Re: lynx-dev Re: what to do about html help files.

[Doug Kaufman]

On Tue, 25 May 1999, Vlad Harchev wrote:

> ...
> we have to force like STARTFILE, so no documentation comments will be in the
> lynx.cfg. This will reduce distribution size and startup time.
>  Having documentation in html is equal to having docs in billions of
> renderings. Why should we maintain lynx.cfg comments that are only in one
> rendering (tho' maintaining comments is not techincally difficult)?

I think that this will make configuring lynx MUCH more difficult. Now,
the key documentation is next to the place where the setting is done.
While within the editor, appropriate choices can be made. If this
documentation is taken out of lynx.cfg and only available in html,
then for every question about a lynx.cfg setting, lynx will have to
be started to read the html (or read it raw in the editor or viewer).
Especially on initial setup of lynx, this creates a "catch 22", i.e.
you need lynx configured and running to read the file on how to do the
initial configuration.

Why is it good to have documentation in "billions of renderings"?
Plain text is still best read with a text viewer, not a html renderer
(at least as far as I am concerned).
                                Doug

__
Doug Kaufman
Internet: address@hidden (preferred)
          address@hidden