Hi Samuel!
23 Dec 2002, "Samuel W. Heywood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
SH> As most of you all know, Arachne and other normal internet browsers
SH> do not come with the totally unecessary and undesireable feature of
SH> having a "browser upload" function like the one that is incorporated
SH> into the bloatware browsers MSIE and NetScape.
first how many NORMAL browsers do you know that do NOT incorporate this
trivial feature ?
second it is not only incorporated into MSIE and NS, but also into mozilla,
netscape, lynx ........................
SH> When I write to the web site tech support people to ask if I can
SH> simply do FTP instead, they answer with a resounding "NO".
too much work for them.
They need to set up a FTP server with write rights for all accounts they have.
and furthermore FTP is pure CRAP. (the protocol is badly designed, and there
are many security risks in the FTP daemons.)
SH> Why can't you simply do FTP instead of doing "browser upload"?
SH> The techies say you can't do it, but they refuse to explain why.
The 2 are completely independant.
The webapplications often use PHP (or similar scripting language) to do the
work. There a HTTP upload is trivial ... and you can restrict it to already
authenticated sessions.
If you want to use FTP, than you have to set up a FTP server (and therefor open
up a big security hole), and furthermore you need to solve the authentication
problem, and you need to solve how the web application gets the filename.
SH> Isn't plain old ordinary FTP still the standard and normal and
SH> most universally acceptable method for transferring files?
NO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FTP uses cleartext authentication ... therefor it MUST NOT be used for anything
other than anopnymous access.
But it still is used for distributing software via anonymous FTP.
Don't mix these 2 issues.
SH> Another question: Why did the developers of MSIE and NetScape even
SH> ever want to incorporate a "browser upload" feature?
Because it is VERY handy.
SH> This is certainly not a feature that any normal browser should have.
in your oppinion.
Mine is different :)
SH> This kind of feature certainly is not needed. It serves only to make
SH> the browser more bloated and to run more slowly.
The implementation is not hard, and everybody has another definition of bloat.
This trivial and useful feature is sure not bloat for me.
SH> Sam Heywood
CU, Ricsi
PS: Michael we are talking about pre mozilla netscapes :))
Netscape 3 and 4 are older than mozilla ... :)
--
|~)o _ _o Richard Menedetter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> {ICQ: 7659421} (PGP)
|~\|(__\| -=> I am immortal, at least till I die <=-
