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

[Vlad Harchev]

On Fri, 3 Dec 1999, Klaus Weide wrote:

> 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, ...

  It uses fork-and-pipe method for simulating threads. Is this method
unavailable on VMS?

> [...]
> > 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.

 Very original, but since text comes by lines then columns, it could be easy
to hack links to order links as lynx does.
 
>    Klaus
> 

 Best regards,
  -Vlad