Re: w3m-view-url-with-external-browser horrible user experience

[Leo Liu <sdl.web@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2013-10-16 13:30 +0800, Katsumi Yamaoka wrote:
> Does it really take SECONDS?  Though I've never felt it inconvenient,
> normal web browsing using emacs-w3m will take SECONDS too, IIUC.

Yes, at least 2 seconds. No, it is not the time that matters the most,
it is the uncertainty about when the browser will pop up, which steals
focus from emacs and distracts users as a result.

> `w3m-view-url-with-external-browser' fetches the header of a url
> before launching an external browser, in order to examine the
> content type of a url and choose an external browser according
> to the user option `w3m-content-type-alist'.  For instance, it
> launches an image viewer for image/* types, launches xdvi for
> the application/dvi type, etc.  Yes, fetching the header is
> indeed an overhead (it runs w3m) if you don't want to use a
> browser other than your kitchen sink web browser.  

I think this is not ideal. Why not delegate to the GUI browser to decide
what to do based on the content-type? Modern browsers can view many
things that some desktop envs can't even do. emacs-w3m is trying too
hard to be helpful.

> But it is author's will or purpose, maybe. Instead, you can replace it
> with the one like this:
>
> (defun w3m-view-url-with-browse-url ()
>   "Launch `browse-url'."
>   (interactive)
>   (let ((url (or (w3m-anchor) (w3m-image) w3m-current-url)))
>     (when (w3m-url-valid url)
>       (message "Browsing <%s>..." url)
>       (browse-url url))))
>
> (define-key w3m-mode-map "M" 'w3m-view-url-with-browse-url)

Thanks. If upstream insists on current behaviour I'll adopt this
solution.

Thanks,
Leo