Re: [Vimprobable-users] [PATCH 0/3] add external file handlers

[Steffen S. <ssc...@un...>]

On 03/04/2012 07:02 PM, Hannes Schüller wrote:
> Before we get into code details, I think the concept should be clear
> and agreed on. Apart from the mailcap question which ruskie already
> asked, I see the following potential irritation:
>
> As you currently implemented this, a file is first downloaded to the
> regular download location (which I would assume to be some sort of
> permanent storage space) and then, if a definition is found for this
> MIME type, opened. What other browsers do is offer a choice to *either*
> download a file to permanent storage *or* open it.
>
> Not getting into the discussion of "opening" also involving downloading
> the file, it is usually stored in non-permanent space for that purpose,
> because when a file is selected to be "opened", I guess the assumption
> is that the user does not want to store it permanently. The other way
> around, it could also get annoying not to be able to simply *save* a
> file anymore *without* opening it immediately afterwards.
>
> So, what's everyone's views on this?

My workflow with this is as follows:

- My DOWNLOADS_PATH is pretty much a "temporary place": If I want to 
keep something permanently, I move it to a specialized location, like 
papers/, doc/, ...
- It's wiped every now and then by myself, manually.
- During a (work / browsing) "session", I like to keep all the stuff I 
downloaded, because that way, I can postpone the decision if it's worth 
to be kept permanently.
- Of course one can argue that then, I'd want the same thing for web 
pages. - Maybe my next patch ;)

I do very well see that this is my very personal way of working, which I 
don't want to force on anyone, but I've always been annoyed by this 
"open or save" question.

For the "not being able to just save a file anymore" issue: Yes, that's 
probably annoying. We could set a flag to prevent opening when a user 
explicitly chose "Download linked file".
Can we somehow attach a piece of arbitrary "payload" to a 
WebKitDownload? (other than storing a map (WebKitDownload*) -> MyPayload 
...)

-- Steffen