Re: Why does typing "navigator" run mozilla?

[Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>]

On Mon, Apr 23, 2001 at 02:52:00PM -0400, Timothy H. Keitt wrote:

> Short answer:
> 
> tkeitt@keittlab-6:~$ ls -l /usr/bin/X11/navigator
> lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           27 Apr 12 19:54 
> /usr/bin/X11/navigator -> /etc/alternatives/navigator
> tkeitt@keittlab-6:~$ ls -l /etc/alternatives/navigator
> lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           48 Apr 20 09:54 
> /etc/alternatives/navigator -> 
> /usr/lib/netscape/477/navigator/navigator-smotif
> tkeitt@keittlab-6:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/netscape/477/navigator/navigator-smotif
> lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           20 Apr 20 09:54 
> /usr/lib/netscape/477/navigator/navigator-smotif -> ../../base-4/wrapper
> 
> Long answer:
> 
> Because some idiot thought the above was cool...
> 
> Actually, the culprit here is the "wrapper" script, not the alternatives 
> directory or sym linking.  I'm just trying to make a point that 
> complexity is not always a good thing.  Openning a mozilla window 
> instead of running navigator only happens when mozilla is already 
> running.  Somewhere down in "wrapper" is some sort of mozilla-remote 
> command.  What's next?  A talking paper-clip pops up when I type 
> "xterm"? :-)

This _is_ cool.  It makes it easy for programs to display a web page using
navigator or mozilla without having to worry about whether it is already
running or not.  These programs are large, and running only one instance is a
win for performance and memory consumption.

As for navigator vs. mozilla, consider that they are merely two versions of the
same program.  Running the 'navigator' binary will communicate with a running
version of Navigator, if one exists.  This feature has been in Navigator years.

If you don't like this feature, the script already includes some configuration
settings near the top (including a use_ns_remote setting).  Perhaps you should
file a wishlist bug against netscape-base-4 asking that this portion of the
script be moved to a conffile in /etc, or a per-user config file.  Then, you
could set use_ns_remote=no, and have the script start a new instance of
navigator for every request.

-- 
 - mdz