you what the
server-provided header contained as a type designation for the
content of the HTTP transmission.  This is a very broad "binary"
classification and gives Lynx no clue as to how to select a
helper application.

There are workarounds for this situation for files that are
actually text files.  If it is just a problem at the one site, you
can download the text to a local file, change the filename to end
in .txt as you dispose the file locally, and then g)o to it with
a file: URL to read it.

If you find yourself dealing with a lot of sites with this problem,
you can install "most" or another pager that automatically converts
to some ASCII presentation of binary files as a viewer for
"application/octet-stream" MIME type and then random text files
with spreadsheet etc. file extensions that are misclassified by 
the server will display OK for you.

Al Gilman
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