lynx-dev feature-idea: option to include Last-Modified: date in body or filename

[David Combs]

I bet lots of us use lynx to download faqs,
doc, man-pages, etc, etc, etc.

Often, I end up on a page of links on a
given subject, eg procmail, for which
there is a whole *tree* of links.

You see something that looks interesting,
but you remember that you've already
downloaded it maybe 12 or 18 months ago.

Now, what I need to know is whether the
version I'm linked to (in lynx) is *newer*
than the one already downloaded -- if it
is (and maybe also given that the possibly-new one
hasn't shrunk appreciably from the already-downloaded
one), then I want to download the "new" one, to
replace the "old" one.

So, I hit "]" and then "d" to see if there
is a last-modified date.

Now the question is: what is the last-modified
date on the already-downloaded one.

But there's no way to find that (without searching
through that one, looking for a "version" string,
which might not even be there).

Surely the "ls -l" date tells me very little,
except that it can be *no newer* than that
date -- lynx uses today's date when it
saves any page to a file.

---

There *could* be an option that P-rint looked
at when it copies the lynx-rendition (on-screen)
to a file, that just before doing that, it
would try doing that "]" and if there was
a last-modified date there, it (lynx, P-rint)
could either:

(1) Stuff that header-line (last-modified) into the
    body (extra top-line, I guess).  (Remember, this
    is an *option*!)

(2) Or, it could insert it into the filename,
    just before the extension-dot, like
    changing foo.txt to foo-LM3jan1999.txt
    (again, remember that this is an *option* -- it's
    *not* being crammed down users throats!)

Had that been in effect when downloading the
already-downloaded version, then you *would*
be able to tell if it had been updated since
being downloaded.

---

Please, regardless of how many screams of UGH!
AWFUL!, etc, do add this idea to the "maybe-to-do"
list.

Perhaps someday (long after lynx hopefully understands
javascript :-) doing heavy hacking will taking a
liking to this thing, and just go ahead and do it.


Thanks,

David


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