[Gimp-web] Netscape 4.x (was Re: anyone try the news out?)

[Raphaël Quinet]

On Thu, 3 Apr 2003 18:52:00 -0800, Helvetix Victorinox <helvetix@mysterious.org> wrote:
> I think we've expected to eliminate the SSI stuff that is currently
> in place.  At least I've already written a small SSI preprocessor
> that peforms the include substitutions, as well as variable
> definitions and interpolation.  It is included in the cvs tree as
> programmatic/tools/ssi-pp.py, although I don't think it has been used.

This is nice and this could certainly be helpful if we decide to go
for static pages.

I would have prefered to do this a bit differently, by having a script
that "wraps" the source (X)HTML files into a template instead of
requiring the source files to contain SSI statements.  But I cannot
give more details nor code for the moment.  Anyway, the current system
isn't bad at all, so it can be used now.

> There are also two programmes which substitute one string for another.
> One, programmatic/tools/subst.py works on arbitrary text files, the
> other, programmatic/tools/rewrite.py, only on well-formed xml files.
> The one that works on arbitrary text files is relatively new, and so I
> don't think it is being used very much.
> 
> The xml file "substituter" insists, first of all, on a well-formed xml
> document.  So it can be used as a GO/NO-GO test on input files.  Secondly,
> it will substitute any attribute and it's value with a definition of both
> an attribute name and value.  This let's you not only rewrite attribute
> values (eg URLs) but their attribute names as well.

That sounds very nice and useful.  So we could use this test as part
of a CVS commit script, if necessary.

> A mechanism for recognising bug references has been implemented, but
> not integrated into any of the programmes above.

OK.

> The site is in good shape, despite comments otherwise.  It's easy to be
> a critic.

I am in the very uncomfortable position of giving comments on the new
site while I know very well that I will not be able to contribute
anything before May (or after Easter, at least).  I do not like to do
that because I prefer to submit patches or do at least a part of the
work myself instead of telling people what they should do.  But Carol
asked for comments and I think that the compatibility problems with
older browsers such as Netscape 4.x are serious enough and deserved to
be mentioned.  I will try to contribute later, but for the moment this
is just not possible for me.  Believe me, I would if I could.  But the
time I am spending on these mails is already too much for me.  Sorry.
Hopefully, this will get better in a few weeks.  I have many other
suggestions for improvements about the new site and especially the
mechanism for publishing the pages.  But I think that I'd better shut
up now and come back to this when I can actually do something about
it.

-Raphaël