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Re: lynx-dev TRST & lynxcgi

From: Henry Nelson
Subject: Re: lynx-dev TRST & lynxcgi
Date: Tue, 9 Nov 1999 11:01:36 +0900 (JST) 
> at this point, my efforts stop: i'm not interested in practising sed
> & in any case lynxcgi is being stretched a bit here:

Gimme a break.  ANYTHING is hard the first time.  It took me probably
two full days (of course broken into little 10-15 min. chunks here and
there over a month or so) to get a working lynxcgi.  After the first
one though, it's been pretty painless for the others.

> cp the disclaimer in Supported URLs.
> all this simply shows workarounds are not that easy

Lynxcgi is a powerful tool.  That is the only reason I bother to answer.
The main reason as I see it that Lynx is being loaded up with pure garbage
and trying to emulate MSIE and WORD is because of the gross misunderstanding
that lynxcgi, lynxprog and lynxexec are crutches of some kind.  They
aren't, and it's truly the other way around.  MSIE and WORD can't touch a
candle to Lynx because they don't have them.

> & here as elsewhere Lynx has to accept the bumps in the e-highway
                      ^^^^
I don't accept that.  Your name should be there.

    Start with basics.  Here is a script that just gives a bare bones
    message, i.e., feeds Lynx an html document:
                #!/bin/csh -f
                echo "Content-type: text/html"
                echo ""
                echo "<html><head><title>CGI test</title></head><body>"
                echo "<h1>Good morning\!</h1></body></html>"
    BEFORE attempting to use this _or any_ script or program in a cgi,
    debug it.  Say you named the file "echotest.ch".  Enter "./echotest.ch"
    at the prompt, and you should get as output the content between the
    quotes.  If you don't, the problem is with your script, not Lynx (*)

    Didn't work?  Did you remember to change the permission: % chmod 755?
    Is the path to the script complete and correct?  Is quoting done
    properly; did you escape the "!"?  Is there really a "/bin/csh"?

    Once the script itself is working, just put a link in some html page,
    e.g., a bookmark page:
        lynxcgi://home/lamatia/.lynx/lynxcgi/echotest.ch
    Using a lynx compiled with the configure option "--enable-cgi-links",
    just hit return on that link, and you'll get the display:
                                                                       CGI test

                                 Good morning!
    No need, and preferred if you DON'T, edit userdefs.h or lynx.cfg.

    Simply replace "echotest.ch" with any _working_ cgi.  It can be a shell
    script of complexity limited only by the physical limits of your machine.
    Compile a program you've written in c for even greater speed and power.

If you don't bother to get lynxcgi working, don't expect much sympathy from
me about lynx can't do this or that.

(*)  Isn't Lynx caching lynxcgis?  Since lynxcgis are by definition
local files, why in the world do they need to be cached?  I'd prefer that
Lynx not cache them, i.e., I could edit a lynxcgi in another screen unknown
to Lynx, and hit return on the link to reflect changes made, rather than
having to remember to hit "x".  (Or is this a faulty interpretation of
what lynxcgi should be doing?)

__Henry
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