Re: lynx-dev what kind of files lynx can transfer?

[David Woolley]

[ re-wrapped ]
>       this is my first mail to the list.On one of the internet sites
*  I read that http is used to transfer  text alone whereas ftp is used
*  mostly to transfer binary files.
>        Is it so?If it is , why?

This is not relevant to Lynx, it refers to site policies.

It's mainly a matter of history and, in fact, if you want to transfer text
files for use as text file, rather than for immediate display as HTML,
FTP is better, because it converts between different operating system
formats.

In the real world FTP is generally only used for executables and source
archives, i.e. the more technical and older uses.  Even then, 
Microsoft service packs and installers are, I believe, normally transported
using HTTP.

A large amount of binary data is conveyed by HTTP, e.g. the images for
web sites and a large amount is conveyed by neither FTP nor HTTP, e.g.
most streaming audio.

FTP (as against web browser ftp:) works in terms of the host filesystem's
actual directory naming scheme, rather than mapping it onto a Unix like,
/-delimited, one.

FTP can also do manipulations of the file system, although WebDAV
gives these capabilities to HTTP, although that is more a case of
the general degradation of protocols from tightly targetted and
efficiient to doing everything that the competing ones do.

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