Function `browse-url-mozilla' in browse-url.el

[Bodo Schulze <bobesch@letras.net>]

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In GNU Emacs 21.2.1 (i386-debian-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw3d scroll bars)
 of 2002-03-22 on raven, modified by Debian
configured using `configure  i386-debian-linux-gnu --prefix=/usr --sharedstatedir=/var/lib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --localstatedir=/var/lib --infodir=/usr/share/info --mandir=/usr/share/man --with-pop=yes --with-x=yes --with-x-toolkit=athena --without-gif'
Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: C
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: de_DE
  locale-coding-system: iso-latin-1
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:

Dear Emacs hackers,

placing point on the string
"file:///usr/local/doc/HOWTO/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-9.html" in a buffer
being in text-mode, I get a "Wrong type argument: stringp, nil" error when calling
`browse-url-mozilla'. (I use Mozilla version 1.0.0)

In browse-url.el, I placed an edebug-defun break after the closing
parenthesis of the `append' form in defun `browse-url-mozilla'


         (process (apply 'start-process
			 (concat "mozilla " url) nil
			 browse-url-mozilla-program
			 (append
			  browse-url-mozilla-arguments
			  (list "-remote")
			  (list "openurl("
				url
				(if new-window ",new-window")
				")"))!)))
                                     ^
                                     break

and get this result in *Messages*

Break Result: ("-remote" "openurl(""file:///usr/local/doc/HOWTO/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-9.html" nil ")")
Go...  
edebug-signal: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil

I guess it's the 'nil' that produces the stringp error.
Also correcting this by adding the empty string in the ELSE branch
of the IF, like this

   (if new-window ",new-window" "")

does not do the job, since the argument passed to the -remote Option
must not be a list, but a string.  Here is a patch that I found
to correct the error.


*** browse-url.el.orig	Sat Aug  9 19:58:27 2003
--- browse-url.el	Sat Aug  9 19:58:27 2003
***************
*** 849,859 ****
  			 browse-url-mozilla-program
  			 (append
  			  browse-url-mozilla-arguments
! 			  (list "-remote")
! 			  (list "openurl("
! 				url
! 				(if new-window ",new-window")
! 				")")))))
      (set-process-sentinel process
  			  `(lambda (process change)
  			     (browse-url-mozilla-sentinel process ,url)))))
--- 849,863 ----
  			 browse-url-mozilla-program
  			 (append
  			  browse-url-mozilla-arguments
! 			  (list "-remote"
! 				;; The following should not be a list but a string,
! 				;; so the ELSE-Branch must not be nil but the
! 				;; empty string
! 				(concat
! 				 "openurl(" url
! 				 (if new-window ",new-window" "")
! 				 ")"))))))
      (set-process-sentinel process
  			  `(lambda (process change)
  			     (browse-url-mozilla-sentinel process ,url)))))

Hope this may help.

Additional remark:

As of version 1.0.1, 1.1 and beyond, Mozilla also supports the option 'new-tab'.

Mozilla-Help on -remote option

*openURL (/URL/, new-window)*
      Creates a new window displaying the specified document. 

*openURL (/URL/, new-tab)*
          Creates a new tab displaying the specified document.
      /(Available in 1.0.1, 1.1 and beyond)/ 

Emacs just knows the flag `browse-url-new-window-flag'.  Should there
be an additional flag `browse-url-new-tab-flag'?.  

Best regards,
Bodo Schulze

Recent messages:
edebug-signal: 
Loading debug...done
Entering debugger...
 [2 times]
Break
Result: ("-remote" "openurl(" "file:///usr/local/doc/HOWTO/Text-Terminal-HOWTO-9.html" nil ")")
Go...
edebug-signal: Wrong type argument: stringp, nil
Mark set
Loading emacsbug...done