Re: Fwd: Bug#642391: dillo: sane default for http redirects [origin: [email protected]]

On Thu, 22 Sep 2011 08:18:21 -0400, Axel Beckert <[email protected]>  
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> this bug report came in for dillo 3.0 in Debian Unstable/Testing, see
> also http://bugs.debian.org/642391
>
> See below for my thoughts.
>
>  ... snip...
>
> Until now I noticed the effects of filter_auto_requests just for
> images and was quite happy with it. But with images you can click on
> them and they will be loaded. This does not seem to work for
> cross-domain redirects. And as annoying as URL shorteners are, I
> usually do like to follow those redirects.
>
> Is it possible to separate the settings for images and redirects? Or
> is it possible to allow those redirect on a case-by-case base?
>
> One easy way to do so would to display the content of the redirect
> page which usually contains a link to the redirect target.
>
> 		Kind regards, Axel

You know, this may be the first time I've agreed with one of Debian's  
patches.  Dillo's default setting breaks many major web sites, including  
Wikipedia, Google Images, and every photo hosting site.  This hurts  
Dillo's usability, particularly for new and/or less technically  
knowledgeable users.  The average user isn't going to stop and think "oh,  
these images aren't loading because they're hosted on a different domain";  
he's going to think "Dillo is broken because this site doesn't work," and  
probably switch to a different browser.

(Keep in mind, dillo-dev probably represents a small minority of users --  
those who are both technically knowledgeable and interested enough to  
subscribe and participate.  But good software can't be designed just for  
the minority.  Firefox isn't popular only for its technical merits, but  
also because it's easy for people to install and use.)

Granted, I like Axel's suggestions -- allow more fine-grained control, and  
display redirect links.  They're much better than the current  
all-or-nothing approach.  I'm just saying while we're at it, maybe we  
should also reconsider Dillo's IMHO overly paranoid defaults.  A lot more  
people would probably stick with Dillo if it just behaved like they expect  
it to.

~Benjamin