Feel like a blind man with a color tv
Everything's fine but I just can't see
(Element of Crime, "Almost dead")

# Questions And Answers

This chapter provides a list of questions and answers which have come to the mind of several people. Some of them are only necessary because many users don't read this manual, some of them are not very serious,.. but anyway, here's a list of them:

Questions dealing with the archives

- What about those strange `.lha` files?
- I've downloaded the `.lha`-archives using my WWW-Browser, but they seem to be corrupt?!

Questions about `hsc` and it's usage

- `hsc` doesn't know about the tag `<XYZ>` (the attribute `ZYX`), but I need this one!
- `hsc` tells me loads of warnings I don't care about! Is there a way to prevent it from doing this?
- I tried a `STATUS=line|verbose` on the commandline, and now can't find the `verbose` command?!
- Somewhere in these manual You are talking about a tool called `make/weblint/..`. Where can I obtain it from?
- I have a problem with make: bla sülz fasel laber...
- Why is `hsc` that slow?

Miscellaneous questions

- Why do You call it URI? I thought it's URL (Universal Resource Locator or U R lost)?
- But URI reminds me of pissing! Add a simple ``n'', and there we are!
- What are jerks?

Q: What about those strange `.lha` files?
A: LHA is the standard compression utility for AmigaOS. A portable version of lha is available from aminet:misc/unix/lha_1_00.tar.Z.

Q: I've downloaded the `.lha`-archives using my WWW-Browser, but they seem to be corrupt?!
A: Seems that your browser has no MIME-type configured for `.lha`. Look up the manual of your browser how to configure MIME-types.

Q: `hsc` doesn't know about the tag `<XYZ>` (the attribute `ZYX`), but I need this one!
A: Read the chapter about Syntax definition and how to extend it.

Q: `hsc` tells me loads of warnings I don't care about! Is there a way to prevent it from doing this?
A: All non-error messages can be suppressed adding a simple `IGNORE=message_id` to the call used to invoke `hsc`. Take a look at the chapter about Options and switches to find out more.

Q: I tried a `STATUS=line|verbose` on the commandline, and now can't find the `verbose` command?!
A: The vertical bar (```|`'') is commonly used in several CLIs to ``pipe'' the output of one program to another as input. Not under AmigaOS (at least not without a patch), which is no real lack as it provides superior concepts like ARexx. So that's the reason why I didn't care about this.

If you want to use this character inside arguments (like for `STATUS`) in such a CLI, you will have to quote the value, for example like `STATUS="line|verbose"`.

Q: Somewhere in these manual You are talking about a tool called `make/weblint/..`. Where can I obtain it from?
A: All tools mentioned within these documents should be denoted in the chapter about Related stuff (if not, let me know). Normally I only mention the version for AmigaOS, but the archives or `ReadMe`s usually include some notes where to look for other systems.

Q: I have a problem with make: bla sülz fasel laber...
A: Refer to the manual of `make`. Make sure your `make` supports implicit rules and conditionals as described within these documents. Make sure your editor does not replace TABs by blanks (use `memacs`, which came with your Workbench distribution, if you are not sure).

Q: Why is `hsc` that slow?
A: One reason is, that `hsc` handles (nearly) all resources dynamically (Technical note: That means, it often calls `malloc()` and `free()`, which are known to be quite slow).

Another, quite embarrassing, reason is, that most of these resources are kept in linked lists. And therefore, if `hsc` has to look for something, it sequentially searches these list. Shame on me, I should use some sort of balanced binary tree for such things.

But the problem with balanced tree is: though there are lots of sources around, most of them are perverted ``real'' C-sources perpetrated by some braindead Unix fossils, ignoring the fact that memory can run out or that there is a ``-Wall'' option in most compilers; some of these sources also date back to 1863, when no one even pretended there was a language definition for C.

Meanwhile I'm too lazy to change anything, but if you are interested in the source code for a quite well done tree implementation, check out the Ubiqx library available from http://www.interads.co.uk/~crh/ubiqx/. If it would have been around in 1995, I would have used it.

Q: Why do You call it URI? I thought it's URL (Universal Resource Locator or U R lost)?
A: Ok, put a finger into your mouth and try to reach as far inside as possible. After some specific point, you will empty your stomach. And what do you say then? Exactly, ``URL''! So the main reason why I do not like the term URL is because it always reminds me of puking.

Additionally, the Internet-Draft for HTML 2.0, June 16, 1995, tells you:

        URI
                A Universal Resource Identifier is a formatted string
                that serves as an identifier for a resource, typically
                on the Internet. URIs are used in HTML to identify the
                destination of hyperlinks. URIs in common practice
                include Uniform Resource Locators (URLs)[URL] and
                Relative URLs [RELURL].

And one of the users of `hsc` submitted this interpretation to me:

        To me it seems:

        URI = URL and RELURL
        URL = "http://www.intercom.no/~XXXXXX/index.html" - always the same doc
        RELURL = "docs/about.html"  - relative to which dir/machine you are on

Anyway, I really like that term URI a lot more and I've never really understood what's the difference between URL and URI. But who cares anyway?

Q: But URI reminds me of pissing! Add a simple ``n'', and there we are!
A: ..which I personally prefer to puking. Certainly a matter of taste.

Q: What are jerks?
A: Jerks are persons suffering by a well-known epidemic called Netscapism1. Their sources contain sections like

        <BODY BGCOLOR=#123456>
        <BLINK>Click here!</BLINK>

But, not all jerks became jerks because they like to be jerks. Very often, jerks are forced to use code as seen above by their employer. In this case, they should be refered to as ``prostitutes''.

(1) Or that's what it was called in the Dark Ages of the Web when Agi first wrote this. Now, in the Even Darker Though Truecolor Ages, it's mostly a similar disease called Exploritis. However, owing to HSC's lack of colorful buttons, ``wizards'' and the like, HSC users and people suffering from these diseases should be fairly disjunct sets. --mb