Re: lynx-dev LYNX: the L-page: example of usefulness

[Chuck Martin]

On Wed, Feb 10, 1999 at 09:56:51AM -0800, David Combs wrote:
> Thanks for the very informative reply.

You're welcome.

> All is NOT lost -- but a lot is.

Well, I did a little more testing and studying the HTML source, and I
figured out some interesting things about what appears in the L page
and where it comes from.

First of all, there are three places the information in the L page
can come from.  The first is from the HREF attribute in an <A> tag.
This is the default if no more information is known, but is used only
as a last resort.

The second is from the title of the actual document, which is only
available if that document has been viewed already during the present
session.

The third is from the REL attribute of a <LINK> tag in the head of the
HTML.  This takes precedence over the URL from the HREF of any <A> tags,
but the actual title, if known, takes precedence over this, so the actual
priorities, in order from highest to lowest, are as follows:

  1. The title of the document if it's been visited.

  2. The REL attribute of the first <LINK> tag encountered which refers
     to the document.

  3. The HREF attribute of any <A> tag which refers to the document.

A little explanation of number 2 above is in order.  In the example we've
been discussing (the mutt online manual), if you look at the source HTML
for manual-4.html, you will find the following in the head of the document:

 <LINK HREF="manual-5.html" REL=next>
 <LINK HREF="manual-3.html" REL=previous>
 <LINK HREF="manual.html#toc4" REL=contents>

In manual-6.html, you will find the following:

 <LINK HREF="manual-7.html" REL=next>
 <LINK HREF="manual-5.html" REL=previous>
 <LINK HREF="manual.html#toc6" REL=contents>

Notice that both of these have a <LINK> which refers to manual-5.html.
The link in manual-4.html which refers to manual-5.html contains
REL=next, while the link in manual-6.html contains REL=previous.  If you
visit manual-4.html first, and then manual-6.html, the references to
manual-5.html in the L page will still refer to the document as next,
but if you visit manual-6.html first, they will refer to it as previous.
Of course, if you visit manual-5.html at any time, either of these will
be replaced by the actual title.

Unfortunately, if you visit the pages out of order, you can have multiple
pages listed in the L page as next, as well as multiple pages listed as
previous, which can be very confusing.  I think the REL attribute should
probably never be used in the L page.  If only the actual titles were
used, if known, and if not, the actual URL from the HREF attribute of
the <A> tags, this confusion could be eliminated completely.


As an aside, the REL attributes from the <LINK> tags in the head are
listed at the top of the document like this:

   #next previous contents

This is known as the "toolbar" (I didn't know that until I started
experimenting with these pages to figure out what was going on).  The #
at the beginning of the toolbar tells you that you can get to the toolbar
by typing "#" at any time, but since the toolbar is always at the top of
the page, this command seems to me to be redundant.  I think it would be
a great improvement if the # command would open a window containing the
toolbar without taking you to the beginning of the document, so you could,
for example, go back to the previous document or table of contents to
refer to something without losing your place in the current document,
and then come back and continue where you left off.  I know you can
do this from the history page, but the toolbar would seem to me to be
a little more convenient, especially since you may have jumped into a
series in the middle, and the previous document and table of contents
may not be in your history page.  Does anyone else agree?

Chuck