[Pan-devel] Re: Re: More database thoughts

[Duncan]

Jeff Vian posted <address@hidden>, excerpted below,  on Wed,
16 Jun 2004 07:11:14 -0500:

> One drawback I see to this approach is those situations where your server
> does not have all the parts and thus you cannot download *all* parts but
> instead get "all available* parts.

These would remain viewed as individual parts, as they are now, regardless
of setting, allowing, as now, fetching just the "available" parts from one
server (say the bundled ISP server), while finishing it up from a paid
server.

Of course, keep in mind that for those using multiple servers, eventually,
one could view a "virtual" server combining all physical servers on which
you had subscribed to that group, meaning there'd (ideally, at least) be
fewer incompletes to view.

> I also can see where it would still be of benefit to be able to
> view/download individual parts.  Sometimes it is preferable to get just
> one or a few parts to see if the binary is actually of use before you
> get everything.

Very good point.  With a 3Mbps downlink, and only a limited number of
multiparts in the groups I subscribe to, I forget sometimes about
dialup and more limited broadband users.

Maybe an alternative would be a context menu item allowing one to
"Download first X parts".  X would then either be configurable, or
selecting the item would popup a question dialog, asking.  (In the
latter case, a neat feature  might be to be able to select each Xth part,
so one could then choose X=5, and get part 1,6,11, etc.)

This would keep the "preview" ability intact, even enhancing it by
automating the preview functionality of Xth parts, while still allowing
the memory efficiency of never having to display all parts, when a
multipart is complete.

Just throwing out the idea.  I'm not sure it's the best one, but anyway..

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --
Benjamin Franklin