> > This is already standard, but I think it should be into policy because I > > already saw some programs deviating from this expected behaviour. > I'm not aware of netscrape doing this, for example. And it's better to > use /etc/lynx.conf to make lynx do it too, as it prevents lusers > forgetting to configure a proxy.
Lynx and Netscape already honor the policy I'm proposing. > > Web clients should default to try to fetch URLs by a direct connection to > > the target host. If the `http_proxy' variable is defined, it should specify > Nope. I am writing a web client that connects to a local proxy server > ATM as it happens; RFC2068 explains that you should use proxies > wherever possible rather than connecting direct to the target server. Of course. What I say is that programs should default to try to connect directly if there's no config var, command line switch, or this env variable. And that's pretty obvious, isn't it? =) > I think your ideas may be suitable for wishlist bugs against packages > that don't do what you want, but it shouldn't go into policy. No. The maintainers could close the wishlist without doing anything. The policy is just a tool to set a standard nehavious of programs, and I think that a standard behaviour is useful here: When I set a system that many users will use, I will configure it so the users son't need to be bothered by anything. That includes setting the proper http_* variables in /etc/profile, and it works great, since wget, lynx, netscape and others respect those vars. What I am saying is that we should recognize this common practice in our policy...
