The Problems with WebExplorer

The current beta versions of IBM's Web Explorer (WE/2) have two serious problems starting external viewers:

* WE/2 cannot successfully start a non-OS/2 application as an external viewer.
Under WE/2 betas 0.91, 0.92mt, 0.93, & 0.94, attempts to start a non-OS/2 external viewer, or an OS/2 REXX program results in a flash to a full-screen session which immediately returns to WE/2 without spawning any processes. OS/2 executables can generally start successfully.

WE/2 beta 0.92mt exhibited a resurgence of the problem of beta 0.90, where any external viewer application must reside in a directory on the PATH in order to successfully execute. Beta 0.93 re-fixed this limitation, and it remains fixed in beta 0.94.

* When starting an external viewer, the parameter passing system is extremely limited.
WE/2 keeps an internal, hard coded MIME list, with a list of configurable associated external viewers. Unfortunately, this internal system is limiting, in that the startup commands are restricted to the equivalent of "viewer {input filename}". The addition of parameters to the internally maintained viewer entry causes the viewer to fail to execute, effectively restriciting the use of parameters other than the input file for external viewers.

WE/2 beta 0.92mt introduced two external files, MAILCAP & EXTMAP, to allow the customization and extension/modification of the internal list of MIME types and external viewer associations. The MAILCAP file purports to allow the association of a more complex external viewer command with a given MIME type. This command can supposedly contain other parameters besides the input filename.

(For instance, "viewer -r %s" [Where "%s" is a placeholder for the input filename.])

Unfortunately, not only does this system not support commandline parameters which must follow the input filename, but any other parameters besides the filename are evidently being dropped. The MAILCAP parsing function in WE/2 does not properly separate the viewer name from the parameters in the command text, often trying to incorporate the parameters as part of the name of the viewer executable. WE/2 then complains that it can't locate the viewer "viewer.exe -r ".


Suggestions & Comments to meyer@larch.ag.uiuc.edu