re: [MacPerl] Testlinks.pl v 1.2 with MacPerl 5.0.5r1m

[schinder@pjstoaster.pg.md.us (Paul Schinder)]

} I tryed  testlinks  v 1.2  that I downloaded from
}  gopher://mors.gsfc.nasa.gov:70/11/MacPerl/ .
} I am using    MacPerl 5.0.5r1m  on a PMac 6100 with  OS 7.5  .
} 
}  It works fine for sites  failing to  connect   ( wwwerror 602 ) , but it
} crashes
} for a reacheable  URL ( error from debug :  " www.pl returns a  not true
} value " ).
} 
} I look all over the places but I can't make any sens of it.
} Do anyone have a hint ?

Yes, I think I do.  It turns out that most browsers are lousy at doing
gopher.  Look at the files you downloaded from mors.  There are at least
two things you should look for.  First, you might find a single .
(period) all by itself at the end of any file.  Remove it, it shouldn't
be there, and the whatever you used to gopher it should never have put
it there in the first place. That's probably what the debugger is
complaining about.  The second thing is that mors is a Unix
workstation, so it's possible that your browser didn't do end of line
conversions correctly. The files on mors are Unix text files, and,
depending on the browser, they may land on you disk that way or as DOS
text.

When I was testing this out last week after e-mail about some trouble
downloading files from mors, the MacWeb 2.0 beta I'm using not only
left the . at the end of the file, but when files were downloaded
rather than viewed and saved they were downloaded as DOS text (no
end-of-line conversion was done).   I filed a bug report about this,
and you should on whatever you're using, too.  It's easy to do gopher
right, and there's no reason a browser should get it wrong.

The files on mors are also available by anonymous ftp
(ftp://mors.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/MacPerl), but most browsers do a lousy job
of ftp, too.  I'd recommend using either a real gopher client
(gopher://mors.gsfc.nasa.gov/11/MacPerl/)) or a real ftp client, since I
don't at the moment have the time to set up pure http/html interface.

I used testlinks last week on about 20 html pages I store on my
Powerbook 165 (running 7.5.1) with the 68k application version of
MacPerl 5.05, and it worked just fine.

} 
} Alex Vasilesco
} Montreal
} val@citi.doc.ca
} 
} 
} 
---
--------
Paul J. Schinder
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Code 693, Greenbelt, MD 20771 USA
schinder@pjstoaster.pg.md.us