Re: LYNX-DEV lynx problems

[Jim Dennis]

>>  * If you are encountering difficulty with Lynx you may write to
>>    address@hidden The developers definitely want to hear if
>>    you have trouble with the current version of the code. Trouble
> 
> Well, unfortunately I am having trouble with lynx:

        This looks more like a wishlist than a specific bug
        or problem report.  There is a wishlist form at browser.org.

> 1) the unix and VMS versions cannot properly handle some forms
> (especially those at geocities.com)

        I've heard that these are not properly constructed HTML
        forms.
        
> 2) they also don't handle tables or maps

        Current versions of Lynx are reasonably capable of 
        handling (tolerating) tables and maps.  You can select
        most image maps to get a list of the URL's which are 
        referenced by the map.  Tables are a bit ugly -- but
        they are displayed.

> 3) Although it's not standard, it would be fine if when there is no 
>   ALT text for an image, lynx would display its filename (something
>   like [setup] is better than [INLINE] for a setup.gif file for instance)

        That might be nice.

> 4) It's nice that now lynx can work in batch mode, however it would be even
>    nicer if it could retrieve "deep" i.e. given a url, lynx should retrieve 
>    that URL plus all the files on the same server in the same directory or
>    below (files that are referred as <a href= ...> or <xxx SRC=xxx>)
>    with some options (such as load images or not, make directory tree
>    or make .tar.gz   etc.)

        I have a wrapper script that does most of this.  That script
        was sort of a feasibility prototype -- I suggested an 
        enhancement to Lynx that would encode into the package.

        The consensus from this group's participants has been that
        they would rather leave that to the wget web mirroring 
        package.  So, if you and I still want it -- we'll have to find
        someone to code it.

> 5) Even nicer: Combine lynx and midnight commander. (Yeah, dreams, I know)

        You can already combine lynx and mc.  You can put lynx on 
        your mc menus and make it the viewer for .html files.  
        Obviously you can your own menus for lynx (using the lynxprog
        and lynxexec menu options).


> 6) Lynx should also have some built in terminal conventions (for example
>    "vanilla ANSI" i.e. the MS-DOS's ANSI.SYS commands only (with or without
>    color, with or without autodetection of window size - Yes even dos allows
>    that - and WITHOUT mode commands like esc[=... or esc[?...)
> 
>    My algorithm for autodetection is to disable auto wrap, clear screen,
>    output 100 line feeds and 150 spaces then query the position. (All ANSI
>    stuff). However, lynx should also allow manual settings (several settings
>    in a config file). 
>    Last but not least, there are terminals which cannot be well described
>    unsing termcap or terminfo (such as those who use bitwise attribute
>    settings  like ^T<x> where x is in '@'...'P' and the last 4 bits mean
>    inverse, underline, blink and secondary font - secondary font could be
>    loaded with bold or italics) .


        I'll defer to your expertise on all of that. It sounds like 
        you want some stuff that wouldn't be very portable under 
        Unix -- which is not likely to be popular with the current
        dev crowd.  However, this is GPL software and you can make
        any changes you like -- and you can submit them.  They might
        or might not be accepted in the main source tree -- but that's
        not my decision.

        I'd like to see some support for user defineable rendering.
        This would be particularly nice for assigning colors to 
        different containers -- even combinations of containers 
        (so <b><i>foo</i></b> or <i><b>bar</b></i> would render 
        in one color while <b>foo</b> <i>bar</i> would render in 
        other colors) and for assigning strings to character entities 
        (like "(c)" to &copyright; (or whatever that one is called).

        However -- I'll probably have to take some time to learn 
        more C if I ever want to see this.

--
Jim Dennis  (800) 938-4078              address@hidden
Proprietor, Starshine Technical Services:  http://www.starshine.org
        PGP  1024/2ABF03B1 Jim Dennis <address@hidden>
        Key fingerprint =  2524E3FEF0922A84  A27BDEDB38EBB95A 
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