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how to show python code as text

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Some docs pages show python source code, e.g. http://matplotlib.org/pyplots/pyplot_simple.py. I would like to see the code as a text file in Firefox, but am only given the option to download the file. How can I change this?

Some docs pages show python source code, e.g. http://matplotlib.org/pyplots/pyplot_simple.py. I would like to see the code as a text file in Firefox, but am only given the option to download the file. How can I change this?

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The problem is that the server is sending a content type of "application/octet-stream" with the file, which generically identifies binary content that Firefox cannot display. (See screenshot.)

As a workaround, you can prepend the URL with view-source: to show the file contents in a tab. One less-than-convenient way is:

  • Ctrl+click or right-click the link to direct it to a new tab
  • Cancel the download dialog
  • Type or paste view-source: at the beginning of the URL and press Enter to load it