Re: using LW with Phoenix / Firebird on Linux
Tim Bradshaw <tfb@cley.com> writes:
> Has anyone managed to get LW to use Phoenix / Firebird as a browser
> for documentation on Linux (or windows in fact, but I've not tried
> there yet). I've made it so the command `netscape' runs phoenix,
> and this works for the first thing you look up, but successive
> things do nothing.
Below is an older message from this mailing list about the same
subject. I couldn't find the start of the thread but I think it has
some information related to your request.
Edi.
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To: edi@agharta.de
In-reply-to: Dr. Edmund Weitz's message of 26 Sep 2001 15:17:20 +0200
<m366a6gkgv.fsf@bird.agharta.de>
Subject: Re: HQN-WEB
From: davef@xanalys.com
Reply-To: davef@xanalys.com
Hi Edi
> The undocumented variables are
>
> *BROWSER-LOCATION* (initially "/usr/bin/")
>
> and
>
> HWEB::*DEFAULT-BROWSER-TYPE* (allowed values HWEB::NETSCAPE, HWEB::MOSAIC)
>
> Edi, I'm interested to learn which browser you are really using. If the doc
> interface works after your workaround, then your browser is responding
> to the method used for control of Mosaic.
OK, I was lying a little bit to keep my mail short. Lispworks started
to look for /usr/bin/mosaic _initially_, but then I started to fiddle
around a little bit in order to find the values to change and I think
I must have changed HWEB::*DEFAULT-BROWSER-TYPE* while doing
this. (Embarrassing to say "I think", but I tried a lot of things and
don't remember all of them.) However, HWEB::*DEFAULT-BROWSER-TYPE* is
now HWEB::NETSCAPE even with a freshly restarted Lispworks although
I'm sure that it looked for /usr/bin/mosaic the first time I used
it...
i think that's unlikely: netscape is the default browser in LispWorks
for Linux.
> *BROWSER-LOCATION* will be documented in LW4.2
As opposed to the HWEB/HQN-WEB stuff, *BROWSER-LOCATION* is already
documented in 4.1.20, it's in Section 12 of the Lispworks Reference
manual.
Oh, so it is.
Nevertheless, two things confused me:
1. Changing *BROWSER-LOCATION* in the listener didn't seem to affect
the things happening in the Help menu. Lispworks was still trying
to find the browser in "/usr/bin". After I sent my mail I
experimented a little bit more and it looks to me as if changing
*BROWSER-LOCATION* from the listener will only have the correct
effect if Lispworks didn't look at the wrong directory before. In
other words, it works in a fresh session where my first line is
something like (setq *BROWSER-LOCATION* "/usr/X11R6/bin/") but it
does _not_ seem to work after a failure - see transcript below.
Yes you're right. It's a bit broken isn't it? A workaround , if you do
need to change *browser-location* after first looking in the wrong
directory, is to do
(setf hweb::*browsers* nil)
This removes a cache and makes LispWorks recompute the browser path.
This is particularly annoying in the Personal Edition, because it
doesn't do init files so you do need to remember to reset
*browser-location* before trying to use the doc. I'd suggest loading
your .lispworks 'by hand' at the start of each session.
2. *BROWSER-LOCATION* is a directory, there doesn't seem to be a way
to provide the _name_ of an executable, only the _type_. Does that
mean I have to stick with Netscape or Mosaic or use symbolic links?
No chance to use Mozilla, Galeon, Konqueror instead?
It's an intentional use of internal symbols for the browser types:
LispWorks needs code for remote control of the browser, and this may
differ (or even be N/A) for each browser - i must admit I haven't
actually tried any of the three you list.
That's why I asked about your browser, because if LispWorks thinks you
are using Mosaic, then to control an existing browser process, it will
run 'ps' and parse the output to figure out the Mosaic process id;
then write a specially named file in /tmp contining the next URL to
display; then send SIGUSER1 to the Mosaic process to make it read the
/tmp file; then delete that file. If other browsers allow remote
control via the same mechanism then we can easily add support. However
LispWorks 4.1 was specified to support only Mosaic and Netscape; I
have seen a couple of (OK now three) requests to support other
browsers.
Thanks for your help,
Edi.
PS: Ooops, this is getting more and more embarrassing for me, I think
I should quit now. I just saw that I had typed "/usr/X11R6/bin" below
although it should have been "/usr/X11R6/bin/". This obviously
resolves the first point above.
PPS: When will LW4.2 be out?
It's in beta now. The release is scheduled for mid December.
regards
Dave
Dave Fox Email: davef@xanalys.com
Xanalys Inc, Barrington Hall, Tel: +44 1223 873879
Barrington, Cambridge CB2 5RG, England. Fax: +44 1223 873873
These opinions are not necessarily those of Xanalys.