Re: LYNX-DEV External command

[Klaus Weide]

On Sat, 19 Apr 1997, Wayne Buttles wrote:

> I was thinking about adding an external command in lynx [...]
> I was looking for comments on the subject.
> 
> I put a sinular feature into bobcat and it is a very handy command in the
> dos world, but it would be equally handy in multitasking systems for the
> following:
> 
> highlight a selected link
> press the LYK_EXTERNAL key
> the EXTERNAL:<url_type>:command: takes over
> 
> The most relevant command I can think of is wget which is a command line
> html and ftp grabber that can do silent, backgrounded transfers. 
> 
> EXTERNAL:html:wget -q %s &
> EXTERNAL:ftp:wget -q %s &
> 
> This would allow for background downloads.  As I said in the beginning,
> since we can't actually take control of an already open connection (at
> least, I can't), we can't do this for files that are the result of a form.

You could modify the stuff in GridText.c that prepares the form data
to submit, to write them to a temporary file... then extend the syntax:

EXTERNAL:html:wget -post %s < %s &

(This is just invented, most likely not correct wget syntax, and
assumes that wget can submit POST data.)
For GET forms, you alread have everything encoded in just one URL.
That is, if you can make Lynx give that back to your handling code
if your LYK_EXTERNAL key was pressed on a submit button, instead of
"submitting" the URL directly. 

> There will be security issues as well, 

Yes..

> but I had planned to make it
> totally #ifdef'ed so you could compile it out as well as leaving the
> ending :TRUE/FALSE support for building code simular to downloaders.
> 
> Phew, a little too wordy but you get the idea.  Mainly, I am wondering if
> people like/hate the idea and if there may be a better way I might be
> missing.  

It is not a feature I have been missing much (but then, I thought that
about many others too, at first.) Of course it would be nicer to be
able to specify the external command, instead of having just one per 
URL access type...
    Klaus

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