Re: LYNX-DEV Lynx and JavaScript -Reply

[Filip M Gieszczykiewicz]

You (Doug Lawson) wrote:
> > > I encourage the use of a javascript script in all pages created by people 
> > > on
> > > our web site. The script (as seen below [unless I forget and send this off
> > > without it]) automatically puts the last modified date on the page.
> 
> How silly!  The viewers of a web page want to know the last itme the 
> CONTENT was modified.  An automated script simply tells what time the 
> last correction was made.  If I modify a file to correct a typo, it gets 
> a new date, which is then completely meaningless from teh reader's point 
> of view. 

Greetings. And it's soo easy to ask users to include a valid date in a
custom comment line. I use:

<!-- TLJSETDATE 01/01/01 -->
and
<!-- TLJSETVERSION 1.01 -->

which is then picked out by a processing script and converted to BOTH
a text render of that:

[Document Version: 1.01] [Last Updated: 01/01/01]

AND a copy of the HTML comment lines --- this allows me to later
use a simple directive such as:

<!-- TLJAUTOVER <filename> -->
and
<!-- TLJAUTODATE <filename> -->

to include them in a, say, Table of Contents. This is how I keep track
of all the files in the sci.electronics.repair FAQ. I get 200K hits/
month with no complaints :-) Processing of about 10MB of text takes
about 4 hours on a 486dx2/66 with 32 MB ram... FYI. The cross-ref
takes 10 hours, but that's another jihad ;-)

It gets even more fun with the directive:

<!-- TLJRESETDATE <filename> -->

which allows the current document to assert the date of the referenced
document. That's how a set of help pages can have the same version
as the main document to which they are connected. There are a few
more but I think it's pretty clear that it's rather trivial to have
full power of what you want to do with no need to copout and use Java-
script... I do all this with a shell+sed+awk 25KB monster script
that processes all my files. You could say I was up against a rock
and wrote my way out of a sticky situation... but it's not pretty
enough to distribute ... (my image would be shot forever)

I also have:

<!-- TLJAUTOSIZE <filename> --> # grabs size, in KB of file
<!-- TLJAUTOFDATE <filename> --># grabs cdate of file
<!-- TLJAUTOFTIME <filename> --># grabs ctime of file
<!-- TLJAUTOCHNG <filename> --> # references a changelog file and
                                  decides if it's newer than the
                                  entry for that file and inserts
                                  a "NEW!" :-)
<!-- many more... >

Take care.

+-->Filip "I'll buy a vowel" Gieszczykiewicz | E-mail: address@hidden
| http://www.paranoia.com/~filipg/ |SCI.ELECTRONICS.REPAIR FAQ + LOTS MORE!
| Enjoy your job, work within the law, make lots of money : Choose any two.
| I think for myself. I listen. I make decisions. I speak what I believe.
;
; To UNSUBSCRIBE:  Send a mail message to address@hidden
;                  with "unsubscribe lynx-dev" (without the
;                  quotation marks) on a line by itself.
;