Re: [w3c/filesystem-api] Is this spec deprecated? (#8)

> @nolanlawson I've heard that one much-desired feature is a streaming interface to and from the filesystem, which could arguably be added to IDB rather than this spec or any similar filesystem spec. @feross are you looking for something similar for WebTorrent?

Streaming **reads** are already possible today via drag-drop or a File Input. On the other hand, the following are not currently possible, and are extremely important for the web platform:

1. Streaming **writes** to files on disk.
  - Right now, to save files to disk in WebTorrent, we stream data into a pre-allocated typed array, wrap it in a Blob, `URL.createObjectUrl`, then click that link. This **imposes a max file size of the largest allowed typed array (~1GB)** and requires the **entire data to live in memory** until it's ready to be saved.
  - Streaming writes would let us do file transfers over WebRTC and offer "save this file" functionality **without keeping the whole file data in memory**.

2. Persistent file/folder access.
  - To explain the use case of this, I'll just quote:
  - > Today, if a web site wants to create experiences involving local files (document editor, image compressor, etc.) they are at a disadvantage to native apps. A web site must ask the user to reopen a file every time they want to edit it. After opening, the site can only save changes by re downloading the file to the Downloads folder. A native app, by comparison, can maintain a most recently used list, auto save, and save files anywhere the user wants. (from [WICG/writable-files](https://github.com/WICG/writable-files))

The best attempt to address these both issues is actually [WICG/writable-files](https://github.com/WICG/writable-files), which I quoted from above. There is a more detailed explainer about the idea here: https://github.com/WICG/writable-files/blob/master/EXPLAINER.md

-- 
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/w3c/filesystem-api/issues/8#issuecomment-271120715

Received on Sunday, 8 January 2017 00:40:00 UTC