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copyright 1996-2000, oedipal enterprises, (very) ltd.
a project of cyber-seeing-i
Table of Contents
download Blynx32 (705k): a blind-tailored distribution of the latest Windows 9x/NT port of Lynx; includes instructions on how to add support for multimedia events
lingua franca be damned! Circumnavigating the Web with Lynx and Kermit details how to crawl the web in any of the languages/charsets supported by Kermit
thedirectory, "the most complete directory of Internet Service/Access Providers & BBSes available online", contains information about ISPs in over 100 countries
While Lynx now has its own web site, the motherlode of information on Lynx, updates, patches, and all manner of Lynx-related information is still Subir Grewal's Lynx Links, the site formally known as the Lynx Enhanced pages...
Lynx Help!--if you're using Lynx and these pages don't automatically appear when you type 'h', bookmark 'em, Dano!
BLYNX: Speech- and Braille-Friendly Documentation and Support
Mark Mentovai's Lynx Page, which contains his SSL Patch for Lynx 2.8.xgive something back by signing the Lynx Developer's Guestbook, and let Foteos and the rest of the Lynx-Dev consortium know just how much you appreciate Lynx
Lynx 2.8.4 was released by The Lynx Developmental Consortium on July 17, 2001. This distribution incorporates the 2.8.3 distribution, released April 23, 2000, along with all of the subsequently issued bug fixes and upgrade patches. Anyone contemplating compiling their own version of Lynx should consider using Tom Dickey and Jim Spath's experimental Autoconfigure Script, after consulting Subir Grewal's Utilitarian Guide to Building and Installing Lynx and/or Larry Virden's Average Users' Lynx Installation Guide.
The following is a list of sites that permit public Lynx access via telnet the sites are listed in descending order by version number--in other words, the most recent releases first, older versions last. The first line of each entry contains the telnet address, the second line the login name you need to use, and the third line contains the password, while the fourth line states which version of Lynx is available at that site.
Note that the default setting for most of the publicly accessible versions of Lynx is "numbers act as arrows", so the first thing you will need to do after logging in is:
Of course, the drawback to using a publicly available version of Lynx is that you can't save links to a bookmark file, nor can you use a personal lynx.cfg or .lynxrc (the configuration files that allow you to save your tailored settings and use them as the default settings) still, using a newer version of lynx should fill you with enough righteous indignation that you won't rest--or, rather, you won't let your sys admin rest--until he or she upgrades... and if you need ammunition to bolster your arguments for an upgrade, consult:
<http://www.crl.com/~subir/lynx/upgrade.html>
WARNING! most of the information archived at UKans is obsolete, as the University of Kansas ceased supporting Lynx with the release of Lynx 2.4.2 in September 1995. The following links are indexed here as a service to those users whose ISPs adamantly refuse to upgrade. For information about the latest release of Lynx, consult Subir Grewal's Extremely Lynx, check out his strategies for persuading your ISP to upgrade Lynx, or, simply download the current release of Lynx, along with the latest patches, and email it to your sys admin!
The current developmental Lynx is continuously being ported to two new PC platforms. The ports are for Win32 (95 and NT only) and for 386+ PCs running DOS. The term port means that these versions will be able to follow the development of Lynx as it continues to grow. If you have a PC with a processor less than 386 (i.e. 286), then you might want to investigate other DOS-based options such as Bobcat or Nettamer.
The Win32 version, Lynx32 (lynx_w32.zip) will work on Win95 or WinNT using the standard winsock. It will NOT work with Win3.11, not even with win32s and wolverine installed. It is a console application, which means that it appears to run in a DOS box within Windows 95/NT, but it that it accesses the Windows network layer and other kernel functions directly.
Note, that although Lynx32 is a Win32 version of Lynx, it still works in text mode and NOT as a GUI. If you are using speech-synthesis, this means that you can use either a DOS-based screen-reader or a windows-based screen reader capable of reading windowed DOS boxes to voice Lynx. If you are using a screen-reader, you should download the blind-tailored version of the current Lynx32 release
The 386+ version, lynx_386.zip runs in DOS and requires a 386 or higher and some sort of packet driver. if you get a no DPMI error message when you attempt to run Lynx386, you need to download csdpmi3b.zip If you get a coprocessor not available error message when you attempt to run Lynx386, you need emu387.dxe
NOTE: As of the latest release, Lynx386 does not yet support FTP or NEWS.
Since there are a lot of quirks and tricks to maximizing the usability of the PC ports of Lynx, be sure to read the readme.txt to find answers to the most frequently asked questions about the PC ports.
For the latest information concerning the PC ports of Lynx, please consult Wayne Buttle's Lynx Port Pages.
Rene Ludwig's lynx_kit.exe: an executable file which contains the current build of Lynx ported for use in the DOS environment, a PPP packet driver, and configuration files for several different ISPs. (Note: Requires at least a 386 PC with a math coprocesser.)
BOBCAT is a text-based web browser, developed by Wayne Buttles and John Lewis, that runs in a DOS environment. Bobcat, by definition, is a small Lynx. To quote Wayne:
The name was picked to imply that it is a less mature sibling to the Lynx browser. Bobcat started life as Lynx2-4-2. The reason 2-4-2 was chosen is because starting at 2-5, many files in the Lynx distribution became too big to compile out of the package targeted towards a plain DOS version. There have been many changes since 2-4-2, however, it does support many things that DOSLYNX didn't. I have also made many modifications to Bobcat's original behavior to make it more functional.
... After that I made personal decisions on what to support. Although it may disappoint some people, news support is not in Bobcat. It never worked correctly in DOSLYNX and I didn't feel it was a priority. Gopher and Ftp should hopefully work to some degree, but they are not the top priority either. The important thing, as far as I am concerned, is good web support. This is the reason for cutting corners on the other features. There is a new feature added to Bobcat that will allow people to define external programs for certain URLs. This product uses the SPAWNO routines by Ralf Brown to minimize memory use while shelling to DOS and running other programs. Hopefully this will help compensate for Bobcat's shortcomings.
This new Lynx for DOS is a big switch from DOSLYNX. It is Curses based, so it looks like the real Lynx. It does not have pull down menus or a multiple document interface. I prefer the real Lynx interface which is partially why I made the switch in development. Other good reasons for starting with a new code base are support for forms, numeric links, view source, history list and other features which were not available in DOSLYNX. ...
The first versions of Bobcat have severe memory constraints because of the way the original Lynx was designed. In Un*x, programs assume they have unlimited memory and the programs are coded as such. Bobcat has yet to have memory checking added to it, so when you run out of the tiny amount of conventional memory available it will very unceremoniously drop you to the DOS prompt.
It is important to note that Bobcat is NOT a true Lynx port. It is a work based on Lynx--specifically, Lynx 2.4.2 This means that it can not keep up with the current Lynx development code, nor can Lynx patches be added to Bobcat. While the 386 and Win32 ports of Lynx have this ability, Bobcat can run on older PCs--even those with a 8086 processor. This also means, however, that Bobcat has some serious limitations, including a tendency to crash when it encounters pages larger than 100 kilobytes large. Yet, if you are using a pre-386 computer to access the internet, Bobcat is an extremely speech-friendly web-access solution.
Bobcat is currently in its fifth release, and is available as a self-extracting archive, BCAT-E05.EXE, which was released on September 17, 1997. It now supports many, if not most, CGA adapters. The 0.5 package also has new TCP drivers, dialers, and support documentation, including an interactive tutorial. Consult the Bobcat change.log for complete information on new features and bugfixes--a brief listing of which follows:
Changes to Bobcat Executable Package, 17 September 1997 (E-05)
The latest version of Bobcat can always be found at:
<http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/bobcats/>
Oliver Gutknecht, of the Laboratoire d'Informatique, Robotique et Micro-Electronique de Montpellier, has developed a Lynx port that runs on the Macintosh. The release, MacLynx 2.7.1 beta1, was last updated on July 1, 1997, and should run on PowerPC and 680x0 Macs with System 7.1 or later (7.5 preferred), with MacTCP or OpenTransport, with 1 Mb (2 Mb preferred).
The source code is based on the release of Lynx, version 2.7.1, with some additions from later developmental versions.
Two Notes of Caution:
A StuffIt archive containing 680x0 & PowerPC binaries of MacLynx, can be obtained from:
<http://www.lirmm.fr/~gutkneco/maclynx/maclynx_beta1.sit.hqx> (France)
For more information, contact Olivier Gutknecht:
<gutkneco@lirmm.fr>
or consult his web site for more information
To keep abreast of current developments in the evolution of MacLynx, consult:
A port of Lynx 2.7.1 & 2.8 for OS/2 is available from:
<http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~jmcbray/lynx/>
The port was developed by Jason McBrayer <Jason.McBrayer@tulane.edu> and is being used successfully on systems at Tulane.
Another option is "Lynx/2", a divergent text browser for OS/2 based on a very old Lynx. It has undergone extensive unilateral development (code which has not been publicly released for inclusion into the "mainstream" Lynx) and can handle tables, frames, and java with relative ease. Binaries and more detailed information about Lynx/2 are available from:
<http://www.cris.com/~djd/products.html>
Lynx/2 is being developed by Derek Decker. Users of Lynx/2 are strongly encouraged to email Derek Decker at <djd@cris.com> to ask him to release the source for Lynx/2 so that the work he has done on expanding Lynx's capabilities and roboustness can be used in the development of "mainstream" Lynx.
check your HTML code for errors with:
Doctor HTML retrieves a Web page and performs several tests to test the robustness of your document. Select which tests you want Doctor HTML to perform, enter the URL that you want the Doctor to examine, and choose "The Doctor Will See You Now" to submit the page for examination.
Note that, depending on the size of your page, the examination may take a while, so please be patient while Doctor HTML examines the page. Also note that Doctor HTML will NOT examine any page whose HTML and text exceedes 40000 bytes in legnth, unless you or your service provider purchases a Doctor HTML license.
Doctor HTML is Copyright 1995, 1996 by Thomas Tongue and Imagiware
Personal Page Designer (PPD) is a very simple DOS-based HTML editor which allows you to design a page without any knowledge of HTML
Convert WordPerfect documents to HTML files withThe Web Accessibility Initiative's unparalelled collection of Web Accessibility Resources
Perhaps the best introduction to web crawling from the "blind point of view" is E. Barnett's Picture This: Designing Web Pages for the Blind
Of particular utility is Judith Dixon's excellent article, Levelling the Road Ahead: Guidelines for the Creation of Web Pages Accessible to Blind and Visually Handicapped Users
The CAST Center's Bobby is an automated verifier, which checks your pages for accessibility...
Dominique Archambault's "livre blanc", Le Web plus accessible pur les aveugles et malvoyants, is also available in English as:Check your pages for Lynx-compatibility (or, rather, comprehesability) with the following simulators:
NOTE: while the only one hundred percent reliable way to judge how your sites are rendered by Lynx is to view them with Lynx--something which can be accomplished via a telnet connection to a server that offers public access to Lynx to anonymous users--the following simulators give you a reasonable idea of how your site will be rendered by a text-based browser
Register for Free Home Page at Angelfire Communications
HTML Help by The Web Design Group is perhaps the most cogent and well-organized site of its kind. Of particular utility are WDG's offline versions of its reference materials.
converted to HTML4 &
CSS2 March 1999
contents of this page last modified June 7, 2003