Re: lynx-dev (Forward) modify to draw table

[Philip Webb]

990705 Bernard Liang wrote:
> I have been assigned to extend lynx to be able to draw table.

that's quite a big job: if this is a student assignment, get it changed.

> Having downloaded the source code, I find that there is no "main ()"
> anywhere in the {.c, .h} files, and am failing to compile the latest and
> the previous versions under borland4.5C++
> Q1) I haven't missed out any source code, have I?

get the latest 2-8-2 from  www.slcc.edu/lynx/release/ ;
 grep 'main'  should get you started;
NB there's a lot of program files under the  WWW  subdirectory.

> Q2) Do you have any advice on how to study the 2000 pages of code?

patience? fortitude? prayer?  we all find it intimidating (smile).
if you have a specific point of inquiry, you may get a bit of help,
but everyone is a volunteer & the rule tends to be `do it yourself'.

> Q3) Please can you give me some hint on the user-displaying mechanism?

do you mean rendering the HTML (etc) source into the screen display?
that's a very complex business: again focus on some detail.

> Q4) Please can you give me some advice on how to draw tables?
> I am worried there actually isn't a parser
> that can read something like <TD COLSPAN=2>

Lynx doesn't attempt to parse tables as such,
merely to list their contents on the screen.
there has been much debate about how it might be done,
but so far no-one has offered patches to make it work.
if you can do so, your efforts will be greatly appreciated.

> The specification was to be able to draw out tables with boundaries
> using only ascii alphabets and special characters,
> but it seems to me that it is difficult enough already without boundaries!

quite correct!
 
do send further questions, if you have any,
but make sure they come to  address@hidden ,
where all the volunteers will see them.

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