More thoughts on hyperlinks in tn5250 and mozilla integration

I just read Martin Rowe's email on hyperlinks in tn5250.  He suggests
having tn5250 launch a web browser when a link is clicked on.  That's
fine, but it reminded me of some ideas I've been kicking around that would
really help our users and really move open software forward.

Why just launch a browser?  Why not make the browser and tn5250 *the
same*.  A while back someone integrated the finger protocol into mozilla
(mozilla is netscape's new browser - open source - I hope everyone here
knows that).  Why couldn't the 5250 protocol be integrated as well?  It
seems a simple thing to do by linking mozilla with lib5250.  Below I'll
quote a message on this topic a wrote a while ago to explain my ideas:

<quote>
        I've been working with some as400 stuff that I'd like to do as
CGI.  I tried things like work station gateway and straightforward cgi but
the main problem is data entry.  There is no field exit or functions
keys with a web browser.  So I tried graphical access (part of client
access) but it is weak and loses all the good parts of cgi.  Now I can't
click on any links or make running something from menus nice and easy
(like clicking on the menu option).

        So I thought what would really be cool is an HTML/5250 hybrid.  So
naturally I thought that tn5250 (or maybe lib5250) could be combined with
mozilla (or maybe gtkmozilla) so that mozilla could be taught about
5250.  This would enable the client to receive both html and 5250 and
process both.

        Why is this useful?  Suppose that you have a menu system that
allows users to run programs (not too uncommon I hope).  It would be nice
if the user could click on the menu items instead of typing in the menu
option.  Or if a user wanted to modify a line in a subfile the user could
just click on that line.  But when the next screen appears that contains
the data entry fields that correspond to that subfile line the client
would behave like tn5250 does with keyboard mappings, function key, cursor
progression, etc.  This way you could have html data and 5250 data on the
same screen.

        Plus mozilla uses XUL which can alter the interface of the
app.  Now key mappings are just a text file definition that can be changed
on the fly.  Now you can link your as400 app to your online documentation
and have the transition from as400 to web be seemless.  Or perhaps you use
the same as400 programs over and over but no one will put your commonly
accessed programs onto one menu for you.  No problem - just bookmark them
in mozilla.

        Now all I need to know is where in mozilla to add a new
protocol.  I know that somewhere there is a tutorial on this implementing
the finger protocol.  Would this be feasible?  It would sure give our
users something really valuable.

</quote>

So what do you think?  Doable?  I think this is an area where open source
has a major advantage over closed.  We can build with the mozilla project,
and they can use tn5250's work.  This to me is moving software in a new
direction.  Who wouldn't want to use a 5250 client on any platform that
can do what I've described?

James Rich
james.rich@m.cc.utah.edu

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