Re: lynx-dev Re: STARTFILE patch

[Leonid Pauzner]

13-Apr-99 09:58 Klaus Weide wrote:
> Commenting on patch that's now in 2.8.2dev.22:

> On Fri, 2 Apr 1999, Philip Webb wrote:

>> ! STARTFILE:http://lynx.browser.org/
>>
>>   # HELPFILE must be defined as a URL and must have a
>>   # complete path if local:
>> --- 33,54 ----
>>   #       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ or whatever is appropriate on your system
>>   #and now your own tweaks.
>>
>> + # STARTFILE is the default starting URL if none is specified
>> + #   on the command line or via a WWW_HOME environment variable;
>> + #   Lynx will refuse to start without a starting URL of some kind.
>> + # STARTFILE can be remote, e.g. http://www.w3.org/default.html ,
>> + #                or local, e.g. file://localhost/PATH_TO/FILENAME ,
>> + #           where PATH_TO is replaced with the complete path to FILENAME
>> + #           using Unix shell syntax and including the device on VMS.
>> + # The default offered for ordinary users is their current directory:
>> + STARTFILE:.

> This change flies in the face of what the documentation says, including the
> comments just above it.  "." is not a URL!

Right. I think the main point of that change was:
http://lynx.browser.org  often down or ping time very long
so another reasonable URL may be a good idea (though not so mnemonic).
Probably a HELPFILE (well, may be not a file but URL :)

BTW, Subir's page seems no more actively supported,
can be pointed to www.slcc.edu
or mirror at ftp.digital.com with its nice bandwidth.

> More generally, there are quite a few places
>   - in userdefs.h
>   - in lynx.cfg
>   - in ynx_url_support.html

> that say that something "must" be a URL.


# HELPFILE must be defined as a URL and must have a
# complete path if local:
# file://localhost/PATH_TO/lynx_help/lynx_help_main.html
#   Replace PATH_TO with the path to the lynx_help subdirectory
#   for this distribution (use SHELL syntax including the device
#   on VMS systems).
# The default HELPFILE is:
# http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/lynx_help/lynx_help_main.html
#   This should be changed to the local path.
#
HELPFILE:http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/lynx_help/lynx_help_main.html
#HELPFILE:file://localhost/PATH_TO/lynx_help/lynx_help_main.html