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Re: [OFFTOPIC] Info files vs Man pages
- To: Joe Buck <jbuck at synopsys dot com>
- Subject: Re: [OFFTOPIC] Info files vs Man pages
- From: Per Bothner <bothner at cygnus dot com>
- Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 11:50:56 -0700
- cc: egcs at cygnus dot com
> Waste of time. Extend Lynx if necessary (Lynx is under the GPL).
OK, I wasn't sure about that.
> I can't think of anyone who prefers the standalone info browser
> to Lynx that has used both.
I have used both and prefer info, perhaps mainly because I use info a
lot more.
However, a few tweaks to lynx would help. Mainly, if it could be
more intelligent about the navigation, and recognize the various
<link> tags texi2html emits, I think it would be nicer. I do
like the "intelligent space" command of info mode, and
I would like that for lynx. Having that, plus searching,
would help convince peopel to switch. (A traditional info-compatible
user interface *option* would also help us old-time info users.)
> Millions of people use HTML tools; hardly anyone uses info tools.
> Given this, you don't bend the HTML tools to look like info tools;
> rather you make the info data accessible to the HTML users.
I think that is a bogus point - "hardly anyone" uses lynx,
compared to the millions who point-and-click. I think we
can tweak the lynx interface, adding the best features of info,
and come up with something quite nice.
> The only extension that people have been asking for is the ability to
> search across multiple files; it would be possible to come up a convention
> to use META tags for this purpose (to mark the URL corresponding to
> the next file).
Well, if you look at texi2html-generated html, you will find it does
emit navigation information in the links:
http://www.cygnus.com/~bothner/kawa/kawa_2.html:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<!-- This HTML file has been created by texi2html 1.54
from kawa.texi on 20 March 1998 -->
<TITLE>Kawa, the Java-based Scheme system - Features</TITLE>
<link href="kawa_3.html" rel=Next>
<link href="kawa_1.html" rel=Previous>
<link href="kawa_toc.html" rel=ToC>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<p>Go to the <A HREF="kawa_1.html">first</A>, <A HREF="kawa_1.html">previous</A>
, <A HREF="kawa_3.html">next</A>, <A HREF="kawa_11.html">last</A> section, <A HR
EF="kawa_toc.html">table of contents</A>.
<P><HR><P>
--Per Bothner
Cygnus Solutions bothner@cygnus.com http://www.cygnus.com/~bothner