[whatwg] Multiple file download

[Boris Zbarsky]

On 3/10/10 12:51 PM, Eric Uhrhane wrote:
>> the zip format is fairly streaming friendly, the directory is at the
>> end of the file. And if you're actually generating a file which has so
>> many records that you can't remember all of them, you're probably
>> trying to attack my user agent, so I'm quite happy that you'd fail.
>
> Isn't a format that has its directory at the end about as
> streaming-UNfriendly as you can get?  You need to pull the whole thing
> down before you can take it apart.  With a .tar.gz, you can unpack
> files as they arrive.

That depends on whether you're the producer or the consumer.  Given a 
format that has a directory (which is an assumption, of course), it's 
easier to consume as a stream if the directory is at the beginning and 
easier to produce as a stream if the directory is at the end.

-Boris