Re: Separate Download Manager From Epiphany

[Norman Jonas <epiphany-list devport codepilot net>]

I absolutely agree. This would make it possible for several apps to
share a single app for this particular task ( especially important due
to the fact that a download manager often will still be required when
the browser has been closed already ). Furthermore there are other apps
which could utilize a download manager ( e.g. managing a big file
download from nautilus when accessing an ftp site, drag drop a file uri
from a text file - more cases I don't think of yet ).

A very nice download manager has even been developed a few years ago
which in my opinion would do this task pretty well :

http://downman.sourceforge.net/

It has several features which I think are very good :

- It offers a command line tool to manage downloads, so that downloads
can even be continued from console
- It seperates different tasks into different apps ( gui, commandline
tool, daemon, drop target )

Sadly there has been no development going on for some time, but maybe
this tool could be pushed. Some things could be improved ( tray icon for
finished downloads notifications or an applet ), but I think it is
usable even in its current state to some degree.

Best regards,

Norman

Am Samstag, den 12.11.2005, 23:19 +0000 schrieb Michael:
> Epiphany has a download manager built into it.  Of course Epiphany
>  needs a way to download files, but I think it would be better to
>  separate the download manager into a separate application for three
>  reasons.  
> 
> 1. If someone sends me an email with a link to a file, clicking that
>  link in Evolution opens up a blank Epiphany window, and Epiphany then
>  offers to download the file.  Separating the download manager would
>  avoid the unnecessary step of opening an Epiphany window, which I just
>  close.  Perhaps it would reduce the time for the download to start,
>  too, if the download manager did not have to wait for Epiphany to
>  load.  
> 
> 2. By separating the download manager into a separate program, it would
>  be easier (from a UI point of view, and perhaps a programming one too)
>  to add support for BitTorrent and perhaps other similar protocols. 
>  This functionality perhaps could become part of a built in download
>  manager, but the additional UI necessary would be dfficult to justify
>  in a built in manager.  In a separated manager, it would still be
>  necessary to maintain a simple, clean interface, but it would be
>  easier to do so.  
> 
> 3. A separate download manager would also conform better to the unix
>  ideal of one program, one task.  This ideal may not be universally
>  applicable, but in this case I think it is relevant.  
> 
> Any thoughts?  
> Michael