LYNX-DEV Re: chartrans

[Klaus Weide]

On Wed, 1 Oct 1997, Leonid Pauzner wrote to me:

> README.chartrans:
> 
> > Additions/changes to user interface:
> >
> >  - many new Display Character Sets are available on O)ptions screen.
> >    (also can now use arrow keys, HOME, END etc. for cycling through the 
> > list).
> >
> >  - new command line flags:
> >    -assume_charset=...  assume this as charset for documents that don't
> >                         specify a charset parameter in HTTP headers
> >    -assume_unknown_charset=...  in case a charset parameter is not 
> > recognized
> >    -assume_local_charset=... assume this as charset of local file: docs
> >    also available as ASSUME_CHARSET etc. in lynx.cfg
> 
> 
> Is it possible to add ASSUME_CHARSET to O)ptions screen
> since changing lynx.cfg may be restricted by sysadmin
> and command line flags not very convenient
> (especially if you want to change default during the lynx session) ?

It is possible and probably desirable, but I probably won't do it now for
the old reason: overcrowding of O)ptions screen...  If/when we do to a
FORM-based Options screen, OR someone integrates the FORM-based solution
from Chebucto Community Net (See lynx-dev message
   Date:   Wed, 27 Aug 1997 23:35:41 -0300
   From: David Trueman <address@hidden>),
OR someone does the squeezing-in required with the current Options screen,
that's different.

> >  - The "Raw" toggle (from -raw flag, '@' key, or Options screen)
> >    o  should work as before for CJK charsets,
> >    o  otherwise toggles the assumption "Default remote charset is same
> >       as Display Character Set" on or off.
> >       Toggling of the assumed charset is between Display Character Set and
> >       the specified ASSUME_CHARSET or, if they are the same, between the
> >       specified ASSUME_CHARSET and ISO-8859-1.
> >    o  The default for raw mode now depends on the Display Character Set as
> >       well as on the specified ASSUME_CHARSET value.
> >    (Try the "Transparent" Display Character Set for more "rawness".)
> >
> 
> Very clear!
>
> Need changing some docs witch discuss "raw 8-bit"
> in terms of "current character set"
> instead of `display charset', `remote document charset'
> and `default remote charset=assume_charset' as above.

Yes, those sections need to be reviewed.

> I mean lynx.cfg,
> http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/lynx_help/keystroke_commands/other_help.html
> http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/lynx_help/keystroke_commands/option_help.html
> http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/lynx_help/Lynx_users_guide.html

Those are for Lynx 2.7.1 (I think), there are already some (minor) changes
in the lynx_help pages from the devel code (online at
<URL:http://sol.slcc.edu/lynx/current/lynx2-7-1/lynx_help/> if you don't
have them).

> There is a strange behavior found in ac.49:
> I set display charset to cp866
> and look at local document which has META...=windows-1251:
> tuggling \ (html source) leave russian text the same,
> while for the document with META...=koi8-r
> tuggling \ give "7-bit approximation" !
> 
> Maybe this is corrected in newer versions, but they are not available
> for me as DOS binaries.

No, I don't think there have been relevant changes.
I think you have run into something else, not a difference between
windows-1251 and koi8-r.

If the "... ;charset=windows-windows-1251" is (also) found in the HTTP
header, it is always used.  The ']' key should show you the HTTP headers.

If a "charset" is only in a META tag, Lynx can only know about it if the
HTML is parsed and the META is interpreted.  Normally Lynx would forget
what it knows about a document when you switch to SOURCE with '\', since
it has to be reloaded, and then the normal ASSUME_* would be in effect.

As a partial workaround, there is some "remember the charset from the last
time" when '\' is used, but it is not complete.  It does not work if Lynx
_totally_ forgets about a loaded text before reloading, and whether that
happens depends on various things in the wwwlib mechanism which keeps
track of documents and links between them, and which didn't change from
previous versions.  Approximately, if there are links from other loaded
documents to the current one, then the "total forgetting" does not happen.
So if you have just followed a link to a HTML text, and then type '\',
Lynx should use the same charset; if you went to the current doc with 'g'
and there are no links to it from where you were before, or if it is the
startup (first) document, Lynx doesn't remember the previous charset.

Is this acceptable?

As a workaround, you could try to go to the text whose source you want to
see through a link; adding it to a bookmark file (maybe temporarily) and
then going from there should have this effect, also going through the
'V'isited Links Page (but not the History Page), also, if it is a local
file, going through a directory listing (but not if local dired is in
effect since there is some extra expiring going on - I think this caveat
doesn't apply for Lynx386 since dired is not compiled in (?)).


   Klaus


;
; To UNSUBSCRIBE:  Send a mail message to address@hidden
;                  with "unsubscribe lynx-dev" (without the
;                  quotation marks) on a line by itself.
;