Well, I am still in favor of keeping dtmail. Having our own email client is
still better than a few desktop environments which have none at all, even if it
needs a little modernization. I do not want to rip things out unless absolutely
necessary. I will first see how feasible it is to include all programs into one
source via ifdefs, and then transition into a single binary with runtime flags
for each stage.
Thank you for your time,
-Chase
On Sunday, November 30th, 2025 at 5:37 PM, Jon Trulson <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 11/29/25 10:34, Chase via cdesktopenv-devel wrote:
>
>> From my study of the code, htag2 under dthelp/parser/pass2 is simply a newer
>> version of htag1 and ctag1 as they share 90% of the same code with pass2
>> having newer SCCS file dates. Also unlike some of the other parsers we have
>> had like sgml to man which has been packaged separately by distributions, no
>> one is using these old parsers. We don't use them anywhere either. I think
>> there is a bigger case to stop building and distributing these old parsers
>> than there was even with the font editor programs, at least those were
>> graphical and built parts of CDE. htag1 and ctag1 do nothing. I am always
>> hesitant to remove historical programs from CDE, but I truly feel these
>> programs serve no purpose anymore. I propose we stop building and
>> distributing them, and leave their inclusion optional to the user.
>
> Well dtmail is probably one that should be removed as well as it does not
> support "modern" things, like "security" :)
>
> But - these parsers are used for producing the help system. I've proposed
> getting rid of that in favor of just producing HTML (if possible) and using a
> local browser.
>
> The format it uses is SDL - which apparently some company licensed and still
> sells, though a different version that's what incorporated in CDE - at least
> when I looked at this some years ago.
>
> The idea was that people might ship applications, and they would want to also
> ship help files, and these are used to do that. I believe they are still used
> to produce CDE's own help files. Haven't looked at that stuff in while - but
> if they can be eliminated w/o breaking help generation, I'm fine with that.
>
> Better if dthelp and friends could be removed altogether with something more
> modern, like HTML/browser :)
>
> -jon
>
>> Thank you for your time,
>> -Chase
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> [email protected]
>>
>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/cdesktopenv-devel
>
> --
> Jon Trulson
>
> "The less you know, the more you believe."
> -- Bono
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