"Wide load" status code(s)?

[solderpunk]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 06:20:03PM +0200, Peter Vernigorov wrote:
> Although this makes sense at first glance, I believe that a status code is
> too late to let user know that the file is large. Bytes are already being
> transferred and received by user’s OS, even if client is not reading them
> yet. By the time any of this information is displayed to the user, and the
> time it takes them to react, damage has already been done. I think the only
> sensible solution is for pages to display size information to user next to
> the link.

It's true, and a good point, that stuff may be buffering up in kernel
space even when the client has only read a little bit of it.  If the
idea was to present a prompt to the user, I would agree this may be of
little use.  But if the client itself peeks at the first two bytes and
then immediately closes the connection, I would have thought that would
be quick enough to make a worthwhile impact.  But I admit I'm not too
sure of that.  Maybe actual real world testing would be in order...

Cheers,
Solderpunk