Re: LYNX-DEV handling Javascript (was mensa etc)

[Heather Stern]

I ate the fortune cookie first, then read what Larry W. Virden, x2487 wrote:
> 
> The following is a brainstorm idea.  It's not intended to reflect something
> that is implementable, and certainly is not something I intend to 
> develop.  It is only intended to be something to help us think outside
> the box, so to speak.
> 
> Maybe what we need is a totally different approach.  What if Javascript 
> were displayed in a new kind of link ala the frame links?  On the
> page, one would see pretty much what one sees now, along with one or
> more special JavaScript links.  If one clicked on these links, the text
> from the Javascript would be displayed.  Anything that looked obviously
> like a URL would be hyperlinked.  Anything else would, at this time, not
> be a link.

I have seen Javascript used for the following things, roughly in the order
of frequency I find them: Mouseovers shown in the status bar (we probably
want these, they're the graphic-junkie's replacement for ALT tags); Scrolling
tickers (often ads); popout ads or navbars (these would indeed have hotlinks 
in them); Redirect (these people should be using http for it, but it is a 
way to jump you into a javascript-dependent area); I've seen an app do timing.

In short, it would "solve" some uses of javascript, but not nearly all of them.

How many Javascript functions are graphical in nature?  With Mozilla's code
base on the open net, we could probably give lynx some sort of API to hook
scripting languages into, and package the Mozilla javascript to fit it.
(Not something I'm quite up to myself, sad to say)

Apparently the Netscape Public License (NPL) and GPL are a little allergic to 
each other, mainly because NS has some clauses to protect its present legal
obligations, whereas GPL says if you can't completely free the code, you
can't ship.  Thus an API/add-on approach would be necessary, if we really want
to use something from Mozilla code.

> While this would not be an ideal solution, it would be a tiny bit more
> useful, in those very rare cases where the JavaScript simply redirects
> someone to another URL.

Not all that rare.  But Mouseover is by far the most common usage I see.

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