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Re: lynx-dev printer options (revised patch)


From: Nelson Henry Eric
Subject: Re: lynx-dev printer options (revised patch)
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 11:14:50 +0900 (JST)

> i dropped the stuff about double %s, since no-one knows what it means.

Philip, you take the responsibility of changing Lynx documentation,
no matter how bad we all know it is, MUCH too lightly.  I tossed the
gauntlet to you; and YOU seem to be the one who did not respond by
not picking it up.

Take a look at docs/CHANGES2.4, entry for 02-07-95:
* Fixed printer command handling to actually prompt for and use a second
  filename argument if two "%s" strings are in the command map. - FM

This tells you that you need to look at the lynx-dev archives for a few
hours, days or weeks (Yes, Fote was always that fast in responding.) prior
to the change to try to eke out what prompted him to make the change.  Oft
times, I must warn you, Fote made changes or corrections based on hints
he gleaned from users who didn't even know Lynx had a shortcoming.

It would behoove you to at least make an attempt to find what change was
made in the code because there is the possibility that Fote wrote a brief
comment.  You have hinted that you want to start coding (don't we all),
but the only way to start is to read it and attempt to understand it!

No, I am not going to tell you why there are 2 %s's, but I will give you
a hint to say that it is not just to make the file name "prettier".  That's
Fote's sarcasm coming through strong.  Sadly, it seems that he may have
been right "that no one will really understand anyway."  Lynx is a free
gift to us all.  Let's not forget that, and let's not forget our duty to
learn about Lynx.  Fote's greatest wish for us all was that we would all
become "power" users.  We can repay him, the original authors, and TD, KW,
DK, LP and countless others by at least making an effort.

Couple more hints: ever thought about writing your own program to process
Lynx's rendered output?  Or maybe even a simple pipe?  Or a shell script
of some kind?  Just think of what you could do very simply if you could
control what the name/extension of the file to be handled was.  Think of
what you couldn't do if the name of the file were fixed, and you had a
program which required a *.doc or *.txt extension, or acted differently
depending on the extension.

> ! #  <lines/page>    is an optional parameter for indicating the number of
> ! #                  lines per page for the printer.  Defaults to 66.  Used
> ! #                  for computing the approximate number of pages and
> ! #                  generating a statusline query of whether to proceed if
> ! #                  the document is longer than 4 printer pages.  Uses the
> ! #                  current screen length for the computation when the
> ! #                  built in "print to screen" option is selected.
>   #
> ! #  You must put the whole definition on one line.
> ! #
> ! #  If you must use a colon, precede it with a backslash!
> ! #
> ! #  If you have a very busy VMS print queue and Lynx deletes the temporary
> ! #  files before they have been queued, use the VMSPrint.com included in
> ! #  the distribution.

Personally, I find full stops (a period, whether complete sentence or not)
followed by a capital letter of the next sentence or fragment much easier
to read and comprehend than what you offer below.

> ! # <printer option>  TRUE : the printer will always be ENABLED;
> ! #                   FALSE : the printer will be DISABLED
> ! #                   when -noprint is given on the command-line
> ! #                   and for anonymous users (who are not allowed to print).
> ! # <lines/page>      (optional) the number of lines/page (default 66):
> ! #                   this is used to compute the approximate number of pages
> ! #                   and generates a status-line query whether to proceed
> ! #                   if the document is > 4 printer pages;
> ! #                   it uses current screen length for the computation
> ! #                   when `print to screen' is selected.
>   #
> ! # You must put the whole definition on one line:
> ! # if you use a colon, precede it with a backslash;
> ! # if you have a very busy VMS print queue
> ! # and Lynx deletes the temporary files before they have been queued,
> ! # use the VMSPrint.com included in the distribution.

Especially, the last five lines seem to run three very different subjects
into one sentence.

> ! and `Print to local printer attached to vt100'.

Do people like this?  In 4-5 days I will be sent off to the "hinterlands"
again, and will barely be able to keep up with the lynx-dev mailing list.
No time for downloading, compiling, coding, giving Philip a bad time, etc.

> ! `Print to local printer' prefixes the `Print to screen' routine<br>
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> ! with the VT100 standard `printer on' escape sequence and appends to it<br>
> ! the escape sequences for `form feed' and `printer off';<br>

Whoa, do we really want to say this?

> ! the 3rd & 4th options are not pre-defined for DOS/WINDOWS ports.
        ^^^^^^^^^
Was Leonid's opinion considered in your revision?
  
> ! In most configurations, all Lynx users (including anonymous users)<br>
       ^^^^                 ^^^                      ^
See some possible confusion cropping up.

> ! users with named accounts (or individuals using Lynx on a micro)<br>

Am I the only one who doesn't know what a "micro" is?

__Henry

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