Re: lynx-dev slang 1.4 officially released (fwd)

[Ismael Cordeiro]

On Tue, Jan 11, 2000 at 04:10:07PM -0600, Klaus Weide wrote:

> > > 2) Why is this a problem?  It is intentional behavior, apparently.
> > >    It has been present since colors with slang were first added to lynx.
> > 
> > I don't remember if it was present since the beginning
> 
> It was, from the very beginning of color support in Lynx, around 2.5.

I began using colors in lynx in January 1998, when I compiled lynx with slang
(1.0.2) for the first time.

> > but I reported it last november.
> 
> Had you not used slang color, in an environment that does show underlining,
> before?

I hadn't noticed it before because I've always found underline "hard" on the
screen and I used to use us=\E[36m as the underline capability in my termcap
instead of us=\E[4m. When I began to compile lynx with ncurses I decided to
use the correct one and it was when I noticed the underline problem.

> > Anyway, I can't believe it's intentional. It makes the display "heavy".
> > For example, compare the document at
> > 
> > http://earthspace.net/The_sky/sky_top.html
> > 
> > using lynx/ncurses and lynx/slang and see which one is "lighter", easier
> > to read.
> 
> The page has *everything* within emphasis tags (<B> or <I> or even both).
> No surprise it doesn't look light.

That's why I've chosen it as the test page for the underline problem.

> You'd think astronomers understand about optical pollution...

Talking about pollution, another page, "lighter" than the earthspace one,
that looks better with lynx/slang than with lynx/ncurses because of the
underline problem is:

http://weather.ec.gc.ca/forecast/yul.html

> > Even if it was intentional, it's a mistake and should be corrected.
> 
> I still tend to think it should be left alone.

I don't think so. I think it should be corrected.

> I got used to it.

Well, we get used to a lot of things usually because we can't correct the
problem or because we're lazy. As you say, not a good argument.

> Not that it's terribly togical.

It's not togical nor logical <grim>. The idea behind the use of colors is
_replacing_ underline, standout, reverse, etc. for better readability.

> Not that it's a good argument, but your one-page "it's lighter" isn't
> either.

Then what would be a good argument? If I knew how I would have already
corrected the problem. I got used to it but when I saw that the problem was
corrected in ncurses I realized that it could also be in slang.

Ismael
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