OW doesn't respect ftp protocol handler?

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

At 16:01 -0800 25/01/02, Ken Case wrote:
>[Š]
>But perhaps you'd like to make an exception just for ftp?  The 
>problem is that ftp isn't really an exception:  when you click on an 
>ftp URL, OmniWeb has no way of knowing whether that URL will lead to 
>a web page that it should display in the browser (in which case you 
>really don't want to hand it off) or some other sort of content that 
>should be downloaded (in which case you apparently do).

Is there any reason a ftp link would like to a web page ??? It could 
link to a ftp directory it'd have to display but any good ftp client 
(eg Interachy) will also display the content of the directory.


>The only way OmniWeb can determine what to do is to download part of 
>the content so it can take a look at it to try to figure out what it 
>is, and at that point it's generally much more efficient for it to 
>finish the download itself--rather than to start the download over 
>with a different application which will have to connect again (and 
>might not even be able to get in because the server is now busy, or 
>only allowed you to authenticate once, or whatever).

It is true for small files but not for large ones (Interarchy is 
actually faster than OW to download filesŠŠ).

>
>But all that said, I suspect a reasonable approach would be this: 
>whenever we got to the point where we're about to add something to 
>the downloads panel, check Internet preferences to see which 
>application is the preferred handler for the URL scheme in question 
>and hand it off at that point.  This doesn't address the efficiency 
>or reproducability issues I mentioned, but presumably people who 
>prefer separate downloading applications are already quite familiar 
>with those issues and prefer separate downloaders anyway.
>
>We'll look into this for OmniWeb 5.

Grrrreaaaattttt !!!!!
Wouldn't it be possible for http downloads too ?? (that would mean 
adding the option to use helper applications for all downloadsŠŠ).

		Corentin