Re: lynx-dev Re: lynx hacking, stoppage of such

[Philip Webb]

990513 John Bley wrote: 
> I've been using lynx as a testing ground for improving my toolbox.
> I've learned to use a variety of debuggers
> and static- and dynamic-analysis tools effectively,
> & how to make effective use of common text and compile tools, etc.
> After learning how quirky these tools can be
> and how much general project setup affects their use
> (I can find an error in a official, well-maintained GNU project
> within minutes of compiling it), I rather abandoned the naive dream
> of The One Big Error Finding Tool, preferring work on improving my toolbox.
> I hope to find the time this summer to write up a web page
> that explains some of my techniques.

that would undoubtedly be a great help to many people, not only lynx-dev.
 
> I've been rather fortunate in that there were many crufty bits in Lynx 
> that needed some fresh eyeballs.  I guess the best lesson I've learned is 
> that if you find an error in one place, hack up a quick grep
> for the same kind of thing and run it on the whole tree
> it's quite likely somebody made the same mistake elsewhere,
> either because it was the same person or because of cut-n-paste coding.
 
there seems to have been a lot of quick'n'dirty coding in the early days,
probably because the Internet was evolving so fast
& because no-one back then realised how successful Lynx would become
or how many people would go on developing it for how long.

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