Re: lynx-dev Argh! FTP problems...

[Nelson Henry Eric]

>  1) Lynx downloaded the file OK (it was a .tar.gz file).  It then tried
>     to uncompress the file, which I didn't want it to do.  I can't find

Roger's is the only answer to this question which made sense to me.  I've
been using `d' to download .tgz files by ftp ever since when, and never
had a problem of Lynx trying to decompress the file.  I only get the
download menu, which by default has the "Save to disk" option.

Was the problem that you hit [Return], instead of `d', on the link?

I have and continue to have problems with Lynx's ftp implementation not
downloading the entire file sometimes, but I suspect this is more of a
network problem than anything else.  If you have such problems I could
only recommend that you use another tool, e.g., standard ftp or wget.

>     It's quite bogus that _vital_user_information_ for using Lynx, like
>     these all-important environment variables, is buried in the
>     INSTALLATION file and doesn't appear anywhere in the on-line help,
[...]
>     etc.  Even if _I_ still had the build tree, no one else would!

Well, yes and no.  There is nothing preventing someone from customizing
their main help file or writing their own from scratch.  In fact, I have
always encouraged it.  What may not be generally known is that Jim Spath
set up a breakout of the current Lynx distribution on the web site that
Scott hosts.  The URL for INSTALLATION, for example, is
        "http://www.slcc.edu/lynx/current/INSTALLATION";.
Either download the file and provide a link to access it from your
customized help page, or provide a link to the URL above.

There is a compromise which must be made as to how much of the distribution
will be installed with "make install-help".  Already, for many people I
suspect, the help file tree is too large to install locally within their own
$HOME directory.  It certainly is much too large for my ancient SunOS box
with 150MB total disk space.  What may seem vital to you, may not seem vital
to others.  I personally (boy is Philip going to jump on me now :) still
don't understand environment variables very well and pretty much ignore them.
For me the vitals are three files: Lynx_users_guide.html, keystrokes/
keystroke_help.html, and lynx_url_support.html.  (And all of these I gzip
so Lynx can decompress them automagically.)

> Quite a frustrating evening, overall :-/.

Usually good to just sleep on it :).  Lynx really is a nice animal to have
at your pillow side.  Much nicer than a mouse.

__Henry