Re: lynx-dev bad behavior: changing assumed document charset

[Klaus Weide]

On Sun, 27 Feb 2000, Ivan Zakharyaschev wrote:
> I use Lynx Version 2.8.3dev.14 and I don't like the following behavior of
> it when reading Russian documents:
> 
> I have these parameters pre-set:
> display character set: koi8-r
> assumed document charset: koi8-r
> 
> Then I browse to a page written in another (windows-1251) charset, and, of
> course, the browser shows some rave. Then go to the options screen, change
> the assumed document charset to the appropriate one and accept the
> changes. After this the document is reloaded and I can read it (it is
> displayed correctly). So far everything seems to be all right.
> 
> But here comes the interesting thing: when I open another page with the
> same charset (win-1251), for instance, following a link from the original
> page (that was also in win-1251), I get again the document displayed in a
> wrong way, still the options remain unchanged (one can see it going to the
> options screen - the document charset is still the second one - win-1251).

This would happen you had visited the second page earlier, while the
effective "assumed" charset was still koi8-r.  In that case in may still
be in the cache of rendered documents, and lynx will not automatically
reload it when you follow the link again.  But it should be rendered
correctly after you do a ^R)eload (or any of the other commands that
imply reloading, like <*>, <'>, <`>, <]>).  Or, alternatively, if you
use 'x' instead of Enter to follow the link.

If this was not the case, please give example URLs.  (Something in
those pages might cause unusual behavior, for example HTTP headers
or META tags.)

Also, if caching soesn't explain what you see, try the alternative version
of the 'O'ptions menu - use -forms_options switch (assuming both versions
are compiled in).

> Just accepting the options another time doesn't help anymore. In order to
> tell the browser that the encoding of the document is win-1251, I have to,
> first, to change it to some other value, to accept this change, and then,
> to revert to win-1251 and accept it another time. Now - after the third
> loading, the document looks pretty good.

Probably this "works" because both of those changes make lynx reload
the document - but you should bet the same effect with ^R.

> Saving the options to disk doesn't make any difference.

Yes, "Assumed document character set" doesn't get saved; it should be
marked with (!), but that may have been added after dev.14.


By the way, if your normal use of lynx involves frequent toggling
between (only) two "assumed document charset"s, it may be more convenient
for you to use '@' for toggling (instead of going to the 'O'ptions
scree each time).  In that case, you should probably set up lynx like
this:

On start,
> display character set: koi8-r    (saved from 'O'ptions screen in .lynxrc)
> assumed document charset: windows-1251 (set in lynx.cfg, or command line)
then add -raw flag (if starting with a koi8-r page) and use '@' to toggle.

    Klaus