GNU bug report logs - #38713
27.0.50; eww doesn't handle protocols other than https?

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 27.0.50; eww doesn't handle protocols other than https?
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2019 01:11:09 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

0. emacs -Q
1. M-x eww RET about:protocols RET hangs with the following line:

Loading http://about:protocols/...

whereas after applying the following patch it displays the nicely
formatted HTML page:

  Supported Protocols - URL vEmacs
   Protocol   Properties   Description
   about   Synchronous  N/A
     Default Port: 0
   ...

[eww-protocols.patch (text/x-diff, inline)]

diff --git a/lisp/net/eww.el b/lisp/net/eww.el
index dccaf0497f..64386921c7 100644
--- a/lisp/net/eww.el
+++ b/lisp/net/eww.el
@@ -319,7 +319,8 @@ eww--dwim-expand-url
         (t
 	 ;; Anything that starts with something that vaguely looks
 	 ;; like a protocol designator is interpreted as a full URL.
-         (if (or (string-match "\\`[A-Za-z]+:" url)
+         (unless (string-match-p "\\`about:" url)
+         (if (or (string-match-p "\\`[A-Za-z]+:" url)
 		 ;; Also try to match "naked" URLs like
 		 ;; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free software
 		 (string-match "\\`[A-Za-z_]+\\.[A-Za-z._]+/" url)
@@ -335,7 +336,7 @@ eww--dwim-expand-url
                  (setq url (concat url "/"))))
            (setq url (concat eww-search-prefix
                              (mapconcat
-                              #'url-hexify-string (split-string url) "+"))))))
+                              #'url-hexify-string (split-string url) "+")))))))
   url)
 
 (defun eww--preprocess-html (start end)
diff --git a/lisp/url/url-about.el b/lisp/url/url-about.el
index e9d9d6346e..ee79ee1aab 100644
--- a/lisp/url/url-about.el
+++ b/lisp/url/url-about.el
@@ -91,7 +95,7 @@ url-about
     (if (fboundp func)
 	(progn
 	  (set-buffer (generate-new-buffer " *about-data*"))
-	  (insert "Content-type: text/plain\n\n")
+	  (insert "Content-type: text/html\n\n")
 	  (funcall func url)
 	  (current-buffer))
       (error "URL does not know about `%s'" item))))

Message #8 received at 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net>
Cc: 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#38713: 27.0.50; eww doesn't handle protocols other than https?
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2019 00:26:29 +0100

Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net> writes:

> 0. emacs -Q
> 1. M-x eww RET about:protocols RET hangs with the following line:
>
> Loading http://about:protocols/...
>
> whereas after applying the following patch it displays the nicely
> formatted HTML page:
>
>   Supported Protocols - URL vEmacs
>    Protocol   Properties   Description
>    about   Synchronous  N/A
>      Default Port: 0
>    ...

I'm not sure that makes much sense, really.  Emacs has other ways of
documenting these things other than putting them in an about:
pseudo-protocol thing.  (While other browsers do not.)

eww does not support everything that the url* library does, and
shouldn't.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

Message #11 received at 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net>
To: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
Cc: 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#38713: 27.0.50; eww doesn't handle protocols other than https?
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2019 01:12:15 +0200

>> 1. M-x eww RET about:protocols RET hangs with the following line:
>>
>> Loading http://about:protocols/...
>>
>> whereas after applying the following patch it displays the nicely
>> formatted HTML page:
>>
>>   Supported Protocols - URL vEmacs
>>    Protocol   Properties   Description
>>    about   Synchronous  N/A
>>      Default Port: 0
>>    ...
>
> I'm not sure that makes much sense, really.  Emacs has other ways of
> documenting these things other than putting them in an about:
> pseudo-protocol thing.  (While other browsers do not.)

This is part of the planned bigger effort - browsers already support
the 'about' URI scheme, but Emacs is still lagging behind.  I'd like
to expend lisp/url/url-about.el to give information on Emacs internals
including about:memory, about:buffers, about:processes, about:timers and
many more, using HTML instead of semi-obsolete Info or other ad-hoc formats.

Do you think this is worth the effort?

Message #14 received at 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net>
Cc: 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#38713: 27.0.50; eww doesn't handle protocols other than https?
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2019 02:31:09 +0100

Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net> writes:

> This is part of the planned bigger effort - browsers already support
> the 'about' URI scheme, but Emacs is still lagging behind.  I'd like
> to expend lisp/url/url-about.el to give information on Emacs internals
> including about:memory, about:buffers, about:processes, about:timers and
> many more, using HTML instead of semi-obsolete Info or other ad-hoc formats.
>
> Do you think this is worth the effort?

Reimplementing the Emacs Lisp manual piece-by-piece in eww doesn't sound
like a very promising path, I think?  And for live data on things, `M-x
list-timers' is always going to be better than HTML.

The long-term goal is to have the TeXinfo target HTML instead of Info,
so the lispref manual will end up being HTML.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

Message #17 received at 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net>
Cc: larsi <at> gnus.org, 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#38713: 27.0.50; eww doesn't handle protocols other than https?
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2019 17:28:09 +0200

> From: Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net>
> Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2019 01:12:15 +0200
> Cc: 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> >> 1. M-x eww RET about:protocols RET hangs with the following line:
> >>
> >> Loading http://about:protocols/...
> >>
> >> whereas after applying the following patch it displays the nicely
> >> formatted HTML page:
> >>
> >>   Supported Protocols - URL vEmacs
> >>    Protocol   Properties   Description
> >>    about   Synchronous  N/A
> >>      Default Port: 0
> >>    ...
> >
> > I'm not sure that makes much sense, really.  Emacs has other ways of
> > documenting these things other than putting them in an about:
> > pseudo-protocol thing.  (While other browsers do not.)
> 
> This is part of the planned bigger effort - browsers already support
> the 'about' URI scheme, but Emacs is still lagging behind.  I'd like
> to expend lisp/url/url-about.el to give information on Emacs internals
> including about:memory, about:buffers, about:processes, about:timers and
> many more, using HTML instead of semi-obsolete Info or other ad-hoc formats.
> 
> Do you think this is worth the effort?

Can you tell more about the plan?  For example, the following
questions seem to be pertinent:

 . why implement this as part of eww? Emacs is not a browser, which
   can only react to protocols, it has other ways of interaction

 . where will all the HTML content come from? will it be taken from
   the existing documentation or written from scratch?

 . eww is not very sophisticated browser, so are you sure displaying
   HTML with it will be significantly better than "semi-obsolete"
   Info?

 . more generally, what will be the advantages of providing
   documentation this way, as opposed to the way we provide it now?

Thanks.

Message #20 received at 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: Juri Linkov <juri <at> linkov.net>
Cc: 38713 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#38713: 27.0.50; eww doesn't handle protocols other than https?
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2020 17:15:50 +0100

Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org> writes:

> Reimplementing the Emacs Lisp manual piece-by-piece in eww doesn't sound
> like a very promising path, I think?  And for live data on things, `M-x
> list-timers' is always going to be better than HTML.

After the discussion on emacs-devel, it didn't sound like anybody was
very enthusiastic about this idea, so I'm closing the bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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