lynx-dev Re: pre.10 : Options Form/Menu

[Sinan Kaan Yerli]

On Sat, 17 Oct 1998, Ismael Cordeiro wrote:
>On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, Bela Lubkin wrote:
>[...]
>> But I think there must be a better approach.  Instead of committing
>> someone to maintain obsolete code forever, and committing the Lynx
>> binary and source to lug around duplicate, obsolete code forever; why
>> don't we try to understand *why* you find the new menu harder to use?

>Because it's easier and quicker to use the non-forms menu. For me the
>options are changes that you need and do during a session. The more
>permanent ones are done in lynx.cfg. For example, the option I change more
>often is the "FTP sort criteria" when I'm going to access an FTP site and I
>want to know the more recent files. With the non-forms menu I just press
>"o", press "f", cursor down  to "Date" (I still prefer the old way of
>pressing "space" for selecting), press "return", press "r" and it's
>done. fast and simple. With the forms menu I have to go to the second page,
>to cursor down to "FTP sort criteria", to press "return", to cursor down to
>"Accept Changes" and to press "return". Other options that I also use, and
>that are faster and easier with the non-forms menu, are "Searching type" and
>"verbose images".

OK Lets investigate:

Old style:      New style:
o               o
f               <PgDown> -> <Down(s)> -> <return>
<Down(s)>       <Down(s)>
<return>        <return>
r               <CTRL_A> -> <return>

As you can see only changes are:
* locate the option (f)
* update the option (r)

So, a simple solution to this argument would be to implement the key map
of the non-form-options-page in the _new_ form-options-page. Ismael?

It took many development versions to _improve_ and develop this new
option page. Even though new style increased the flexiability, as you
said efficiency might need some more attention. So, can you come up with
an idea on how to implement this key map (or equivalent piece of
programme) to the _new_ options page?


In general:
This whole argument is also related to Bela's earlier option page
standardisation message (I also wrote one two months ago but it didn't
get much attention). I will add a small note to Bela's message:
        Like 'g)oto' we need an easier way to access the options.
        The most probable one is vi's command line key ':'. So for
        Ismael's ftp-sort we could do:
                :set ftp-sort=date<return>
        This also gives us endless working space for future options and
        it would be much simplier than using the options page for small
        changes. If this is supported with 'command-line-completion'
        (dreams, dreams, dreams :-)) then the future of Lynx development
        would be really bright:
                :set ftp-sort=date; visited ftp:<tab>
                                            ftp://some.site/<tab>
                                            ftp://some.site/dir1/<return>
                :bookmark <tab>
                :download link=junk.html
                :download page=junk.html
                :print address@hidden


Sinan.