28 May 2007 - 0:00Status Update (2007/05/13 – 2007/05/26)

Status Update:

[Code] Last couple weeks I started playing with Mozilla C XPCOM and did a quick
implementation of Link Fingerprints for the Download Manager, which will help
me implement Link Fingerprints at the network level (i.e., Channels). I’ll
finish up the initial Channel implementation by conditionally deciding to do
Link Fingerprints and compare hashes to conditionally fail the transfer.

[RFCs] Looked into existing RFCs and internet drafts to see possibles scopes
for our RFCs (a general extension to #fragment-ids (e.g., #!type!data) and Link
Fingerprints). URI general syntax says the semantics of #fragment-ids are per
MIME-type (e.g., application/gzip or text/plain (which has an internet draft
requesting new #fragment-id functionality)), so right now, things seem tricky
to request an all-encompassing RFC.

Last 2 weeks (2007/05/13 – 2007/05/26):

– Graduate 5-yr MS/BS in CS from UIUC and fly home to California bay area
– Settle in at Mozilla Mountain View, discuss implementation with Dan Veditz
– Investigate RFCs and discuss on m.d.a.firefox
– Research Mozilla C codebase to learn XPCOM, pointers, interfaces, fun
– Practice what I learned by partially implementing Link Fingerprints in
Download Manager
– Begin implementing Link Fingerprints (as a stream converter) in the network
to handle all requests and not just downloads (currently it prints the md5 hash
of all HTTP requests)

This week (2007/05/27 – 2007/06/02):

– Start (officially) Summer of Code (2005/05/28)
– Communicate with DownThemAll developer (Nils Maier) to see what we can share
– Add checks to nsHttpChannel to only do Link Fingerprint stuff if the URI
contains a Link Fingerprint-like reference and if it’s not a partial Range
request
– Actually compare hashes and not just print out the computed hash 😉
– Find Erik Wilde (#fragment-id for text/plain author) to ask about RFC stuff