lynx-dev Re: lynx.cfg bloat (was various fixes)

[Yury Burkatovsky]

Let me jump in with my $.02 worthy thoughts.

On Mon, 23 Aug 1999, Henry Nelson wrote:

> > Anyway, this is all just idle talk unless and until someone actually _does_
> > something about it.  If not, then apparently the current state of the
> > lynx.cfg is not enough of a problem.  No itch no scratching.
> 
> Quite true.  This is, however, an area where I have interest.  I may
> even do "something about it," but not without first knowing what people
> want (and that is very hard to find out).

I know this would be quite a big enterprise, but if we want lynx to be
spread more widely, we ought to do something with the way its
configuration (currently defined in lynx.cfg) is tailored.

A good example that first comes to mind is Pine - a very popular text-
oriented mail agent that has a separate configuration page with clear
hierarchy of options and suboptions, and context-based help on each of
them.

> Then what do we do about backward compatibility?  It is quite clear
> that most people would not be willing to update their lynx.cfg.
> New users and first-time installers would benefit without any pain,
> but old-timers would really buck having to edit a bunch of defines.
> 
> The only thing I've been able to come up with is the creation of a new
> define, something like CFG_COMPAT, that could be used to ifdef the old
> code, both for parsing and decision-making throughout the source.  It
> is quite simply impossible with my abilities for me to implement some-
> thing like that in a reasonable manner.  If backward compatibility is
> an absolute must, then I will definitely not be doing any work on lynx.cfg.

Another option would be importing the settings from the old-fashioned
lynx.cfg during installation. A relatively simple sed script might do the
work.

> > Too bad.  Still, you seem to be in a small minority regarding your
> > _strong_ opinions on the badness of those options.

IMO, this is an evidence that only a small minority are brave enough so as
to go through the hassle of installing lynx themselves. Others either use
lynx as a service from local nets like Chebucto or give up and return to
one of the Big Two.

Most of participants of lynx-dev have upgraded their installation for
several times and probably do not remember how difficult it was to get
lynx working the first time, when lynx.cfg was smaller.
 --
Regards,                                                |       /^^^\
        Yury                                            |     (| , , |)
                                                        |      |  *  |
E-mail: yury.burkatovsky at telrad dot co dot il        |       \_-_/