Package: lynx-cur
Version: 2.8.8dev.12-2
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch
The package description for lynx-cur is about a decade overdue for
some routine maintenance.
| Description: Text-mode WWW Browser with NLS support (development version)
Problems:
* There's no NON-development version for this to contrast with.
* DevRef recommends not capitalising the synopsis.
* There's even less reason for capitalising "Browser"!
* Why "WWW browser" rather than "web browser"?
* NLS is a (rather dated) abbreviation for National (or Native)
Language Support; so why is lynx-cur claiming to have National
Language Support support?
* In 1999 or so, NLS may have been the main selling point that made
lynx-cur superior to its competition; but in 2013, the
competing version no longer exists, and lacking NLS would be
enough to make a package RC-buggy. Leading with a feature
this antique is like labelling it as "largely Y2K compliant".
| Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users running
| cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices.
* Calling Lynx a full(y)-featured browser was justifiable in the
mid-nineties, but it lacks support even for HTML 3.2 features
like table layouts.
* Readers in 2013 don't need to be told that WWW stands for World
Wide Web.
* Long-winded: don't say it's for users running devices with these
kinds of display, just say it's for these kinds of display.
Judging by the man page, all the highly generalised technical stuff
about "cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices" seems to
have originally been phrased this way to lead into a mention of the
possibility of running Lynx in "vt100 emulators running on Windows
95/NT or Macintoshes". This is obviously cobwebby, and irrelevant to
Debian users, who only need to know that it's "non-graphical".
| It is very fast and easy to use. It will display HTML documents
| containing links to files residing on the local system,
* It may be very fast when compared to MS-IE, but according to the
comparisons I've seen it's more memory-hungry than rivals like
W3M and Links (though I suppose we could read it as "fast to
use", referring to the way it saves time by never bothering to
download stylesheets and banner-ads and JavaScript and so on).
* "Easy to use" is arguable, too - there must be a lot of users out
there who will spend thirty seconds mouse-clicking on it and
then uninstall it in frustration.
* You don't mean that it will display pages containing local links;
you mean that it will follow local links. But are there any
browsers that won't follow local links? Why put such an
underwhelming feature so near the top of the list?
| as well as files residing on remote systems running Gopher, HTTP, FTP,
| WAIS, and NNTP servers.
* Didn't WAIS support depend on a gateway that vanished ages ago? Or
is the Debian version compiled with --enable-wais? See:
http://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/lynx-dev/1998-01/msg00076.html
Is there even any way of testing this now that all the WAIS
servers are resting in peace?
* The user guide says it also supports telnet! But probably we
shouldn't encourage anybody to try that.
* What order are these in? They could at least be alphabetical.
* Why not just append the file:// protocol to this list?
| .
| This package contains a development version of lynx.
* This paragraph was originally intended to alert users to the fact
that a release-branch version was also available in Debian,
and that's not true any longer, so now it's just confusing.
* Given that this label ends up attached to the lynx-cur in Oldstable
(which isn't the version under active upstream development),
it would be more accurate to say that it's a version from the
upstream development branch of Lynx.
* Since we know that in practice the -cur branch is unfailingly good
enough to get into every Debian Stable release, the fact
upstream don't officially label it as a release candidate is
of no real significance to end users.
* * *
The question this description should be answering is "why should I
install this text-mode web browser instead of its competitors?", and
that's rather a hard one. But Wikipedia points out that Lynx is the
oldest web browser currently in general use and development; and it's
often used as a sort of default lowest-common-denominator browser for
portability testing. So maybe:
Description: classic non-graphical web browser
In continuous development since 1992, Lynx sets the standard for
text-mode web clients. It is fast and simple to use, with support for
browsing via FTP, Gopher, HTTP, HTTPS, NNTP, and the local file system.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 3.8-2-686-pae (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Versions of packages lynx-cur depends on:
ii libbsd0 0.4.2-1
ii libbz2-1.0 1.0.6-4
ii libc6 2.17-3
ii libgcrypt11 1.5.0-5
ii libgnutls26 2.12.20-6
ii libidn11 1.25-2
ii libncursesw5 5.9+20130504-1
ii libtinfo5 5.9+20130504-1
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.8.dfsg-1
Versions of packages lynx-cur recommends:
ii mime-support 3.54
lynx-cur suggests no packages.
-- debconf information excluded
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
diff -ru lynx-cur-2.8.8dev.15.pristine/debian/control lynx-cur-2.8.8dev.15/debian/control
--- lynx-cur-2.8.8dev.15.pristine/debian/control 2013-06-01 23:41:14.000000000 +0100
+++ lynx-cur-2.8.8dev.15/debian/control 2013-06-01 23:43:42.544035956 +0100
@@ -13,15 +13,10 @@
Provides: www-browser, news-reader
Conflicts: lynx (<< 2.8.7dev9-1.1), lynx-ssl, lynx-cur-wrapper (<< 2.8.8dev.8-2)
Recommends: mime-support
-Description: Text-mode WWW Browser with NLS support (development version)
- Lynx is a fully-featured World Wide Web (WWW) client for users running
- cursor-addressable, character-cell display devices.
- It is very fast and easy to use. It will display HTML documents
- containing links to files residing on the local system,
- as well as files residing on remote systems running Gopher, HTTP, FTP,
- WAIS, and NNTP servers.
- .
- This package contains a development version of lynx.
+Description: classic non-graphical web browser
+ In continuous development since 1992, Lynx sets the standard for
+ text-mode web clients. It is fast and simple to use, with support for
+ browsing via FTP, Gopher, HTTP, HTTPS, NNTP, and the local file system.
Package: lynx-cur-wrapper
Section: oldlibs
