Message-ID: <RrMmvCAYwcy2EwwS@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 19:50:48 +0000
To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
From: Dave Bird <dave AT xemu DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
Subject: Re: DJGPPFAQ.HTML, usability problems.
References: <sRbJRLAGPGy2Ew0R AT xemu DOT demon DOT co DOT uk>
 <Pine DOT SUN DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 990216094047 DOT 14991E-100000 AT is>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.990216094047.14991E-100000@is>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Turnpike (32) Version 4.01  <dQumtnY$x4rJ2u5tL5fS$n2vuP>
Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

In article <Pine DOT SUN DOT 3 DOT 91 DOT 990216094047 DOT 14991E-100000 AT is>, Eli Zaretskii
<eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il> writes

 You do an absolutely brilliant FAQ, and I'm not trying to 
 make your life harder.
>
>On Mon, 15 Feb 1999, Dave Bird wrote:
>
>>  By the time I hit "if you are in a hurry" (I was) I hit a
>>  very buggy bit.
>
>Thanks for your comments.  I will save them and try to correct them
>when I release the next version of the FAQ.  However, I'm afraid that
>I cannot do much about most of what you write, since I cannot work
>around every bug in every browser out there.  I test the FAQ with
>several versions of several browsers available to me, but I cannot
>test them all, and I cannot track the bugs the new releases introduce
>every month in their constant race to put out newer and buggier
>versions.

 Entirely appreciated.  Your HTML is a great deal more standard
 than my web-page, which is on a one-browser-and-hope basis.

>
>>  The link to "Table of Contents" is actually to "Top" -- way
>>  above the table of contents.
>
>I use Texinfo to generate the FAQ in all formats.  Until now, Texinfo
>didn't support links to something that isn't a node, and most Web
>browsers aren't smart enough to find the string that is part of the
>link text, like Info does, and instead land you at the beginning of
>the node, which is useless in many cases.
>
>The next version of Texinfo will support links to anchors that I can
>put anywhere, so I will be able to handle this issue more
>intelligently.

 OK.
>
>>  Additionally, the HTML source
>>  uses enormously wide lines which is OK if it 100% works and
>>  users never need to view source, but....
>
>..but what?  Why is the appearence of the HTML source important?  The
>FAQ source explicitly says at the beginning NOT to look at it, as it
>is ugly.

 If a link fails to link, the lusers are likely to view the source
 to find out what's happening (whether or not they're supposed to).
>
>The are good technical reason for this ugliness which I won't go
>into.  If you are intersted, download the FAQ sources (faq211s.zip)
>and look at the process the HTML output is generated.
>
>>  The links to "Program Index" and "Topic Index" are funny.
>>  They don't work in Netscape4; I don't think it likes spaces
>>  in names.
>
>Netscape 3 doesn't have any problems with the indices.  I suggest to
>downgrade.

 This is going to be fun as I have to shut down and enter an
 alternative boot partition. OK.  My main partition has a copy
 of Netscape Navigator 4.04, won't link on those two names.
 Djgpp partition has netscape 3, it links on them.  

 I don't know why netscape have decided to make your life harder
 by changing the rules for version 4; I'll use version 3.


>
>(The problems with spaces in link names is very hard to solve with
>present tools; the next version of Texinfo will solve this for me.)
>
>>  In Internet Exploder they work but Back doesn't
>>  work with local names, it goes "back" to the top of the file;
>
>I cannot reproduce this problem in IE.  What version did you use?

 It seems to be version 3.0 and I can't understand why it's a 
 very old version; I think perhaps it came with the newsreader
 installation CD.  Hmm. You're going to tell me this is fixed
 later, aren't you?  I'll just go back to sleep :-(.
 Sorry to have troubled you. 

 The problem that the new version of Netscape has lumbered you
 with re spaces in names is genuine enough;  although I appreciate
 what you say above about the technical difficulty of dealing
 with *their* incompatibilities between versions.



-- 
   ^-^-^-@@-^-;-^   http://www.xemu.demon.co.uk/
        (..)__u     news:alt.smoking.mooses

       happy as a clam at high tide -. <_" .-._.-.