Re: lynx-dev lynx2-7-2ms.zip update

[Michael Sokolov]

   Dear Fote,
   
   You wrote:
> Do you have a projection of when a binary will be available?
   
   I'm assuming that you mean the DOS binary, not the VAX Ultrix one,
right? Well, before I can make a binary I first need to port Lynx v2.7.2 to
DOS, and I haven't made any steps in this direction yet. Strictly speaking,
I need to complete my work on DOSSOCK and 32-bit True DPMI before I can
even start porting Lynx to this environment. Once these two cornerstones
are in place, the Lynx-specific part should be very easy. Therefore, the
success and timing of Lynx for DOS depend almost entirely on the success
and timing of DOSSOCK and 32-bit True DPMI. I AM working on these two
areas, but I cannot concentrate on them 100%. My first and foremost
responsibility is to Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), where I am up
to my ears in building a new UNIX(R) system on VAXen (Harhan Project). On
top of all this I'm currently fighting a battle for the n-th time to
continue getting funding for this project (you have to realize that if I
get evicted from my apartment for nonpayment of rent there won't be any
binaries).
   
> Will the binary be useable with WIN95  homologously to
> Wayne's Borland-compiled binary and the MingW32 binary?
   
   Since Win95 contains DOS386, the reference implementation of True DPMI,
the Lynx executable will run beautifully under it. It will access the
network via DOSSOCK, so if you need it to use Win95's native networking
implementation, you'll need a DOSSOCK shim for Win95. I'll definitely
provide one, although I don't know yet whether it will access the Win16
WINSOCK DLL via an inter-VM communication mechanism or talk directly to the
VxDs used by this DLL itself (VIP.386, VTCP.386, etc.).
   
> Note that MSIE and Opera can't access your ftp server.   MSIE
> hangs, and Opera immediately issues a can't connect message.
> The MS standalone ftp does succeed, as do the two Lynx binaries.
   
   Hmm, this is interesting. My FTP server is the most "straight" and
classical one: a UNIX machine with FTP access enabled via the appropriate
line in /etc/inetd.conf and anonymous FTP enabled via the appropriate line
in /etc/passwd. I don't know what could be better. OTOH, the OS is Ultrix,
which diverges from Berkeley UNIX(R) at the level of 4.2BSD (the very first
ARPAnet-capable version of UNIX in history) and loses the significant
networking improvements of later versions of Berkeley UNIX(R) (primarily
4.3BSD and 4.3BSD-Tahoe). If/when I manage to get a copy of those tapes
Harhan's service should improve dramatically.
   
   (Oh, and I transfer files to and from my VAX via FTP all the time, so if
I ever had any problem I would have noticed that. I'm using the native ftp
utilities of many different UNIX flavors, as well as many different DOS and
Windows ports (including the MS one you mention), and all of them work just
fine. This is understandable, given that they all come from the original
BSD one.)
   
   Sincerely,
   Michael Sokolov
   Phone: 440-449-0299
   ARPA Internet SMTP mail: address@hidden