On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 1:05 PM, Michael Dale <md...@wikimedia.org> wrote:
> Its most ideal if we actually support these formats, so we can do thing > like thumbnails, basic meta data etc. Failing that its better to support > a given file extension, then it is to support zip files. This way if in > 'the future' we add support for X file format, then we have X format > files stored consistently so we can support representation of that file > format. > > If we add blanket support for 'throw whatever you want' into a zip file, > it will be difficult to give a quality representation of that asset in > the future. ( other than as a zip file with multiple sub assets ). > I tend to agree that it's preferable to be able to recognize and validate formats; though as noted sometimes you're going to have stuff that doesn't really fit well in an individual file. Certainly for Wikibooks I could envision *all sorts* of totally legitimate use for being able to upload/download various files, including archives. The Blender handbook could use example files and projects to download, which might include dozens of support files. A programming module might need to provide source code and sample input files. Then we have the 'media source file' case: an animation should be able to include the Blender or POV-Ray or whatever sources that were used to create it. A pretty picture built in a layered raster system like Gimp or Photoshop would do better to include the source .xcf or .psd than not too, even if the source file is in a format that's harder to work with. I believe we've got an old bug on the idea of being to explicitly attach a source file: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=17012 In all cases we have the worry that if we allow uploading those funky formats, we'll either a) end up with malicious files or b) end up with lazy people using and uploading non-free editing formats when we'd prefer them to use freely editable formats. I'm not sure I like the idea of using admin powers to control being able to upload those, though; bottlenecking content reviews as a strict requirement can be problematic on its own. What I'd probably like to see is a more wide-open allowal of arbitrary 'source files' which can be uploaded as attachments to standalone files. We could give them more limited access: download only, no inline viewing, only allowed if DLs are on separate safe domain, etc. I don't really relish the thought of checking image source data for warez archives, though. :) Can't guarantee a magic solution there. -- brion _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
