Re: LYNX-DEV Lynx 2.7.2 report

[Jan Hlavacek]

On Thu, Mar 26, 1998 at 10:18:19PM -0500, Jacob Poon wrote:

First of all,  the newest version is 2.8.  I suggest that you upgrade.

> + Bugs
> 
> Table
> =====
> 
> When dealing with tables, if a table row contains cells which the contents
> of cell is aligned with <center>..</center> pair, the table row is split
> into several rows, which shouldn't.  For example,
> 
(snip)
> 
> Lynx will put each cell into a separate row, when this shouldn't be the
> case (at least not on Netscape 3.01).

Lynx way of handling tables is different than Netscape's.  There has
been a lot of discussion about this lately,  I suggest you look in the
archives.  There is also a short description of the way Lynx handles
tables in Lynx's help files.  

> When I press 'G' to goto a url, and type:
> 
> ~cssu
> 
> It does not go to the home directory of cssu of local machine.  Instead it

This does look like a bug.  There have been some changes in post-2.8
development code dealing with this sort of things,  maybe this can get
fixed,  too.

> If resizing a window under xterm, subsequent web pages will not be
> rendered correctly for the rest of lynx session, even reloading a page
> after resizing. 

Can you be more specific?  What does it mean "not rendered correctly"?
I don't have any problems with resizing rxvt window with lynx 2.8.

> + Suggestions

> Instead of asking for cookie every time a site send out one, there should
> be options for either discarding all cookies from all sites, 

This can be done by lynx.cfg setting,  or using command line switch in
lynx 2.8.

> accept all cookies from all sites, 

Lot of people ask for this one.

> or only (dis)allow certain cookies come from particular site(s).  And
> of course, such settings can be saved into config files and/or invoked
> from command line.

> When toggling between raw HTML and rendered HTML views, it should not
> reload the page from the original site, if cache is large enough.

Again,  this is quite frequently suggested thing.  Is there some reason
why lynx loads the document again?

> When 'G' is pressed, pressing tab does filename completion on local files.

Sounds like a good idea.

> FTP sort
> --------
> 
> Support for sorting by multiple criteria.  Eg:  first sort by filename,
> then date, then size. 
> 
> Support for sorting in reverse order.

This too.

> 
> Searching type
> --------------
> 
> Possible to search by regular expressions.

and this too.

> Display character set
> 
> Automatic option for graphical environment.

Huh?


> Keypad Mode
> 
> When 'Links are numbered' or 'Links and form fields are numbered' are
> used, an option to show the numbers on the status line instead of showing
> it in the page contents.

Sounds to me like priority: dogwash.  I would actually rather have
something like relative skip,  for example pressing 3j would take me 3
links down.

> Line edit style
> 
> Delete key should be mapped to Delete current char by default.

Delete key should be mapped according to your terminal setting.

> Able to change key bindings without recompiling.

In the options menu in 2.8,  there is an option liNe editing style,
which however offers only one choice: default binding.  Why?

> If lynx is in line edit mode, press Ctrl-c should only exit line edit
> mode, not exit lynx.

That's what Ctrl-g is for.

> Printing/saving
> 
> It is possible to save the current page being viewed into raw format. 
> Useful when the URL is typed manually instead of following a link, which
> makes download command useless. 

Yes,  it is.  Switch to "view source" mode and press 'p'.

> When asking for filename being saved/printed to, press tab will do
> filename completion, if a file is saved locally.

Would be nice.  

> Support for .mime.types in home directory.

Look in lynx.cfg,  PERSONAL_EXTENSION_MAP variable.  It has been there
for quite a while.

> Allow one to edit .mime.types within lynx.

Use 'g' to go to ~/.mime.types,  then press 'e' to edit.

> Option to direct such file to external applications manually.

Version 2.8 comes with support for EXTERNALS,  which sort of does what
you want (well,  with little bit of work on your side).

> Bookmark management
> 
> Support for collapse/expand bookmarks into groups, and for that matter,
> editing bookmark entries.

You can edit them with an external editor.

> 
> Allow importing bookmark files from other applications such as Netscape or
> IE.

Write a shell or PERL script.  Why should Lynx support every silly
bookmarks format there is in the world?

Only thing which should be done is, IMHO, document precisely the lynx
bookmark format.

> Directory editing
> 
> Allow one to (un)tag group of files in specified criteria.

May be nice.


> FTP login
> 
> When logging into a FTP site, a option for lynx not to disconnect
> automatically.
> 
> Reget support for FTP transfers.

Use wget/ftp/ncftp.  You can use lynx with EXTERNALS support with wget,
it should do the job.

> Server side image map
> 
> When activating a SSIP, it is possible to manually enter coordinates.

Nice.  Wasn't there a patch for that somewhere?

> Others
> 
> Press right key goes to next document instead of select link.

You mean the document specified in "<LINK rel="next" ..>"?  But there
may be more of them.

> ^Z won't interrupt a connection/transfer process.

Use 'z',  not '^z'. 

> When 'Q' is pressed, lynx should exit only if 'Y' is pressed afterwards.

Compilation option in 2-7-2,  lynx.cfg opion in 2.8.   There have been
quite a discussion about this recently. 

> If possible, the ability to configure every (or most) lynx.cfg options
> within lynx. 

I think that the common consensus on the list is that there is already
too many of them.  IMHO it only makes sense to change interactively the
options which can directly affect  behavior of lynx without restarting,
and which can seriously impact the way documents are downloaded and
displayed.  You also don't need an option menu items for things like
MAKE_LINKS_FOR_ALL_IMAGES or HISTORICAL_COMMENTS,  since these can be
toogled by a single keystroke.  What I would like to see is some sort of
user editable ~/.lynxrc,  where I could replace global lynx.cfg
settings.

lahvak
-- 
Jan Hlav\'{a}\v{c}ek
address@hidden  (Blind Carbon Copies will bounce)
www: http://www.math.ohio-state.edu/~lahvak/