$BROWSER

[Mathieu Roy <yeupou gnu org>]

Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org> a tapoté :

> On Thu, 27 Mar 2003, Mathieu Roy wrote:
>
> > > Yes, it's a good starting point.  If $BROWSER is set, it should be assumed
> > > to be correct.
> >
> > Unfortunately, KDE do not set it naturally and we cannot expect users
> > to add an "export BROWSER=konqueror" in their .xsession (or
> > assimiliated).
>
> I agreed with you, now you are disagreeing with me :-)
>
> I don't understand your point.  It's precisely because BROWSER is not set
> automatically, we can assume that if it's set, it has been set explicitly
> by the user.

In fact, we agree.

I was trying to point out the fact that when users set explicitely
their browser to konqueror (for instance with gnomecc) $BROWSER remain
unset, which in anomalous IMHO.
 
> > Maybe asking to KDE devs to set the BROWSER value at kdeinit would
> > be a good idea.
>
> Ask it if you want.  I don't think they will like this idea.  Make sure to
> do some research, in particular look at this page:
>
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/BROWSER/

Ok, I checked. 

It seems overcomplicated to me to define BROWSER as
        BROWSER="netscape -raise -remote \"openURL(%s,new-window)\":lynx"
while a simple
        BROWSER="mozilla" or BROWSER="galeon --new-window"
can work, as most recent browser understand a command like 
        $BROWSER $url/$path 

I've got EDITOR=emacs and it works ok everywhere (cvs log messages for
instance), no additionnal "%s" is required.
And apparently this %s complication does no longer bring real profit.

ESR wrote "We need %s because some popular browsers have
remote-invocation syntax that requires it" but today, in 2003, it's no
longer true (netscape 4.x is no longer popular; and
mozilla/konqueror/galeon/dillo/links/lynx works without).

Keep it simple :)

About the ability "to specify multiple browser commands so programs
obeying this convention can do the right thing in either X or console
environments", it's indeed a good idea.
But it also complicates the situation.

Ex: in my .emacs.el, I've got the following 

(setq browse-url-browser-function 'browse-url-generic
      browse-url-generic-program (getenv "BROWSER"))

With BROWSER=konqueror:links I guess it won't work. 

But this X:noX syntax is not required: if KDE define BROWSER=konqueror
at init, it's ok, X is started. 

So the ability to define multiple browser do not seems to me to be a
top requirement. If we keep the request simple, we have better chance
to see it implemented.

What do you think Pavel? If you agree, I'll ask KDE people to see if
they are willing to implement a simple BROWSER putenv() at kdeinit.


Note: I added esr in Cc: as he may be interested.

Regards,


-- 
Mathieu Roy
 
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