A vote for BOTH userdefs.h and lynx.cfg [was Re: LYNX-DEV help: finally!]

[Nelson Henry Eric]

> > I personally don't touch userdefs.h at all.  Essentially everything that
> > is in there that is not a security option is configurable at runtime with
> > lynx.cfg, or at least that was the design principle.
> I don't touch it either (which is why I have not closely read the comments
> there (all right: CAPITALS SHOULD MAKE IT NOTICEABLE ;-)

I feel a wind saying do away with userdefs.h, so just in case, I put in
a strong vote to NOT do away with the POSSIBILITY of making all defines
in userdefs.h.  Runtime configuration is fine, but I sure wouldn't want
it so a person HAD to do it that way.  It seems to me runtime configuration
should only be used for overriding the compiled in configuration.

Personally (that's the point, everyone has their own way of doing things),
I make all changes necessary that I can possibly make in userdefs.h.  I do
this not to harangue my users; quite the opposite, it is to give a working
default to them until they have had time to learn Lynx.  It gives them a
"sane" state so to speak.  Things like the following often have desirable
defaults on a system, that many users would rather not be bothered with:
 
TELNET_COMMAND TN3270_COMMAND RLOGIN_COMMAND XLOADIMAGE_COMMAND HELPFILE
DEFAULT_INDEX_FILE LYNX_HOST_NAME LOCAL_DOMAIN CHARACTER_SET PREFERRED_LANGUAGE
PREFERRED_CHARSET MULTI_BOOKMARK_SUPPORT URL_DOMAIN_PREFIXES
URL_DOMAIN_SUFFIXES "LYMessages_ja.h" ZIP_PATH

If you have 100 users who all have to define every one of these, it seems
very inefficient to me.  It means that most of them are going to have an
80kB lynx.cfg file when they could be using a 5-6kB pre-configured lynx.cfg
file that has been carefully edited to allow them to redefine anything that
would have to do with personal preference.  (If my users start fooling around
with the domain name and paths to various executables, they only cause
trouble for themselves, and me.)

If I've misunderstood intentions again, sorry.

__Henry