typing and sharing; viewing without attaching

[zooko]

From ticket #124:

When a user shares a file or directory, they're using an edge of their own vdrive graph to identify it, so they have some idea in mind of how they want the data (sequence of bytes) that they're sharing to be used. I see five cases: sharing just bytes (with no type information), sharing bytes + mime-type, sharing bytes + mime-type + suggested filename, sharing a directory, sharing a directory + suggested dirname.

Our current URI syntax collapses the type information into one bit: filenode or dirnode. Filenodes can be treated as a variety of mime-types, but that information is in the edge (implied by the filename).

Hm, maybe the box on the front page should accept a "sharing link", which is more than a URI, maybe a URI combined with some information about suggested filename/dirname.

I do think this is a good idea. Also going the other direction is a good idea:

Suppose I send my mom a URI (without any other associated metadata) through e-mail and she pastes it into her tahoe node. If she has to get the "file or directory" bit right, she might paste it into the wrong field. Suppose instead of two fields there is just one field -- "import shared thing from URI" -- and when she pastes it in there then it shows her the thing, whether directory or file, without attaching that thing to a namespace. The attaching-to-namespace step can be separate.

[zooko]

This has been fixed. Thanks, Brian!