This library deals with the very system-dependent task of opening a
web page in a browser. See also library(url) and the HTTP
package.
- www_open_url(+URL)
- Open URL in an external web browser. The reason to place this
in the library is to centralise the maintenance on this highly platform-
and browser-specific task. It distinguishes between the following cases:
- MS-Windows
If it detects MS-Windows it uses win_shell/2
to open the URL. The behaviour and browser started depends on
the version of Windows and Windows-shell configuration, but in general
it should be the behaviour expected by the user.
- Other platforms
On other platforms it tests the environment variable (see getenv/2)
named BROWSER or uses netscape if this variable is
not set. If the browser is either mozilla or netscape,
www_open_url/1
first tries to open a new window on a running browser using the -remote
option of Netscape. If this fails or the browser is not mozilla
or netscape the system simply passes the URL as first
argument to the program.