[WWdevel] File Manager and linebreaks

[Davide P.Cervone]

> Some FTP programs let you specify "Text", "Binary", or "Automatic" for 
> the transfer mode. One of the effects of this is to turn on or off 
> linebreak translation. I think this mechanism would work pretty well 
> for WW.

Perhaps that would be the best approach, though it doesn't really make 
it clear that the only issue involved in this case is line breaks.  
Perhaps "Convert line breaks:  [  ] yes   [  ] no   [x] automatic" 
would work?  Or maybe the text/binary/automatic idiom is well enough 
known that it would be best to stick with that.  My feeling is that 
people are becoming less familiar with FTP and these issues now that 
more transfers are done via attachments and so on.

I wonder if there is anything in the form data that might be useful in 
determining the file type.  Perhaps it already has a MIME type as part 
of the multipart form data.

> We also have the choice of whether we reverse the translation when 
> downloading files.

The difficulty here would be determining the type of line breaks needed 
on the user's end.  The information available to the CGI script that 
could be used for that is the HTTP agent, though it would be somewhat 
of a hack to go from that to an architecture type.  It would also be 
possible to use JavaScript at the browser's end of things to insert a 
HIDDEN field in the form that tells WW what platform the user is 
running on.  A bit awkward, but doable.

>> A related question is should the File Manager try to be smarter about 
>> where you are putting the files. ...
>
> At the very least, there should be some documentation on the File 
> Manager page of where various course files should go. I'm hesitant to 
> do anything based on file type detection (although in WW it's probably 
> a pretty safe bet). A warning couldn't hurt though.

I usually don't like programs that think they are smarter than I am and 
do too much to "help" me out.  But I think a warning would be 
reasonable here (with a hint of where the file SHOULD go).

> Maybe there should be a mechanism to take to to the directory for a 
> particular file type? Maybe a popup menu and a "Go" button?

That sounds like a good idea, too.

Davide