Re: [cpp-netlib-devel] Sending/receiving binary messages

[Nelson, E. - 2 <eri...@ba...>]

From: Leon Mergen 
  
>>On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 8:53 AM, Glyn Matthews
>>Yes, if you download it using HTTP all binary data needs to be MIME
encoded. 

 > Sorry to interrupt, but is this true? I always thought the HTTP
Context-Length: response parameter was invented for this purpose, to be
able to transfer raw binary data.  
 
I thought it was possible, since Content-Length can be specified, and
with chunked transfer each chunk has a byte count associated with it.
 
http://www.jmarshall.com/easy/http/#structure
 
http://www.jmarshall.com/easy/http/#http1.1c2
 
I would be a little surprised if every jpeg being shipped around the net
was being converted to/from base64 with every transfer... seems like it
would be a ton of overhead.
 
That being said, I'm no expert in this field, and I don't know what the
plan for cpp-netlib is in this area.
 
Erik