LYNX-DEV UNIXish and DOSish software

[Michael Sokolov]

   One person has asked me privately why don't I make it easier to port
UNIX software to DOS by writing a UNIX-compatible ANSI.SYS and letting
people use unmodified UNIX curses, slang, etc. I find this question
important enough to address it on the list.
   
   The answer is: No. Making DOS look UNIXish is the opposite of what I
plan to do. I believe that DOS users want DOS, not UNIX. (This has nothing
to do with one system being better than the other. I use both all the time,
I like them both a lot, and each has its own merits. However, if an app is
written for some OS, it should match that OS in spirit.) My DOS version of
Lynx will have a 100% DOS look and feel. It won't require setting UNIXish
environment variables like HOME, it will create text files in the CP/M &
DOS format rather than in the UNIX format, it will use COPY rather than cp,
etc. I know that this is VERY subjective. However, please honor one
request. Don't send flames about this to the list or to me. Send them to
/dev/null or to NUL instead.
   
   As for curses, I plan to write a library that would look exactly like
BSD curses to the app but instead of picking escape sequences from termcap
and sending them to stdout would access the screen directly.
   
   Sincerely,
   Michael Sokolov
   Phone: 440-449-0299
   ARPA Internet SMTP mail: address@hidden