[449] in SIPB bug reports
suggestion for xwebster
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Sun Apr 2 06:15:32 1989
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 89 06:13:39 EDT
From: Jonathan I. Kamens <jik@Athena.MIT.EDU>
To: djc@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
Cc: bug-sipb@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <djc@ATHENA.MIT.EDU>'s message of Fri, 31 Mar 89 21:21:36 EST <8904010221.AA09478@W20-575-39.MIT.EDU>
Your first suggestion: make xwebster look more like a real dictionary.
This involves changing the webster server extensively as well as
modifying both the webster and xwebster clients, and no one around
here has that much free time. The problem is that currently the
webster server does all the definition formatting, and this is
unacceptable since the client should have control over how the
definition is displayed. Therefore, in order to fix it we would first
have to move the formatting code from the server to the client, then
figure out an extension to the protocol to allow the unformatted
definitions to be sent rather than the formatted definitions, then
modify the formatting code to make the definitions look as you
suggest. It's a big project.
Second suggestion: Make the icon smaller.
I might do this if I get around to it. Not a high priority, as it
doesn't affect the functionality of the code.
Third suggestion: Get stop it from hanging.
This is a problem with the protocol of which we are aware but which,
unfortunately, has no easy solution.
One final note: The xwebster client is pretty badly written, and I
have been intending to rewrite it for a long time now. Therefore, I
do not intend to make any major modifications to the current code,
since it's just going to get rewritten.
Thanks for the comments.
--> Jonathan Kamens
Project Athena Watchmaker
SIPB (Student Information Processing Board) Member
Volunteer OLC Consultant
jik@ATHENA.MIT.EDU
