Re: LYNX-DEV future of -book command line control

[Foteos Macrides]

Al Gilman <address@hidden> wrote:
>  From: "Hiram Lester, Jr." <address@hidden>
>
>  On Sun, 8 Dec 1996, Foteos Macrides wrote:
>  
>  >    I use -book regularly, and suggest that you spend a bit more time
>  > understanding how the multibookmark file support works, and why it's that
>  > way.
>  
>  I also use -book regularly when I know I want to start up on a bookmark
>  page or if I'm having problems connecting to the default home defined in
>  lynx.cfg.  Instead of advocating it's removal, it might be nice to extend
>  it somewhat to allow specifying WHICH bookmark file to show... '-book'
>  alone would still prompt, '-book=c' would bring up bookmark file c... What
>  say ye? :)
>  
>The think I think we could prune away is the STARTFILE control in
>lynx.cfg.  Here's a way that might get more users using what Lynx
>can do for them: Introduce a RESTART_HERE verb that puts a hidden
>input in .lynxrc which has the effect of STARTFILE.  The
>RESTART_HERE is a keystroke command.  It uses the same
>document/link/cancel intermediate query as A)dd bookmark.
>
>One can then interactively change the start-page behavior of
>his/her personal Lynx, and it doesn't impact the O)ptions screen.
>
>[When I say .lynxrc has a hidden input, I mean that there is a
>field in the file that the program responds to, but it is not
>reflected in the O)ptions screen either by a display or a
>control.]

        The STARTFILE definition in lynx.cfg overrides that in userdefs.h,
and the WWW_HOME environment variable overrides that STARTFILE definition
in lynx.cfg, and the command line startfile, if present overrides any of
those.  I don't like the "hidden"  RESTART_HERE suggestion, 'cuz it changes
the logic in a way that would make Lynx all the more unmaintainable by
a group, because it has no basic rules/principles on how it works such
that new would-be developers could catch on quickly.

        I also don't see how your suggestion is fundamentally different
from a 'g'oto command, and the startfile (and homepage, if different) are
now entered as the first (and second) entry(ies) in the 'g'oto recall
buffer.  Perhaps there's something more you want to "restart", but haven't
spelled out.  The 'j'umps file can have a variety of URLs mapped to 
"shortcuts" (aliases mapped to a short string), so you could use that
for selecting them simply, without need to remember and enter any long
URLs, and you can use the 'j'ump's '?' command to get a listing of
the shortcuts, logically homologous to the multiple bookmark files
menu. 

                                Fote

=========================================================================
 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
 address@hidden         222 Maple Avenue, Shrewsbury, MA 01545
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