Lynx: The Browser for the Rest of Us
With the Lynx Browser, this anchors the page.
See my note.
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Platforms
Features
Text Only
Pictures
Newsgroups
Other Browsers
Frames & Tables
Banner Command
Speed
Free Nets
How I got Here
Note: While this deals with the Commodore 64/128, it
is true of all platforms that use Lynx browsers
If You Lack a Mac, Windows, or an Amiga:
Most c64/128 users who use the
World Wide Web (WWW) use Lynx.
Exceptions include those who use
commercial on line service providers
such as Genie. These companies use a
menu system to take Commodore users
around the Web in a text only mode.
Another exception would be users of a
demo version of what may become our
answer to Netscape: The Wave.
While I have some Genie e-mail
friends, the majority of my Commodore e-
mail correspondence is with people who
are hooked directly to the Net by a
local provider. With a single
exception, they tell me they are Lynx
users.
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What it Does
Lynx is a programme that takes us
to web sites, newsgroups, and file areas
on the WWW. Unless the user is working
through an IBM clone, the programme sits
on a hard drive at a remote location.
We may see a menu which includes Lynx as
an option. Alternately we may have to
type on a command line "lynx" or "go
lynx".
There are no pictures on my monitor
while I use Lynx, unless they are in
ascii (keyboard characters used to draw
a picture). Lynx reacts to commands
typed as single letters at the bottom of
the screen and uses our cursor keys and
space bar to determine direction of
movement within and between pages. A
help screen of keyboard commands can be
called. If the novice or intermediate
levels are selected, frequently needed
commands are listed across the bottom of
the screen. The advanced user can
eliminate this menu. What then appears
at screen bottom instead will be the
name and description of whatever link
the cursor rests on. Since I can decode
off line gif images, but not jpegs, I
appreciate knowing which format is
available before I download it.
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Text Only
Normally Lynx will show only text.
When the Commodore * (asterisk) sign is
used, all image links are also shown
(but not the pictures themselves).
Lynx will download any text or
picture file. When the download choice
is made, a menu offers a choice of
downloading to the provider's disk in
your file area, or to your own disk
drive. Z modem or kermit are the
download protocols.
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To Get Pictures
The screen clean of image link
markings is aesthetically pleasing.
Image links clutter the page. I want
however to be able to download and
examine any gifs that I might find
informative or wish to collect.
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Newsgroups
Newsgroups are my main method of
staying in touch with the Commodore
community. They resemble bulletin
boards in that messages can be left
regarding a topic with the expectation
that at a later time a reader will leave
a note in reply. While dedicated
newsreader programmes exist for us shell
users, Lynx has satisfied my newsreading
needs.
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Graphical Browsers
The hypertext markup language
(html), for coding web pages has evolved
in major ways annually, and
incrementally on almost a weekly basis.
Graphical browsers such as Netscape can
display pictures in either the good for
drawings gif format, or photograph
quality jpeg mode. They now use tables
which line up information in columns and
rows. Frames break the screen into
windows, each of which can contain
different pages of information.
Animated gif files can rotate a series
of images on screen automatically to
either provide a slide show or slow
animation. "Push pull" programming can
send at pre-timed intervals, new pages
from the home site, to provide a slide
show or sequential statements.
Javascript can loop statements through
the bottom bar of the screen.
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Frames, Tables et al
Lynx can adjust for some of these
innovations. For on line images we must
use ascii pictures, drawn with keyboard
characters. Some attributes of tables
can be reproduced in Lynx lists. If a
lining up of data is required, Lynx
sensitive page creators use the "pre"
command to freeze a table created in a
word processor into a simple table with
no edges, and typewriter text. The
newest editions of Lynx (2.5 and up),
can show the pages of a framed screen
sequentially. Older editions showed a
title for a frame, with a blank screen.
Animated gif files each contain several
gif images. If the same gif is
repeatedly downloaded, eventually all of
the images will be on disk for off line
decoding. Most creators of "push-pull"
pages also allow the impatient user to
click on a button that will load the
next screen.
Lynx cannot
automatically scroll text as Javascipt
in Netscape or Marquee in Explorer does.
We can however manually scroll text if a
form is set up appropriately.
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The Banner Command
Lynx has an alternative to one
aspect of frames. If the Banner tag is
used in constructing the page, the # key
will take us from any where on a page,
even several screens down, to the top of
the beginning screen on a web page.
Some of us place a navigation bar in
that banner area, so that movement among
pages is easier. The "cursor back
arrow" returns the user to the starting
position several screens down. The
banner tag is unique to Lynx. The
graphical browsers may be avoiding it
because it too closely resembles a
purpose of frames.
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Speed
Lynx runs in some cases on very
fast university computers. Universities
tend to have fast connection lines to
the Net "backbone". Lynx's shell
location is the fast unix system. It
does not have to wade through the
Windows environment. It does not have
to draw pictures on screen. Perhaps for
these reasons, it tends to be faster
than even the text mode of Netscape.
Other factors are still capable, however
of slowing any browser. During the
heavy traffic times of the day, I still
find that I am typing my e-mail ahead of
the cursor. Even at these times though,
movement between web sites and pages,
and scrolling of these pages, is much
quicker with Lynx than with other
browsers.
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Free Nets
Some cautions: Lynx is free to
your shell provider. He should not
charge you for its use, or refuse to
supply it because of copyright problems.
If you only have telnet access to the
Internet, join a freenet- anywhere in
the world. Virtually all provide a Lynx
service which will include an on line
file storage area, space to set up a web
page of your own, an e-mail account, and
the ability to up and download WWW
materials. Since you are telnetting to
the freenet, there should not be the
usual busy signals that dial in users
have. My freenet refuses to use a Lynx
more recent than the 9.4 version. While
I use my freenet's services, I telnet to
"sailor.lib.md.us" in order to use Lynx
2.5 which allows me to sequentially view
frames, and provides me more information
from tables. The 2.6 improvements are
more subtle.
We Commodore users as usual make a
virtue out of necessity. Most of us
must use Lynx if we are to use the World
Wide Web. We share this need with
owners of other "computer orphans" such
as the pre- 386 IBM clones, and others
who do not own an Amiga or Macintosh.
When "The Wave" is available in its
completed form, I may be able to view
still images from both gif and jpeg
files on my Commodore screen while I am
still on line. I will enjoy the
privilege. There will be purposes,
however, for which Lynx will still be my
choice.
If you are a "cross-user", and use
a 8086/8088/286 as a server for your
Commodore, you do not have to depend on
a shell to explore the Net. There is a
version of Lynx that will run from your
computer. While it lacks some of Lynx's
more recent features, it makes you
independent of a shell provider. Since
your clone is your server, you would
then use a null modem cable, Big Blue
Reader, or a programme and cable such as
64Net to move your data to your
Commodore.
If you are willing to pay a few
dollars an hour, some of the national on
line companies will make you, the
Commodore user, feel at home, with chat
areas, newsgroups, and downloadable
files, all available via menu
selections.
Lynx, however, is the browser for
the rest of us.
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How I Got Here
Note: I composed my Web site entirely
with a word processor on a c64. I
ported the files to an ms dos disk with
Big Blue Reader and tested it on an
IBM clone with Netscape 2.0. I handed
the disk to my provider for uploading
since I do not have direct access to my
provider's file area. So as not to
bother him, I only update and correct my
errors every few weeks. With that
proviso, it might be useful to look at
the ways I have tried to use both Lynx
and Netscape features at my site.
Contents Table
To send me e-
mail
John Elliott
prof90@hotmail.com
Voice & Fax:902-893-7043
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