Re: lynx-dev Re: [2.8.1dev.22] patch0.3: UIPs, help files, --enable-gzip-help

[Serge MUNHOVEN]

On Fri, Aug 28, 1998 at 03:57:54PM +0100, Sinan Kaan Yerli wrote:
>  
>>> * All links in the help files are marked, i.e. each
>>>   'href="../_filename.html_#section"' is converted to
>>>   'href="../@address@hidden"'. This is useful if a help filename or
>>>   link has to be changed through out whole package.
>>> * 'lynx_help/help_files.txt' is introduced which contains
>>>   FILENAME=_filename.html_
>>>   definitions. Format and details are given in the file.
>>> * All help files are renamed from '.html' -> '.html_'
>>
>>Could you explain why do you need this three above?
>>Seems LYHelp.h may cover all the needs.
e>If someone want to translate help files why not to create a new help tree?
>>You can set 'helpfileXX' instead 'helpfile' variable for another tree.
>
>LYHelp.h is needed only for Lynx code, i.e. help defines used in UIPs.
>The following is from LYHelp.hin:
>#define OPTIONS_HELP            "keystrokes/@OPTION_HELP@"
>which will be converted to
>#define OPTIONS_HELP            "keystrokes/option_help.html.gz"
>when it is compled (i.e when src/makefile run). src/makefile will check
>whether --enable-gzip-help setted COMPRESS_PROG and COMPRESS_EXT
>and will create LYHelp.h
>
>The other side of the story is the help files. Within help files, other
>help files are referred. So if --enable-gzip-help is set then you have
>to change all these in all help files (i.e putting COMPRESS_EXT for
>every <FILENAME>.html). Thats why _all_ help files are marked. This is
>not related to LYHelp.h. Since this happens in installation phase, it is
>done in makefile.
>
>So, when we change the links to invalid ones then we had to change the
>filenames to something else: '.html_' (I will change this to '.in').

Greetings

I am quite new to this list (though not to lynx) and have been following this
thread for a while. Just a small question and my $0.02 suggestion :

Question: I didn't fully understand the use of the leading and trailing
underscores ('href="../_filename.html_#section"' and '.html_'). Could someone
clarify ?

Suggestion: why not leave the help tree and links into it alone, except for
optional compression of the actual files ? Instead one could have lynx guess
alternate extensions when unable to access a *local* file (any, not only
helpfiles) and handle compression automagically via mime. For example when
failing to access

   file://localhost/usr/local/lib/lynx_help/lynx_url_support.html#http

lynx would try in turn to access

   file://localhost/usr/local/lib/lynx_help/lynx_url_support.html.gz#http
   file://localhost/usr/local/lib/lynx_help/lynx_url_support.html.bz2#http
   ...

e.g. with a configuration variable similar to URL_DOMAIN_SUFFIXES

   LOCAL_EXTENSIONS:.gz,.bz2

I don't know how DOS-lynx handles gzipped files though. Perhaps one would have
to *replace* the '.html' extension of the link by a guessed one rather than
unix'ishly *appending* another bit that DOS will drop anyway (e.g. if '.html'
cut down to '.htm' under DOS fails, try '.htz' supposing mime knows what it is
about).

I don't know if this is workable, but it would let you leave the help tree
alone and allow policy changes (zipping local files) without having to change
links to them, or even rebuild lynx (in the particular case of the helpfiles).

Thinking about other possible failures: accessing test.html.gz#target works
fine, but an 'e' keystroke lets you edit the compressed file. Bad idea.

 - Serge