Re: LYNX-DEV DISPLAY variable settings

[Foteos Macrides]

Bela Lubkin <address@hidden> wrote:
>Jim Spath wrote:
>
>> I received the following message in the "TODO" context and am
>> forwarding it to the list for possible discussion:
>> 
>> -----
>> From: address@hidden (Andreas Leitgeb)
>> Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 10:07:04 -0600
>> when I start Lynx without a DISPLAY-variable, I'd still like
>> to be able to specify the display in the option-form and NOT get
>> the following message: (for example if an X-display becomes available
>> later)
>> "... WARNING: Lynx is NOT configured for XWINDOWS!"
>> -----
>> 
>> 1)  The DISPLAY variable isn't saved to .lynxrc, so setting it in the
>>     options screen rather than the command line is dubious.
>> 
>> 2)  I'm not sure who might be capable of actually hooking in XWindows
>>     library code to get an X-display to function.
>> 
>> 3)  What is the value of suppressing the warning that this doesn't work?
>
>Saving it to .lynxrc has obvious problems.
>
>But he's right that it would sometimes be nice to be able to tell Lynx,
>"Ok, now I have an X display available, please use it when I try to
>invoke a graphical viewer."  A Lynx session has enough context that it
>can be painful to exit and restart -- you lose your history, visited
>pages, etc.  He's asking about adding it in mid-session.
>
>Don't worry about question 3.  2 is irrelevant; Lynx doesn't actually
>link with the X libraries, it just knows whether or not X viewers can be
>invoked.
>
>The problem is that Lynx pre-calculates the values of "test -n
>$DISPLAY", "test -z $DISPLAY" options in the various mailcaps.  To fix
>this, after the putenv(putenv_commands) in src/LYOptions.c, it would
>have to call HTFormatInit() again to re-calculate those values.  But it
>probably isn't safe to call that twice (I didn't try).
>
>Anyway, there's a relatively simple way to fix this.  In your mailcap
>file, get rid of the ``test=test -n "$DISPLAY"'' clause:
>
>  image/jpeg; xv %s
>
>Now, if you try to load an image with DISPLAY unset, it fails in xv
>("xv: Can't open display").  Use the options screen to set DISPLAY, and
>now it works.

        Reconfiguring for X means redoing all associated components of
the startup procedures, include VIEWER mappings in lynx.cfg, presentation
mappings in HTInit.c, and mappings via any global and/or personal mailcap
file.  It's do-able, but would require non-trival modifications and
additions to the current code.

                                Fote

=========================================================================
 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
=========================================================================
;
; To UNSUBSCRIBE:  Send a mail message to address@hidden
;                  with "unsubscribe lynx-dev" (without the
;                  quotation marks) on a line by itself.
;