LYNX-DEV Henry's document revisions

[Philip Webb]

971017 Nelson Henry Eric wrote: 
> The proposals made in "http://163.51.110.11/lynxdev/USERDEFS.gz":
--- snip ---
> Most important to me is the consolidating and making less wordy and redundant
> the section on anonymous accounts.  The reason for me is that I hope to
> eventually write a "So you want to set up a public access Lynx" document, and
> it will help to have both INSTALLATION and userdefs.h concise enough that
> someone can see the "whole picture".  As it is now "#define ANONYMOUS_USER"
> is separated from the rest of the defines relating to it's use by more than
> 50 lines.  The proposed new section is clearly marked, beginning and end,
> so that people building for their personal use only don't have to be troubled
> by the loud warnings (for the longest time I went through and religiously
> defined all that stuff because I wasn't sure just what "anonymous" meant).
> As it is now, to get to the defines for the locations of certain files, you
> first have to plow through (or at least jump over, which a first-timer
> wouldn't know to do) all of it.  (There is one (1) verbal Canadian fan in
> favor of this idea.)
 
aren't we all `verbal', like Lynx itself?  maybe i'm `verbose' ...
anyway, i'm certainly vociferous in my support for what Henry is doing,
especially in wanting to separate out clearly the ANONYMOUS_USER stuff.
i -- like him -- was troubled by the loud warnings,
not knowing at first what anonymous users were
(even `shell account' is misleading to a newcomer).

this is a particular case of a more general fact of life for Lynx:
there's a big difference in approach for ordinary little users like me
& harrassed overworked sysadmins.
it's like the difference between looking after your own house/apartment
& running a hotel (shell accounts) or hostel (anonymous):
us little guys don't need to know anything about room service,
check-in desks, stolen credit cards, fire codes etc etc;
we just want to set it up on our desk in our study in our place & use it.
so thro'out Lynx documentation the two types of user (installer)
should always be kept in mind & separate.

Henry asks for feedback: i've given him one piece (twice).
he perhaps deserves more encouragement, if only constructive criticism.

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