Re: lynx-dev Re: lynx should respect LANG

[Atsuhito Kohda]

From: Henry Nelson <address@hidden>
Subject: Re: lynx-dev Re: lynx should respect LANG
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 11:31:35 +0900 (JST)

> > It will be sufficient for me to modify userdefs.h appropriately 
> > for Japanese users and to create lynx-ja package.
> 
> There is no need to touch userdefs.h at all just "for Japanese users."

Although you might ignore a very little effort to set up lynx.cfg 
or ~/.lynxrc but it is not true that there is no need to touch 
userdefs.h at all just "for Japanese users."

> > better if one lynx package can work well for peoples
> > all over the world as far as we can.
> 
> It does AS IS, and always has.  Even Lynx2.3 works satisfactorily
> for Japanese; Lynx2.4 will work WITHOUT ANY settings whatsoever.
> It was only a brief period of the early Lynx2.5 series that Japanese
> users were inconvenienced in any way.  After the total integration
> of the Asada modifications, no Japanese has had to struggle in the
> slightest.

No, you missed something.

- Japanese input did not work correctly with Lynx2.8.2.
  It is Lynx2.8.3 that one can input Japanese or delete
  Japanese character correctly.

- Japanese messages could not be displayed with Lynx2.8.1
  It is Lynx2.8.2 that uses *.po files.  And, yes, I put
  your ja.po into source tree and used it with Lynx2.8.2 ;-)
  (And I used LYMessages_ja.h of Asada-san with Lynx2.8.1)

So it is Lynx2.8.3 that one can say that Lynx works satisfactorily
for Japanese.

> OSs?  On some systems I can use either EUC or SJIS at will, and set it
> to one or the other or neither depending on what machine I login from.
> The lynx binary is exactly the same no matter what $LANG is.

I think it is a problem in which a user must set up by hand
in any way.  And please think of novice users.

> What about X?  Isn't it a matter of having the appropriate fonts
> available and not what $LANG is?

Well, is this right?  I think that $LANG should be set even if
the appropriate fonts are available.

> I agree.  If a user can't set $LANG, then he/she's got some studying to
> do.  If a user can set $LANG, then setting up Lynx will be a piece of cake.

I think no.  Setting up Lynx is not a piece of cake as you guess.
Even recently there are mails asking "Lynx does not display
Japanese correctly, please tell me how to do" in a mailing list
of Debian JP.  (Of cource my answer is "Install lynx-ja")

> I don't understand the problems you are having, but I think creating a
> wrapper for Lynx is the best way to get good coordination between
> environment variables, lynx binary, and configuration files.  Log into
> some of the public-access Lynxes to get an idea of the possibilities.

I hope you will understand what I want to say.  And it is true,
I think, that a wrapper is a good candidate but if it is possible
it is not bad that lynx binary can handle these problems in some
way.

Regards,                        2000.5.23

--
 Debian JP Developer - much more I18N of Debian
 Atsuhito Kohda <address@hidden>
 Department of Math., Tokushima Univ.

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