I can't remember for sure the usecase or which specific browser, but I remember sometime in the 90s (whatever IE W95 or 98 had? Possible Netscape?) having to create a barebone .html with just the href and opening that to have a link to right click.
I think it actually was specifically to save files, before content types, and saving binaries as raw text was unreliable at best.
I didn't expect the same to be true 20 years later.
Just tried this on my phone (Lumia 950) I never even noticed this was an issue until now. I tend to not download files on my phone and my pc has Linux.
Only option is to highlight it and save it using another program.
> There is a link right in your comment, right click it to download the text file
Go to the file. Then try to save it. Don't argue with a scenario that I'm not talking about.
HN adds that link, but not all links come from HN. I know this is asking a lot, but, maybe, just for the sake of argument, try to pretend like you were given the URL somewhere else that doesn't automatically hyperlink and that I didn't just make this up. Hell, pretend that you got it on a piece of paper and actually had to type it in like a caveman. Now save it.
> There is usually a link to whatever file you want to download.
If I understand correctly, what you're saying is that in some cases you just cannot save the file, and that in all other cases you just cannot save the file while looking at the file without knowing that you need to go...somewhere nebulously else? That's what I said too. I'm glad we're on the same page now.
You're right, there is no point in arguing this. You gave an example of a file that was "impossible" to download with Edge and I told you how to do it. If you really need to type in the URL yourself, just type in into Notepad's open file dialog and save it from there.
It doesn't seem to be possible to download a file you already have open in Edge that you have no link to, but how often does that happen, really? I'm sure you can come up with lots of other scenarios that you can't do with Edge either, or Chrome.
> You gave an example of a file that was "impossible" to download with Edge and I told you how to do it.
You told how to download something referenced by a hyperlink within the browser, a problem that I did not say I had.
We call that moving the goalposts. It's very frustrating and I wish you would stop.
> If you really need to type in the URL yourself, just type in into Notepad's open file dialog and save it from there.
I 100% agree that the solution to a web browser not being able to do the 2nd most important function of a web browser is to use a different program. Suggesting Notepad instead of a more capable browser seems a tad strange though.
> but how often does that happen, really?
Why bend so far backwards to try to poke holes in my problem? Are you responsible for the decision to disallow saving documents? If I don't use Edge does your favorite nephew lose a toe? If you want to use Edge that's fine. Knock yourself out. I won't, and I gave my reason why.
Lack of save in Edge seems especially bizarre in view of IE's past. There were years when I used copy URLs from another browser to IE just to save them in mhtml (before extensions provided that on other browsers).
