[JDEV] Offline file attachments etc

[Appleweed]

>the general consensious of the Jabber team is that things such as file 
attachments, voice streams, or any other BLOBs
> (Binary Large Objects) Do not belong in the jabber protocol, and are all 
"out of band".  What this means, is that you can use
> jabber to setup a session with another user, but then the data will be 
transfered by some other means..

>in the case of file transfers, we use http to send files out of band. 
 Winjab also supports uploading your files to a WebDav
>server, which can remain there for a period of time (even after you 
disconnect from jabber) for the other user to download.

I believe the "out of band" context is appropriate to distinguish between 
the core functionality of jabber as an IM server and other services. This 
obviously puts the responsibility of various types of file transfers and 
multiple connections on the client side. I'm curious if anyone sees a 
problem with this as I have attempted in the past to use jabber as a means 
to simply connect clients to other resources.

How resource-intensive and "bloated" would an all-purpose client like 
WinJab become if it had to negotiate separate TCP, HTTP, SMTP, etc... etc.. 
connections?

Is this even an issue?? I guess browsers do this all the time... But who 
wants their client to become the next Mozilla?

Sorry for waxing philosophic this early in the morning... :P

-Omar