> >You can't fix the browsers, because we don't have the source for important > >browsers like netscape. > > You mean the Debian Project caving in and changing its standards because > some non free product cannot be changed? Where is our commitment to free > software?
We shouldn't be changing the way browsers work.
Most browsers follow the HTTP/1.0 or 1.1 standard - including Netscape -
and I don't think it's smart to develop a "debian-specific" HTTP
protocol extension -- that's what you are suggesting, in essence.
(or maybe you just mean modifying the behaviour on file:/ URL's - I
guess there isn't really a defined standard protocol for handling
that sort of thing - it's highly browser dependent. We shouldn't
be using that feature if it's so undefined - maybe you want to draft
an RFC or a W3C standard? )
I really only see two possible outcomes to this debate:
1) Store HTML files uncompressed and don't munge the links
- all web browsers will work, no web server required
- wasteful of disk space (particularily for large
documentation packages, like the Java JDK docs,
or info-style "books") - note that these types of
documents tend to be monolithic, so they could be
put into separate optional documentation packages
- the system administrator could use a compressed
filesystem like e2compr to conserve disk space
2) Store HTML files compressed and munge the links with a tool
like fixhrefgz
- Lynx and Netscape work with no web server required (I think)
- other web browsers will work, if they use a web server
such as boa, or a web server and dwww
- currently, at least on my system, not a single documentation
package with .html.gz files has had the links fixed so that
it works when browsing directly from the filesystem (and I
maintain two of those packages, oops - even worse the jdk1.1
docs have compressed and uncompressed files - arrrgh)
- it's extra work for the developers, and error prone too
- I think Lars was advocating this, and I was too
Christoph seems to be advocating:
3) Store HTML files compressed, and don't munge the links
- Lynx (and others) might work without a web server if they
were modified
- Netscape wouldn't work without a web server
- other web browsers will work, if they use a web server
such as boa, or a web server and dwww
I was advocating solution #2 - but after looking at the current
state of the documentation - I think I'm going to switch to solution #1
- storing uncompressed HTML files. We're not really talking about
a large amount of disk space on the base system, unless the user
installs documentation packages such as the Java JDK docs. Plus -
hard disks are cheap - I just bought a 5GB drive for $600 CDN. And
dwww will probably evolve to make it easy to view the documentation
that is installed on a remote system (on the Internet or via an
Intranet). Plus, finally, it's the simplest solution.
Cheers,
- Jim
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