On 31 Aug 2005, at 13:19, Matthew Toseland wrote: > Right, you undermine the whole web metaphor by requiring users to > use a > third party GUI tool. And the web metaphor is one of the key things > that > makes freenet interesting. It's only possible because we have global > reachability. And it shows that our goals are freedom of speech and > not > "file sharing".
Yes, except that files downloaded through the web browser will be able to offer no useful information about how much has been downloaded in the manner the user normally expects as the pieces of the file must be downloaded in random order. This may seem like a minor detail, but in actual fact represents a fairly fundamental usability problem. The advantage of sticking to a pre-existing metaphor is that the system works in the way users expect. Requiring that the user visits a separate page to check on the file download progress totally destroys any usability benefit of the web metaphor because it isn't what users expect. The correct solution is using a "Freenet aware" third-party client that doesn't require us to hammer the square peg of a Freenet download, into the round hole of a web browser. The "web metaphor" is all very well when it is appropriate, but in the case of the download of large files from Freenet, it simply isn't. Better to do it properly than to impose an inappropriate metaphor where it doesn't belong. Ian.
