Re: LYNX-DEV problem when page has only one input area

[Benjamin C. W. Sittler]

On Fri, 15 Nov 1996, Larry W. Virden, x2487 wrote:

> Re: suggestion that lynx 3 be based on an SGML.
> 
> I think a better solution than using Lynx to fetch pages would be to
> build, from scratch, a new browser, in Perl, using the excellent SGML,
> WWW, etc. modules.  I would think that it would be easier to design
> from scratch something using common components than to continue gluing
> onto the existing framework more complex components.

Actually, that's exactly the path I've followed so far. I have a minimal
single-pass renderer, but I'm thinking about switching to a dsssl system
(jade), which would allow tables and other fancy stuff. My thought is to
allow different fetching plugins (i.e. for http:, ftp: finger:, perhaps
even lynxcgi:?) and have the browser itself basically figure out what
rendering system to dispatch to. There are problems with this approach
(namely with supporting hyperlinks,) but they are by no means
insurmountable. Some of the ideas I've been bouncing around about this
which might be useful to Lynx are:
a list of conversion programs that can translate from one MIME-type to
another. (i.e. text/html -> text/sgml (normalizer))
a communication interface with all plugins, especially those that render
their results inline. (I was thinking of something like the fvwm module
interface.)
Support both text- and graphics-mode operation. 

As you can see, it'll probably be awhile before I have anything of
interest to the public :) but I'lltry to keep this list updated on what
progress I do make, since I'd like to replace Lynx eventually, or at least
the parsing and rendering stages. (Imagine actual text/sgml support!) 

Another project which is related (but not nearly as far along :( ) is to
make a program which "renders" an HTML3 + CSS document into HTML2 + Tables
+ Netscape Extensions.

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