Re: lynx-dev "display partial" implementation in 'links'

[Klaus Weide]

On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, Leonid Pauzner wrote:

> BTW, trying our competitor 'links' I was rather surprized:
> it has no 'z'ap key to interrupt extremely slow link, if happen.

I also compiled the "-current" code a few days ago.  I am rather
impressed. 
(The number of warnings didn't seem too bad - only two or three
kinds of them.  But I only used gcc's -Wall.)

> I was contacting the author (there is no documentation at the moment)
> and, victoria, there is no need for such key in 'links'!
> It starts a new thread for loading & parsing of new coming document
> so keys are always active. At any moment (such as DNS lookup, making HTTP
> connection, waiting for responce or partially loaded/displayed document)
> you may press "<-" and return to the previous document,
> so the thread will be finished in the background
> [unless you "Kill all background connections" explicitely].

Relying on threads of course means it can never be as portable as lynx.
Forget about a DOS port, a VMS port, ...

> Well, this is a new program written on scratch by a single person, there
> is absolutely no comments in the code... Unless bugs, the program runs
> very fast due to a number of inline's and even #define'ing the whole
> function as a new symbol. Every day a new [fixed] version upladed by the
> author so it will be portable enough soon.
> 
> It has DOS-like menu interface activated via ESC key, few hot keys
> utilized also. No "bookmarks"/"visited links" at the moment yet.
> "History" list is available in -current version only.
> 
> The quality of HTML parsing is questionable but seems not bad.
> Well, I found that table cells with href= are numbered this way
> (starting from the top screen line, selecting via down-arrow key):
> 
> xxx1    xxx4    xxx7
> xxx2    xxx5    etc.
> xxx3    xxx6

I found that a real pain to navigate, except perhaps with a mouse.
If you are on xxx1 and want to get to xxx7, you have to step through
all the others first.

Even with a mouse, there doesn't seem to be a way to select xxx7 without
activing it.  For example, if I'm just interested in leaning where that
link goes before deciding whether to follow it.

   Klaus