[viewvc-dev] Re: [viewvc-users] Don't display binary files

JJ wrote:
> In any event, the templates need some way of telling if the file is
> binary or text (i.e. something other than prefer_markup, since
> prefer_markup could then be set for text files or images) so they don't
> allow diffs or other things that don't make sense for binary files.

I understand where you're coming from, but I'm concerned about the leanings
of the cost/benefit ratio.  You're talking about adding significant
processing overhead to avoid the display of a link which isn't necessarily
going to be followed anyway (especially if the user is smart enough to know
that clicking "view diffs" when looking at a JPEG is not likely to be
productive), and which usually leads to relatively quick and painless
"Sorry, can't do that" errors if clicked.  In other words, penalizing all
viewers for the benefit of few.

I was with you for the most part on simply removing images from the list of
things that prefer_markup (need to think through that in full, including
compatibility ramifications, before fully agreeing).  But the general
problem of MIME types not being fully descriptive enough to answer the "is
this human-readable?" question is a problem that exists *everywhere*, not
just in ViewVC.

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <[email protected]>
CollabNet   <>   www.collab.net   <>   Distributed Development On Demand

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