lynx-dev STARTFILE bug?

[Philip Webb]

in view of the frequent help messages reaching lynx-dev
from users whose start page is not being found,
i started to test making a local file default, with the idea of using `.' .

ordinarily, i have in  userdefs.h
 #define STARTFILE "http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/";
& in  lynx.cfg
 STARTFILE:http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/ ,
so i tried changing the latter to (eg)
 STARTFILE:file://localhost/homes/purslow/lynx ,
which should give me an easily recognisable directory of news stories:
entering  lynx file://localhost/homes/purslow/lynx  works ok.

however, the altered start file is not recognised by 2-8-2dev.19 ,
which continues to call up the file given in  userdefs.h .
moreover, when i tried commenting out the STARTFILE line in  userdefs.h
& recompiling, the compile failed with the message
 error in LYMain.c 738 : startfile undefined :
apparently -- but not stated in the comments in  userdefs.h  -- ,
Lynx requires that a startfile be specified at compilation,
even tho' it may be overridden by  lynx.cfg , if defined there.

so  3  things:
(1) apparent bug: 2-8-2dev.19 isn't recognising STARTFILE in lynx.cfg ;
(2) infelicity: should Lynx require a startfile in order to compile
    & (if yes) shouldn't this be stated in  userdefs.h ?
(3) suggestion: shouldn't we make  .  the default for STARTFILE,
    if it isn't defined in  userdefs.h  lynx.cfg  or the command line?

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