Hello, I'm a long time user of elinks, and recently, I tried to build a lua
script to add to elinks the same behavior than vimperator/pentadactyl hint mode
:
You enter in the hint mode by pressing « f », all links in the page becomes
highlighted and labelled, like when you press « . » in elinks for showing links
number. Then you begin to type some letters on your keyboard : only the links
with thoses char in the text become selected (the links number are updated for
counting only the selected links).
Ok, that's easy : I just have to fetch all links on the current document, and
each time the user enter a key in the message box, match the text with the link
name for each link, and set the link as selected or not. I can do this in lua !
Let's take a look in the lua api, there are some fonction described in the
documentation, for interracting with elinks core (open a message box…), but
where is the api for the differents object (link, document) ? It seems it as
not been written…
Ok, let's take a look in the code. Omg ! the functions described in the
documentation are the only existing ones ! There is no way to get the document,
no way to select a link, no way to jump to a link… This is what you call a
browser « highly customizable and can be extended via Lua or Guile scripts » ?
Don't give me that jazz !
So, as it seems that anything as to be done, let's think about what I expect
from a true scriptable browser :
Control the browser and the navigation :
* To be allowed to open a tab, close one
* Set the current url, refresh the page
* To be informed when the user select a link
Control the display :
* Access to the statusbar
* To be informed when the user press a key (even in a dialogbox)
* Change the color in the page (highlight text, css…)
Control the document :
* Get the links in the document
* Select the current link
* Modify the document (not the text, the document)
* Fill forms
It's a big work to do, and I won't be able to do it for all the currents
scripts languages provided in elinks; if I had to choose one :
* Guile : I have no experience with this language.
* Python : Althought I like python, I think it is to heavy for use it as a
script interpreter.
* Perl : Don't make me laught !
* Javascript : Why not; but debian as removed the js support for elinks,
and nobody notice that the documentation refers to scripts that are unusable
now : is anybody using it ?
* lua : I think it is a good choice : lightweight, and easy to code (as in
the C code than the lua code)
Now we are in 2012, and lua allow objects, so we could give to the script a
reflect of the elinks internal structs : document, link, form, session…
The aim it is to give the user a maximum of control over the navigation. I
appreciate to be able to script my applications as I want (vim, awesome…)
because each user has differents need, and you can't think about every usage
that will be made of a soft. I know it is a big modification, and will give a
new face to elinks, and even if I'm not a C developper, and want to do it;
elinks is not dead, console apps aren't apps from past, and elinks is the
better web browser as complementary one !
Who's in ?
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