From: Austin Ziegler <austin@...>
Date: 2003-11-04T08:00:56+09:00
Subject: Re: CGI uses file size to distinguish between regular values and files

On Tue, 4 Nov 2003 06:51:43 +0900, Simon Kitching wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 10:29, Austin Ziegler wrote:
>> I didn't miss that. What's wrong, though, is that the CGI library
>> is returning different values for parameters based on the total
>> size of the data.
> Is it really returning "different values for parameters"?

As I'm understanding it -- I haven't yet put together tests for this
-- there is a difference between the return for a multipart form
(e.g., a file upload) which does Tempfile/StringIO and a single part
form which does a String. If this is indeed the case, it's
problematic, IMO. Ideally, one should not *have* to know that you're
dealing with an IO object of any sort. It gets worse: WEBrick deals
with such things only as strings (well, FormData). So if I want to
make Ruwiki or Bug Traction handle multipart data, I have to deal
with three different modes of operation based on (1) whether or not
CGI is dealing with a multipart form, (2) a single part form, or (3)
WEBrick.

IMO, CGI does this wrong.

-austin
--
austin ziegler    * austin@halostatue.ca * Toronto, ON, Canada
software designer * pragmatic programmer * 2003.11.03
                                         * 17.11.48