Re: LYNX-DEV agent string

[Foteos Macrides]

Jonathan Sergent <address@hidden> wrote:
>In message <address@hidden>, Laura Eaves writes:
> ] Is there a reason that the agent string is not saved in .lynxrc?
> ] Since it is alterable via the options menu, why not also save it
> ] to .lynxrc.  This would preserve it between sessions and would
> ] also make it easier to edit.
>
>I think the idea was to discourage people from unnecessarily
>misrepresenting their browser.  I remember hearing that Netscape Corp.
>had made some not-so-nice legal statements related to people making 
>their browser say it was Mozilla.
>
>I think the current behavoir is better.  Changing the user agent should
>be a workaround at best.  People who write this code that thinks that
>Lynx can't view this or that should be informed that it can.  You 
>can change user-agent as a workaround, but leaving it permanently mis-
>represented seems like quite a poor idea to me.

        This is discussed in the online 'h'elp, and I invite Laura
to read what's said there.  The statusline message that's issued whenever
the User-Agent string is changed to one which does not include "Lynx"
(case-insensitive) also is intended to alert the user about the matter
(within the constraints of a limited-length, single statusline string :).

        This is an issue like SSL support.  Whatever you one may personally
think about the merits of the laws and likelihood that test cases would
hold up in court, what's being done now is as far as is reasonable for
the developers to go without risking becoming a test case, with associated
legal costs no matter what the court ultimately decided.

        Lynx is available with sources (expect for one rogue OS/2 port)
and anyone can change the code, together with accepting legal culpability
for the change.

                                Fote

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 Foteos Macrides            Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research
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