Re: [9fans] Links for Plan 9

[David Presotto <presotto@closedmind.org>]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 59 bytes --]

I'm happier with you doing the distribution of the browser.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: message/rfc822, Size: 4033 bytes --]

From: mirtchov@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] Links for Plan 9
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 10:13:16 -0700
Message-ID: <b9f36269cf426cdd70fc8f819fd0b6ad@plan9.ucalgary.ca>

> Thanks for porting it.  Despite its various peculiarities it is the
> main browser I use on linux and FreeBSD.
>
> Actually many of the comments are in English.   The ones in Czech are
> indeed in the kind of Czech that would make a grammar teacher
> blush.  Or inflict bodily injury on the student.  Depends on the
> teacher.  I set about translating them, toning down some of the more
> extreme bits.  At my current rate it would take about 20-30 hours to
> do the whole source.  I will almost certainly lose interest before
> then, so I should be more selective.  I did javascript.c--not a good
> test case since most of the source code is the number 2--and part of
> ipret.c.  I assume that javascr.c and jsint.c are also of interest
> since the javascript part of the port is not working.  What other files
> are you interested in?
>
> The debugging messages are also in a mix of languages as are variable
> names.  I have been ignoring both.  Translating variable names is
> not a good idea, but if you are curious about any debugging messages
> just email me.

Bell-Labs should decide whether they want the browser on sources.  If
not, I will set up a replica here so that I can accept diffs more
easily and won't require people to download 3.3MB .tgz file for each
little change to the source.

Many 9fans have expressed desire to help make the browser more Plan
9-friendly (things like plumbing and copy/paste for example), so the
usefulness of Links in Plan 9 (at least currently) seems to outweigh
its design mishaps, so there is a high possibility that the source
will be looked at frequently.  Making the comments readable, then, is
a very good idea, thanx.

As for having to modify every line in every file -- I feel your
pain...  A major part of doing the port involved having to add proper
casts between unsigned and signed characters pretty much everywhere.
The guys who wrote it insist that characters be unsigned, APE insists
that strlen() be passed a signed char.

In just one file (jsint.c) I count 200+ occasions of:

3731c3731
< 	if (!js_ctx)internal("js_upcall_get_subframes called with NULL context pointer\n");
---
> 	if (!js_ctx)internal((unsigned char *)"js_upcall_get_subframes called with NULL context pointer\n");

andrey