Re: lynx-dev Forms based options (patch)

[Leonid Pauzner]

>                      lynx-dev Forms based options (patch)
>      _________________________________________________________________
>
>      * To: address@hidden (Lynx Development List)
>      * Subject: lynx-dev Forms based options (patch)
>      * From: address@hidden (Mike Castle)
>      * Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 23:37:27 -0500 (CDT)
>      * Reply-To: address@hidden
>      * Sender: address@hidden
>      _________________________________________________________________
>
> Attached is my current patch against 2.8.1rel18 for having a forms based
> options implementation.
>
> It is still a work in progress, however it does appear to be mostly usable.

Oh, great for first try!
I compile in this patch, few problems were found:

1) when I change user mode from 'advanced' to 'novice' next time
I saw a form element '[ ]' ABOVE the statusline (yes, screen size changed).

2) while changing 'assume_charset' or 'display_charset' its value messed up:
it substituted with iso-latin-1 value ANYWAY for some unknown reason
(may be some variable not intitialized: MIMEnumber(iso-latin-1) equal to 0).

I will try to fix it tonight but maybe the author fix it before :-)

Leonid.


>
> There are a lot of FIXME's all over the code, so please read them.
> Especially those concerning the use of charsets and raw mode.  I really
> have no clue what the hell is going on with those settings.  I don't have a
> need for them, so I don't have experience with them and understanding how
> they are supposed to work.
>
> Most of the options screen is implemented.  The following items are either
> not implemented or only partially implemented:
>
> * Any book mark stuff (I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this yet.  It's
>   probably last on the list).
>
> * DISPLAY:  I forgot to do a putenv, and need special VMS handling stuff
>   from regular options code too.
>
> * display character set:  When going down the page, I just skipped this
>   one.
>
> * User agent:  Should be trivial.
>
> * Exec stuff:  Another item I never use, so don't know the semantics yet.
>
> * Line editor keybindings:  Is there support for that ANYWHERE?
>
>
> In the original system, when returning from the options submenu, a whole
> bunch of items are checked to see if they changed, and if so, force a
> reload of the page.  I'm not sure how to handle that now (currently I think
> it seems random to actually load page before the options form).
>
> A lot of things that should be caught don't work, such as preventing book
> marking and gotos (though I can goto out of a print menu as well, so I
> assume I'm not setting up some option anyway, but I still doubt it will be
> stopped).  I need to do some more analysis on this.
>
> I have stubs in place for handling some fairly trivial security (making
> sure the form that gets posted is the one that was generated internally).
> I'm not positive how to head off special url's not generated internally,
> so I'm put in some stuff that was inspired by old DOS telnet program I used
> to use (was it NCSA or CUTE?) using oneshot passwords.
>
> I write C code for a living, not HTML.  So I'd like suggestions on how to
> better implement the actual form.
>
> It's definitely not ready for prime-time, but I think it's a good start.
>
> Also, this is definitely something you do not want to use without popups
> for select.  On an 80x24 terminal, it's 2 pages with popups, 7 pages
> without.
>
> To actually use the silly thing:  apply the patch to 2.8.1dev18, run
> configure, then in the makefile, add -DNEW_OPTIONS to SITE_DEFS.
>
> The only ifdefs are really in LYMainLoop.c.  Once the patch gets applied,
> all the code is compiled, whether it's used or not.  This is development
> after all.  We're not looking for effeciency yet.  :->
>
> Now for some bad news.
>
> I'm picking up keys for my new apartment tomorrow, and will start moving
> stuff over shortly, with an official move in on 10 Aug 1998.  Soon after
> that, I'm moving my girlfriend from Cleveland here to Milwaukee.  And not
> long after that, I'll be facing a deadline at work.
>
> So, I'm not sure when I'll have time to put a lot of thought into this.
>
> I should be able to finish up everything except the multibookmark stuff
> before I get moved.  That item is what I forsee to be my biggest obstacle.
>
> Btw, this is also my first project I've put under CVS, so I'm still
> learning (I'm in the process of switching to it at work as well).  So
> hopefully this patch will work as I intended for it to.
>
> Enjoy!
>
> PS: An indent configuration would be nice too.  The indentation scheme we
> use at work is very different from lynx.  Being able to have a default
> configuration for indent would be darned nice.  ;->
>