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Re: lynx-dev "sticky" things


From: mattack
Subject: Re: lynx-dev "sticky" things
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 1999 16:25:30 -0700 (PDT)

On Sun, 17 Oct 1999, Klaus Weide wrote:
>> As much 
>> as I try not to use it as an example, this is how it works in the GUI world -
>> left arrow in an edit field does nothing, but you can still tab to other 
>> fields to type in.  My "modal but not noticable" discussion above is really
>> just emulating what I consider reasonable user-focused behavior (do what I 
>> mean
>> not what I say).  lvirden has already said he doesn't think default behavior
>> should be changed.

Ok, I realize now I've lost this whole argument.. I still hope that this 
capability can be configured in (or turned off without recompile) -- that
is, not ask me a question nor accidentally go back a page.

>But lynx is really quite different form the GUI world.  With mouseclick-
>browsers one doesn't need the Left Arrow key for navigation between
>documents, but in lynx it is *the* way for going to the previous document.

But command-arrows _do_ go back pages, and that's the equivalent of what
you're doing in Lynx with arrows.

>> Though these are both ridiculous examples, they popped up in my thinking
>> about this whole issue:
>> * When you have a fixed-length edit field, why doesn't right-arrow at the 
>> very end take you to the next link?
>
>Is that what you want, or are you just speculating "how does lynx do that"? :)

No, I'm just using other examples of weird special-casings that would make
as much sense as leftarrow-on-first-column does.

>> * When you're typing in an edit field, why doesn't it ask you "Do you really
>> want to quit?" when you type Q even in an edit field?
>
>I don't kow how you mean that question; it should be obvious that if Q had
>the QUIT (or ABORT) meaning in a text imput field then you couldn't enter
>a capital letter 'Q' in the field, so you must mean something else.

You've sort of got it.  I was using a silly example on purpose -- if,
every time you hit Q, it asked you "do you want to quit?" and if you said
no, THEN it would type the Q in the field.

>But there is a good reason for its special treatment.  The comment in the
>relevant part of the source says
>            /*
>             *  Left arrrow in column 0 deserves special treatment here,
>             *  else you can get trapped in a form without submit button!
>             */
>It seems to me this behavior was specifically introduced to solve a
>real problem.  You assume that you alwas can move to a previous or
>following link or field which isn't a text input field, but what
>if there aren't any?

Yes, I don't want people stuck in a page -- isn't this completely broken
HTML though? 

>Anyway, it seems Vlad is going to do the Y/N prompt thing (just making
>configuarable when that occurs vs. automatic PREV_DOC).  I am happy
>with that (except for the name).  If you want a different variant
>bad enough, try to convince him...

Well, at least the Y/N prompt will 'eat' all of the extranneous back-arrows
I type when I'm editing a field.


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