-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 The main informational site for GNU Wget is now at http://wget.addictivecode.com/; the Wget Wgiki.
-- The original motivation for starting a wiki for Wget was that I needed a forum for collaboration on specifications and design for future features in Wget, and particularly in what we've been calling "Wget 2.0", the next generation of Wget. Features that have been (tentatively) suggested or planned for "Wget 2.0" include: * Support for multiple connections simultaneously * Configuration options on a per-host and/or per-initial URI subpath basis. * Accept/reject (and others) based on MIME type. * Support for the use of regular expressions. * A recursive-fetch metadatabase, to save download information such as mappings between local filenames and originating URIs, MIME types, HTTP entity identifiers, etc. * A plugin architecture. * Support for parsing of non-HTML files for links to follow. * Support for handing-off specific HTML elements to plugins for special handling * Support for extending Wget with new protocols * Better encapsulation of the file-system, to hide local filename restrictions and such from the download logic. * Support for Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs). * Some level of JavaScript support ** * Support for the Metalink format ** ** For various reasons, JavaScript and Metalink support will probably not be part of canonical Wget, but would take advantage of the plugin architecture and be distributed separately from the core Wget source. Development for these features might be separate from core Wget development. Some of these things necessitate a complete restructuring of Wget's logic, very possibly a complete or near-rewrite. It is also possible that the configuration and command-line interface syntaxes would need to be reimagined, in which case a name change for the "next generation" Wget might begin to show merit. The feature specifications and design discussions for these elements will live at http://wget.addictivecode.org/FeatureSpecifications. I have started a few of them off, most still need to be started, and all need help. -- An aside: I do not want to give the idea that Wget is going to go from a "Swiss Army Knife" to a "Combination Hand-pistol/tank/aircraft-carrier/missile-launch-silo" ;) As I see it, Wget's major boons have been its relatively small footprint, it's speed and efficiency, and it's ability to (usually) "Do what I want". I do not wish to abandon these things. This was a major factor in the decision to isolate features like Metalink and JavaScript into plugins: with a plugin architecture, if the users /want/ the "Combination Hand-pistol/...", they can just load up the "tank" and "missile-silo" modules! ;) -- At any rate, I felt that having a wiki for discussion of these things would prove invaluable, so I started work on this last week. But while I was working on these things, it became more and more obvious how much of a benefit it could be in serving as the main repository for even general, non-developer-oriented information for Wget. This is a somewhat abrupt turn from my desire to make the gnu.org site the main source of information about Wget, but I believe it'll be much easier in the long run. Please do check the site out, and help to improve it! Most of content from the old site should have moved to the wiki (the old site has already been updated to direct readers there). - http://wget.addictivecode.org/FeatureSpecifications Home for various features that need sketching out (these are intended to be informal specifications, not particularly rigorous; just enough to know what we are doing). - http://wget.addictivecode.org/Faq The FAQ has been updated somewhat, probably worth looking over. - http://wget.addictivecode.org/TitleIndex We don't have that many pages yet; here's the full list. ;) - -- Micah J. Cowan Programmer, musician, typesetting enthusiast, gamer... http://micah.cowan.name/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFG4N+E7M8hyUobTrERCHQoAKCFRB0HPbWSIBvTrT42clFlYh2p/gCfTzYH h9HCFzSxs4WSNgyFe4OX3A8= =0OBC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----