[Lynx-dev] Help customize: screen size, color, text size; status bar covers hotkey listing

[Daniel Bridges]

I am sorry for the repetition; I was not aware I had to confirm my subscription to this mailing list, and so I might not have received any previous responses to this letter. If you have already responded, I have not received any mail, so please do share your response again …

Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2016 23:11
Subject: Help customize: screen size, color, text size; status bar covers hotkey listing

 

‎Thank you for your time. I am an intermediate computer user, having failed to use multiple versions of Linux in the past (mostly Ubuntu). Currently using Windows 10 Pro, 64-bit, on the Surface Pro 4 in Japan (USA regional settings, English from first-time screen), I used the Win32 installer lynx-cs-setup.exe , likely from http://invisible-island.net/lynx/ ; I think it was “Current patch built with curses (color-style)”.

 

My overarching problem is that manual installation and editing configuration files appears advanced; I don’t know what to do. I tried figuring it out months ago on an old MacBook Pro and wound up installing lynxlet instead after writing to you. I cannot use the Lynx main help and User Guide because I cannot see it (e.g. recurring blue text on black), and because it is not clear to me which section has the answers I seek; I don’t currently have time to read it cover-to-cover.

 

My problems are:

1.       The content does not resize with making the window larger; I’d like to use it full-screen in addition to any size.

2.       Blue text is basically impossible for me to read against the black background. (I want to keep the black background.)

3.       I would like to make the text larger. It is a little too small, difficult to see.

4.       For ‘a name’ hyperlinks to a section of a webpage, there appears to be no text highlight when moving between them with the down arrow. (Example: http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/21 ; is there a way to copy-to-clipboard the current page’s URL from within Lynx?)

5.       Text remains ‘burned onto’ the screen after navigating away, apparently from resizing the window – clicking the ‘maximize’ and ‘unmaximize’ button in the top-right window corner, and scrolling the text back into view after unmaximizing, and then navigating to a new screen.

6.       The status bar, e.g. “press space for next page”, covered the hotkey info, i.e. the “H)elp O)ptions” etc. listing, I think after maximizing the window, possibly the first time I used it after installation. I have not been able to cause this problem to repeat.

7.       I understand Lynx uses the terminal or something similar (bash?) and there’s a good reason why the mouse and clicking doesn’t work, but it would be nice if this feature could be implemented, to click on links (or use touchscreen). I could list other things I’d love to see, e.g. the “pinch out to zoom in” type touchscreen features.

 

I found documentation seemingly related to problem #1, I think from the User Guide:

>For win32, allow the console window to be resized to the given values. This requires PDCurses 2.5. The values given are width,height.

>Default value

> SCREEN_SIZE:80,24

> Support for this setting was disabled at compile-time.

 

Does this mean resizing the content to match window size is impossible if one has used the lynx-cs-setup.exe Win32 installer? Is there a better 64-bit version instead?

 

I intend to browse the help documentation mentioned on the startup window eventually, but I have very little spare time.

Would you please add this software to the Windows Store? I think it could become more popular. I did not find any Apps like Lynx searching for text web browsers.

I am very grateful for a text web browser, and would like to become a supporter and proponent of it. In addition to being ad-free, I think it promotes mental health and productivity. Thank you for making it! (What programming languages would I need to learn to contribute?)

Regards,

DB