Re: Side scrolling [was Re: LYNX-DEV Re: Setting up a fund ...]

[Filip M Gieszczykiewicz]

You (Nelson Henry Eric) wrote:
>> The problem though with side scrolling is that it is an expensive operation
>> in terms of line time for freenets and the like (I'm not sure if curses can
> 
> Sorry to keep making references to "most", but it does side scrolling
> and seems to be so "light".  It's slang-based, which I assume means it
> could be done with curses easily enough.  Being a dreamer and not a
> programmer, it almost seems that (a) side scrolling function(s) could,
> even by option, be compiled in, and have Lynx feed its parsed output
> to that/those function(s).  (Analogous to the zlib support that Klaus
> worked in.)

That's what I was thinking... I'd hack the parser of the tables to just
slug them into an array for each line... making sure to mark empty
cells to keep track of columns. Then, pass the whole thing to a
function (or a whole _mode_ of lynx) which would reparse this looking
at all the columns in turn and figuring out the maximum length of
fields and adjusting the width to that... and displaying it on the
screen with calls to a [modified] filter that would remap the virtual
display "screen" to the real terminal screen (not sure if ncurses does
that). Then, when "view tables" module is exited, free all the memory
associated so nothing is wasted. And you got yourself _my_ idea of a
2-pass parser :-)

I, for one, would not care if this had to _redraw_ the whole screen
NOR would I care if it took lots more CPU cycles and swaping to
get it up on the screen. Once something that horribly inefficient
is written we BOTH have the TODO's table-support checked off AND
it's an excellent base for someone to come along and optimize it!

My current term [of college] will test me already... I can't do
any hacking of this magnitude until summer :-( And I say "magnitude"
because it would have to be hacked on a recent version of lynx and
released before too many changes are made to that version - so
"simple" people could actually apply the patches without too many
chunks failing :-)

Take care.