options (was "Re: LYNX-DEV lynx2.7.1ac-0.20 available")

[Laura Eaves]

> Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 14:54:10 +0900 (JST)
> From: Nelson Henry Eric <address@hidden>
>...
> This is good to hear.  It means that a compromise isn't needed, i.e.
> everyone gets the best of all worlds (unless someone's ambitious enough
> to follow up on Bela's comments).
>
> > Anyway, in this case, I think the best thing is to choose something that
> > everyone can live with and hard code it.
>
> Agreed 100% !!!!  (Especially since it doesn't really seem like anyone's
> going to suffer.)  Simple and small is best!

Which reminds me of a different option that I've often wondered about.
SHOW_CURSOR is set to FALSE by default (at least according to the comments
in lynx.cfg).  It is configurable in userdefs.h, and lynx.cfg, and has a
command line toggle.  (Nothing in the options menu.)

All this option does is determine whether to put the cursor on the
current link, instead of at the lower right hand corner of the screen.

As far as I can tell, the only people who would care where the cursor is placed
are visually impaired users using software that tracks the cursor.  Yet the
default is FALSE -- so these users either need to use -show_cursor on the
command line or edit lynx.cfg or ask their ISP / sys admin to configure it
for them (if they know about the option to begin with).
If the user doesn't have shell access, there's no way to change this option.

And as long as I'm on the topic of default options, I think I complained once
before about the color options.  I use -color with slang.
This is also only configurable in lynx.cfg, and the default colors are strange.
(No one would use them, low vision or not.)  For one thing, it doesn't
display properly.  (Try it.  The default for normal text is black on white
background -- but spaces and blank lines still come out in black.)

Anyway, a user has to edit lynx.cfg in order to use the -color option.
And of course, if a user doesn't have shell access, he/she can't specify
a command line option or edit lynx.cfg.
(Also, there are no comments in lynx.cfg describing what the integer values
mean for the COLOR specs.)

Of course, putting this in the options menu would take some work, which I
haven't volunteered to do...:)
Klaus also seems to be looking at the RP styles stuff to replace the COLOR
options.  But the same would still apply to the style/color stuff.

Anyway, just thought I'd give my 2 cents...
Are there other options in lynx.cfg that people think should be
user-configurable?  As a general rule, I would think that options that
don't affect system security (such as display options) should be in the
options menu rather than lynx.cfg.

Again, just a thought.
Sorry about the length of this message...:)
--le

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