Re: lynx-dev suggestions for new features

[John E. Davis]

On Fri, 24 Apr 1998 14:16:15 -0700 (PDT), David Combs <address@hidden> said:
>Emacs uses ESC as the prefix char for multiple-char commands,
>and vi uses ":".  Why not copy one of those?

I like this idea, but to do it right you would have to do several things:

   1.  Create many more keysyms that may be associated with various
       `actions'.
   2.  Use code similar to what I submitted a few days ago to map new
       keysequences to keysyms, e.g., `ESC >' --> END keysym.
       However, while this is good for ESC prefix characters, it is
       not so good for a `:' prefix because you would like to use the
       `:' character by itself for text fields, etc...  So, you also
       need:
   3.  Mode specific keysequence --> keysym mappings.  The fact is
       that LYgetch returns keysyms and all of lynx keymaps, e.g., the
       EditBinding keymap, are keysym based.  So, you need a different
       LYgetch function for text fields, etc...
       
Just implementing number 3 alone would improve the current organization of
the code.  Currently, LYgetch is called, then depending on the mode
the keysym is mapped to some action, and if the action is X, in this
mode it is probably better to do Y, or if the system is VMS and there
was an interrupt, then we should do Z.....

I realize that I keep bringing up these issues of code organization,
but unless there is a consensus about what to do, if anything at all,
about the current way input is processed, then I am hesitant to do
anything more than what I have already done.

--John