The problem is that many formats can't detect that they have been cut
off. Even for something as strict as XML you could be loosing comments
and PIs at the end of the document if the transation is terminated.
The reason responseXML would be null in mozilla is that we'd get an
internal error-notification from our network layer and would know not
to even attempt parsing.
Ah, I see what you mean, if the failure was after partial content had
arrived! Yes I agree this would be generally undetectable for a lot of
formats.
I don't think it's crucial to address this though, recovery from network
failure errors are pretty rare things to deal "EEK! there's been an
error!" is just about all you can do - even referencing an image or
providing a link is basically unsafe from a user perspective.
Doing "EEK!" is better than doing nothing though. One case where it
could actually happen is if the user hits the stop-button during the
transfer (IIRC in mozilla we start the throbber and enable the stop
button during the XHR request).
I'll raise an issue on this stuff.
/ Jonas
