Re: XML: status update

[Daniel Veillard w3 org]

> Three applications that I know of use http.  MC uses it, the help
> browser uses it ( I think that the code in the help browser is actually
> from libwww but don't quote me on that ) and the silly Bussign applet.

  Ok good to know !

> I brought up the idea of adding a generic HTTP access library to the
> gnome libraries so that applications could access web resources and was
> shot down pretty hard at the gnome meeting after the expo.  If you can
> get it into the gnome libraries you're a better man than I. :)

  Ok, I will take my hammer and start hitting nails ...

  There is a couple of VERY good reasons to add generic interfaces for
HTTP and FTP accesses:
  - of course code reuse, some luser may wonder why ugrading their desktop
    with Gnome RPMs from the RedHat distribution x.xx managed to fill their
    root partition :-)
  - second is efficiency, by invoking a separate process which actually
    the HTTP accesses you can :
      - share connections to a given site between applications (and with
        HTTP/1.1 it really makes a difference, believe me !)
      - share a cache, if you just fetched a page with the browser and
        then want to embed it into a mail, the mail will reuse the
	cached copy, instead of refetching the whole thing ...
    The time spent doing the RPC between the app and the network engine
    is neglectible in comparison of the time needed for the network
    transfer.

> Personally, there are a lot of things that I would like to see done with
> integration with the web and the desktop.  You can do a lot more over
> HTTP than just download web pages.

  Well, let's get the simple things done first ...
  I would be again very interested in looking at existing API used
for HTTP/FTP in current apps (within or outside Gnome).

Daniel
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