LYNX-DEV usefulness of [optional] STARTFILE

[Al Gilman]

  X-URL: http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/html/month0397/msg00403.html
     
     From: Nelson Henry Eric <address@hidden>
     If the STARTFILE defined in lynx.cfg (or userdefs.h) is not available,
     and no starting URL is given on the command line, Lynx dies.  Wouldn't
     it be nicer to keep Lynx alive, and offer the user a page saying that
     STARTFILE could not be accessed so please press `g' to enter a starting
     URL?
  
  From: Richard Levitte <address@hidden>
  Why not make one step less and throw up the prompt directly?
  
I find it convenient that Lynx remembers a default STARTFILE for me.

I believe it is also better to offer novices something on the starting
page as opposed to nothing, and that all the defaulting upstream
(by which I mean the inclusion of some definition of STARTFILE
in the compile, and in the distribution used for that compile) increases
the fraction of novices that see something as opposed to nothing.

On the other hand, the change Henry proposed would be an improvement.
I think that there has to be logic so that in the batch modes such as
'lynx -dump' and/or -source where the normal termination is "and exit"
that the program would still exit if it fails to retrieve the target.

If we add this behavior, I would suggest that the compile-time
STARTFILE default designation be optional, but be present in the
distributed userdefs.h .

--
Al Gilman
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