Re: lynx-dev Lynx assistance request

[David Woolley]

> The message below from "Amit R." <address@hidden>

> >I want to access a page which is having a REFRESH TAG in it.

Most people mean element when they say tag; in this case it isn't
even an element, it's a meta element of type http-equiv for a 
non-standarised== refresh HTTP header.  GUI Browsers that understand
Refresh will accept it as a real HTTP header, allowing GIFs to
refresh.

> >
> >Lynx will give a hyperlink which i have to hit to go to the page. It
> >doesnt go automatically like Netscape or IE.
> >

This is a policy decision, and in line with the World Wide Web
Consortium's++ Web Contents Accessibility Guidelines.##  Refresh is used
for slide shows, the degenerate case of a splash screen (considered by
many a bad idea) to home page transition, and instead of doing redirects
properly.  In the case of transitions, the argument is that only the
user knows when they have finished reading the content of the page.
Netscape refer to Refresh as push technology, because the aim is for
the author to push information at you, rather than let you control it.

Redirects should be done with HTTP, not "push" technology (commercial
sites use Refresh through ignorance and amateur sites use it through
ignorance, copying commercial sites, and because few cheap web hosting
services allow redirection to be configured properly).  Refresh redirects
break the browser back button, as the page refreshes forwards again as
soon as you hit back.

Please subscribe to the list, as people easily forget to CC people off
the list.

++ The people that specify standard HTML reccommendations.

## User agents conforming to the guidelines (at a particular level) 
should give the user the option of disabling mechanisms like refresh,
if they implement them.

== Refresh is *not* part of the HTML standard, although it is mentioned
in an informative section in the current standard.


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