Re: lynx-dev re COPYHEADER COPYING

[Henry Nelson]

> |  IMO it's easy to do this - we can copy those 2 files uncompressed
> | unconditionally (it's GPL - it gives us so much), without any .html 
> suffixes.
> | This can be done by modifying toplevel makefile.in:install-help - so no sed
> | rules are to be fixed, those two COPY* files needn't be moved to
> | distribution's /lynx_help, help_files.txt needn't be modified...

Absolutely, especially the GPL (see below for possible alternative for
COPYHEADER).

This, IMO, is the "correct" solution, and at the same time restores the
original configuration to the letter.  (It might be nice to gzip the GPL
as it is a fair sized file, but it hardly seems worth fooling with all
that sed stuff if no one is willing or able to maintain it _easily_.)

Probably, all of this is in place, anyway.  It has just been lost or
misplaced.

> We have a good solution now ... using links to the authoring site's
> copy of the documents.

I do not agree it is a good solution because 1) the link will forever
have to be verified, 2) the version of the GPL might be different from
the one Lynx was originally licensed under, and 3) it means that for the
help-file set to be complete a connection has to be made to the internet.
The whole purpose of providing an easy installation target is to avoid
these problems.

> the lynx_help install directory, and bloating the install size by an
> additional ~19k (or ~7.5k, gzip'd), *especially* since these docs are
> meaningless to most lynx *users* (as opposed to lynx *installers*, who

This is where I have the problem: it (GPL) SHOULD be VERY meaningful to
ALL Lynx *users* (in addition to Lynx *installers*).  I really think
that file should be instantly available to all users, especially new users
to give them a gut feeling for what freeware is all about.

> I'm a bit surprised at Henry's comments, since he's usually critical of
> *anything* that increases the bloat-factor ... :-) ...

There are other places (/po, /intl, proposed /lynx_cfg)) which need much
more attention!  BUT :-) :-) :-), it's true I've never much cared for the
"COPYHEADER" file.  I would like to see it inserted in it's entirety either
into "README" (and remove references to it from the help file set) or into
"about_lynx.html" as a <blockquote>.  If people express a desire to have
this done (say which file), I probably could do it before the release.

__Henry