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Re: [Lynx-dev] Broken link in help page
|
From: |
Thomas Dickey |
|
Subject: |
Re: [Lynx-dev] Broken link in help page |
|
Date: |
Tue, 19 Sep 2023 14:58:08 -0400 (EDT) |
https://web.archive.org/web/20100502012619/http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~purslow/lhfb.html
----- Original Message -----
| From: "Philip Webb" <purslow@ca.inter.net>
| To: "Thomas Dickey" <dickey@his.com>
| Cc: "lynx-dev listserv" <lynx-dev@nongnu.org>
| Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2023 2:17:28 PM
| Subject: Re: [Lynx-dev] Broken link in help page
| 230919 Thomas Dickey wrote:
|> On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 08:19:01PM -0400, Philip Webb wrote:
|>> 230918 Thomas Dickey wrote:
|>>> On Mon, Sep 18, 2023 at 12:57:06PM +0200, Ali RAFIQ wrote:
|>>>> I just want to inform you about a broken link in your help page :
|>>>> <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~purslow/lhfb.html> — quick help
|>>> thanks - I see it's been gone a while (Internet Archive has a copy)
|>> I sent a response with a copy of the HTML file earlier today :
|>> did you not see it ?
|> no - I've seen no other mail from you this week, so far
|
| Here is the file again. CHASS closed down some time ago,
| so the URLs below will need to be changed or removed :
|
| <!-- X-URL: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~purslow/lhfb.html -->
| <!-- Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 03:45:42 GMT -->
| <!-- Last-Modified: Thu, 18 May 2000 04:10:21 GMT -->
| <BASE HREF="http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~purslow/lhfb.html";>
|
| <HTML>
| <HEAD><TITLE>Lynx Help for Beginners</TITLE>
| </HEAD>
|
| <BODY BGCOLOR="f0f0f0">
|
| <H1>Copying:</H1>
|
| This document was created by Philip Webb as a service to Lynx users.<BR>
| It may be copied -- with minor formatting changes -- , provided<BR>
| no other changes are made & authorship is clearly acknowledged.<BR>
| Any other reproduction constitutes breach of copyright.
| <P>
| Readers are encouraged to inform <A HREF="mailto:purslow@chass.utoronto.ca";>
| the author</A><BR> of any apparent errors or omissions.
|
| <H1>Introduction:</H1>
|
| This outline is specially for people who are just starting to use Lynx
| or have used it for some time without exploring its features very far.
| It answers the sorts of questions everyone asks at first.<BR>
| For a more systematic account of Lynx, the Internet & related matters,<BR>
| explore the many links on the Main Help Page: to go there, enter `h' .
| <P>
| You should be aware that there are 3 levels of Lynx user:
| <P>
| <OL><LI><EM>Anonymous</EM>, who have free access to the Internet<BR>
| without a personal password, typically via a library or freenet:<BR>
| some Lynx features may not be available to them,<BR>
| depending on the system manager;
| <LI><EM>Shell accounts</EM>, which normally require a password,<BR>
| but give users general access to a computer system like UNIX:<BR>
| again, the system manager controls some features of Lynx;<BR>
| a variation on this is people who use a pre-compiled binary<BR>
| & are constrained by the choices of whoever made it;
| <LI><EM>Self-compiled</EM>, ie people who compile their own Lynx<BR>
| in their own PC or in their own directory under eg UNIX:<BR>
| they have complete control over how Lynx is configured.
| </OL>
| If you find some features outlined below are not available & you fall
| into the first 2 groups, you should consult your system manager<BR>
| to find out whether their version of Lynx is limited by them;<BR>
| if you fall into Group 3, you should check <CITE>userdefs.h</CITE>
| & <CITE>lynx.cfg</CITE><BR> to see what you need to change.
| You should also check settings<BR>
| in the Options screen, which most users can change (enter `o').
|
| <H1>Contents:</H1>
|
| <UL>
| <LI><A HREF="#CP">Moving around the current document</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#GT">Using the goto & jump -- `g j' -- commands</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#ES">How to escape from things</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#UI">Some useful information commands</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#BF">The bookmark file</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#OP">Options</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#FS">Forms & security</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#FI">Tables, frames, images, cookies, style sheets</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#CS">Character sets</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#GS">Grabbing stuff without being interactive</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#HT">Creating a WWW page with Lynx</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#BC">There's a bug or a crash!</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#SL">Which systems does Lynx run on?</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#VI">Lynx for the blind and visually impaired</A>
| <LI><A HREF="#IC">Who's in charge of Lynx?</A>
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="CP">Moving around the current document:</A></H1>
| <H2>Simple commands:</H2>
|
| <UL><LI>to goto the beginning/end of the document, enter `^a' or `^e' ;
| <LI>to move up/down by 1 screen, enter `-' or `Space' ;
| <LI>to move up/down by half-a-screen, enter `)' or `(' ;
| <LI>to move up/down by 2 lines, enter `^p' or `^n' ;
| <LI>no, you can't move the screen just 1 line at a time.
| </UL>
|
| <H2>Numbered links:</H2>
|
| <UL><LI>You can number the links in each document:<BR>
| enter `o' for Options, then `k' for Keypad Mode.
| <LI>If links are numbered, `123' takes you straight to URL [123]:<BR>
| ie you can get a document just by entering its link number;
| <LI>`123g' simply moves the hilite to link [123]<BR>
| without downloading that document;
| <LI>`123p' takes you to the top of page 123 in the current document;
| <LI>you can also add `+' & `-' to give relative movements:<BR>
| eg `7p+' goes down 7 pages & `5-' follows the 5th link above.
| </UL>
|
| <H2>Searching:</H2>
|
| <UL><LI>One way to skip around long documents is to search with `/' ;
| <LI>enter `n' for the next occurrence of the same string;
| <LI>you can recall previous strings with `UpArrow' or `DownArrow'
| after you have entered `/' & then edit them:<BR>
| for line-editor commands, see the Main Help Page.
| <LI>No, you can't search backwards using Lynx,<BR>
| but Lynx will search again from the beginning of the file<BR>
| if there isn't an occurrence ahead of you.
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="GT">Using the goto & jump -- `g j' -- commands:</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>You can enter any URL following `g':<BR>
| Lynx will supply `http://' if you omit it<BR>
| & may guess if you omit part of the URL (eg `www.' or `.ca').
| <LI>You can recall previous URLs using `UpArrow' or `DownArrow'<BR>
| & edit them (see Main Help Page for details of the line editor).
| <LI>To access files on your own machine start with `file://localhost',
| followed by the full path for the file.
| <LI>You can use `g' to send e-mail by starting with `mailto:'<BR>
| -- <EM>no</EM> `//' -- ; you can include the current document<BR>
| in the e-mail & edit it as you wish.
| <LI>You can goto the current directory on your machine by entering `.'
| following `g': all subdirectories & files are listed as links,<BR>
| as is the next-higher directory.
| </UL>
| <UL><LI>There is also the jump command `j', which allows you to call URLs<BR>
| from a prepared list in your jumpfile; you need to define the file<BR>
| in <EM>lynx.cfg</EM> & add whatever URLs you commonly consult.
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="ES">How to escape from things:</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>`q' exits Lynx, but prompts first;
| <LI>`Q' exits without a prompt; `^d' is an emergency exit;
| <LI>`^z' suspends Lynx, going to the original shell:<BR>
| in UNIX, `fg' returns to Lynx;
| <LI>`!' suspends Lynx, creating a new shell: `exit' returns;
| <LI>`z' interrupts a mistaken or slow download.
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="UI">Some useful information commands:</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>`h' gets you the full range of on-line help files;
| <LI>`k' gives a list of keystrokes with their functions;
| <LI>`l' lists all the links in the current document.
| <LI>`o' goes to the Options list, where you can change settings;
| <LI>`V' lists <EM>all</EM> the documents you have visited in order;
| <LI>`^h' lists <EM>just</EM> those documents you will return to<BR>
| with a series of `LeftArrow' commands;
| <LI>`=' gives details of the current document & link;
| <LI>`g' followed by `lynxmessages:' recalls recent Lynx messages.
| </UL>
|
| <UL><LI>The bottom line of the screen is controlled by an option:<BR>
| you probably have it set to Novice, with 2 lines of help;<BR>
| you can change it to show the URL of the current <EM>link</EM><BR>
| by entering `o' & then changing to Advanced Mode.
| </UL>
|
| <UL><LI>
| If you forget what you defined in <EM>lynx.cfg</EM> or don't control it,<BR>
| you can find out by entering `g' followed by the URL `lynxcfg:' ;<BR>
| your binary's compile options are shown by `lynxcompileopts:' .
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="BF">The bookmark file:</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>`a' adds the current document URL to your bookmark file;
| <LI>`v' calls up the bookmark file with its links;
| <LI>`r' is supposed to remove bookmarks, but can be cantankerous:<BR>
| it is best to use an editor to remove the bookmark line directly;
| <LI>NB <EM>don't</EM> add or alter bookmark-file lines,<BR>
| except for simple changes of name or URL;
| <LI>it's a good idea to keep a back-up copy of your bookmark file,<BR>
| in case some inadvertent error renders it unusable.
| <LI><A HREF="http://caunter.ca/README.options";>Stefan Caunter</A>
| has a good account of the multi-bookmarks option.
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="OP">Options:</A></H1>
|
| These are accessed via 'o':
| a good account is at <A HREF="http://caunter.ca/README.options";>Stefan
Caunter's
| page</A>
|
| <H1><A NAME="FS">Forms & security:</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>You can use your regular editor in a textarea<BR>
| & there are various commands for extending a textarea:<BR>
| see <EM>Users Guide</EM> for details (starting with 2-8-2).
| <LI>If you want to enter a regular Lynx command in the middle of a form,
| enter `^v', which will ask for the command: this also allows you
| to exit the form by jumping to another part of the document;
| </UL>
| <UL><LI>You can access `https' sites using Lynx,
| but you need <A HREF="http://www.cryptsoft.com/";>SSLeay</A><BR>
| & must compile in <A HREF="http://www.moxienet.com/lynx/";>SSL patches</A>;
| there are strict restrictions <BR> if you live in the USA
| & looser rules apply if you live in Canada;
| <LI>For more detailed help see <EM>README.ssl </EM> in the Lynx doc directory.
| </UL>
| <UL><LI>You can use Lynx with a proxy: see <EM>lynx.cfg</EM>.
| </UL>
| <H1><A NAME="FI">Tables, frames, images, cookies, style sheets:</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI><EM>Table</EM> rendering has been improved: Lynx 2-8-3dev.14 tests<BR>
| if tables are simple enough to allow column-formatting,<BR>
| but is still constrained by being a 1-pass browser<BR>
| & problems still arise if there are unexpected tags in the table.
| Tom Zerucha's gawk program is a big help for UNIX users
| <A HREF="http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/%7Epurslow/lytable.html";> here</A>.
| <LI><EM>Frames</EM> are fully accessible to Lynx, but are displayed
| as separate documents, preceded by a document listing them as links:
| <EM>don't</EM> be put off by warnings that "Your browser doesn't
| understand frames: get Notstraight or Exploiter":
| these should simply be ignored.
| <LI><EM>Images</EM> can be downloaded using Lynx; you can also compile
| Lynx <BR> to use a viewer like xv, if you have the necessary system access.
| <LI><EM>Cookies</EM> are handled by Lynx:<BR>
| for details see <EM>lynx.cfg</EM>
| or <A HREF="http://caunter.ca/README.cookies";>Stefan Caunter's page</A>;<BR>
| the cookie jar can be examined via '^k', which explains what to do with it.
| <LI><EM>Style sheets</EM> control the appearance of Lynx:<BR>
| the basic file is <EM>/usr/local/etc/lynx.lss</EM> (or a similar
location);<BR>
| when building Lynx, you can configure with <EM>lynx --with-lss=''</EM><BR>
| or you can use an empty <EM>lynx.lss</EM> file;
| colors can be manipulated via <EM>lynx.cfg</EM><BR>
| & <EM>/usr/local/share/lynx_docs/samples/oldlynx</EM> can be used as well.
|
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="CS">Character sets:</A></H1>
|
| Lynx 2-8 (or later) has good support for multilingual character sets:<P>
| <UL><LI>to see 8-bit characters properly,<BR>
| enter `o', goto the Display Character Set,<BR>
| then fill in the one corresponding to the font<BR>
| you <EM>really</EM> have installed for your terminal;
| <LI>if you're not sure, try `7 bit approximation' as the safest.
| <LI>You can tell the remote site which characters to use:<BR>
| enter `o', then goto Preferred Document Character Set.
| <LI>Some documents look broken because they do not specify<BR>
| the character set properly: you can complain to the author,<BR>
| but if you know what the character set should be,<BR>
| enter `o', then choose Assumed Charset from the pop-up list.
| </UL>
| Getting character sets right is quite complex,<BR>
| as there are so many variations of server/client/document,<BR>
| so you may need to look in the Users' Guide -- `h' --<BR>
| or if you have access to it look in <EM>lynx.cfg</EM>,<BR>
| which has a long account of all the alternatives.<P>
|
| If you want to see the accents on French, German or Spanish words<BR>
| e.g. in news stories, it's not too difficult with
| <A HREF="http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/";>Kermit</A>,<BR>
| which is free (tho' you are encouraged to buy the manual)<BR>
| & boasts very powerful translation abilities;<BR>
| you must have appropriate versions at both ends of the wire.<BR>
| With Lynx character-set ISO-Latin-1 & `transparent' in C-Kermit<BR>
| & the ordinary N American codepage 437 in MS-DOS,<BR>
| add 2 lines to <EM>mskermit.ini</EM>:
| <PRE>
|
| set display 8-bit
| set transf char latin1
|
| </PRE>
| The former gives the correct accents within Lynx<BR>
| & the latter allows downloading them from UNIX to your PC<BR>
| after printing them to a file from Lynx.
|
| <H1><A NAME="GS">Grabbing stuff without being interactive:</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>You can use Lynx on the command line (with shell access):<BR>
| eg `lynx http://lynx.browser.org/ >file.d1' (without quotes),<BR>
| which will download that URL into that file;
| <LI>there are a lot of switches you can use:<BR>
| enter `lynx -help >file.d1' to copy the list into a file;
| <LI>there's also a very useful utility called
| <A HREF="ftp://gnjilux.cc.fer.hr/pub/unix/util/wget/";>wget</A>,<BR>
| tho' it is not distributed or supported by Lynx volunteers;
| <LI>another useful tool for automating tasks is
| <A HREF="http://expect.nist.gov/";>expect</A>,<BR>
| also independent of Lynx & its developers.
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="HT">Creating a WWW page with Lynx:</A></H1>
|
| Lynx makes it easy to build & edit your own WWW documents:<P>
|
| <UL><LI>first, create a skeleton HTML document with an editor;
| <LI>call up Lynx with the command `lynx yourfile.html',<BR>
| where `yourfile.html' is the skeleton document,<BR>
| or enter `g', then `file://localhost/path/to/yourfile.html';
| <LI>enter `e' & Lynx will present the source file for editing;
| <LI>exit the editor & Lynx will show you the rendered page again.
| </UL>
|
| You <EM>must</EM> have the editor specified in <EM>lynx.cfg</EM><BR>
| & you <EM>must</EM> call up the document as a <EM>local file</EM>.<P>
|
| <H1><A NAME="BC">There's a bug or a crash!</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>Lynx is very well tested by real-life users, so bugs are rare.
| <LI>If Lynx refuses to start, the problem may be that it can't find<BR>
| the start-page for some reason: you can try using a local file<BR>
| with the command `lynx file://localhost/FULL/PATH/TO/YOUR/FILE'<BR>
| or simply `lynx .' (yes, that's a dot).
| <LI>One common problem encountered by beginners is that the version
| they are using is out-of-date: the Internet & other browsers are
| continually developing & Lynx tries to keep up, so it is important
| to use the latest Lynx, if you can: see <A HREF="#IC">Who's in charge?</A>
| <LI>To find your version number, enter `=' .
| </UL>
| <UL>
| <LI>Another common problem is that many sites have bad HTML<BR>
| -- are badly written -- , sometimes <EM>very</EM> bad!<BR>
| Lynx tries to do its best to interpret messy HTML<BR>
| & you can try the `tagsoup' parser, which can be set with `^v'<BR>
| or in the Options page under `HTML error recovery',<BR>
| but beginners should probably just accept that some site owners<BR>
| are less clever than they think & move on to another site.
| <LI>One frequent type of bad HTML is badly formatted <EM>comments</EM>,<BR>
| which can sometimes cause a whole screen or document to be blank:
| you can change the way Lynx parses comments with " ` " or " ' ".
| <LI>You can have a look at the source code for the document using `\',
| a good way of finding what may be wrong if you understand HTML.
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="SL">Which systems does Lynx run on?</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>Lynx can be used on UNIX, VMS, Win32, NT, DOS 386,<BR>
| OS/2, Mac, Amiga, OS390, BS2000 & Nextstep: however,<BR>
| not all systems are equally supported by the volunteer developers;
| <LI>for set-up on M$ Windows see
| <A HREF="lynx_for_windows.html">Dale Landry</A>;
| <LI>for very small computers there is also
| <A HREF="http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/bobcat.htm";>Bobcat</A>
| & <A HREF="http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/doslynx.htm";>DosLynx</A>,<BR>
| which are not as well supported;
| <LI>for more information, see under <A HREF="#IC">Who's in charge?</A>
| </UL>
|
| <H1><A NAME="VI">Lynx for the blind and visually impaired:</A></H1>
|
| There is a <A HREF="http://leb.net/blinux/blynx/";>speech-friendly page</A>
| in the Lynx on-line help.<P>
|
| Some other sources of information around Lynx and the Internet<BR>
| for the blind and visually impaired:<P>
|
| <UL><LI><A HREF="mailto:lras@loc.gov";>Lloyd Rasmussen</A>;
| <LI><A HREF="mailto:oedipus@leb.net";>Gregory Rosmaita</A>
| and his <A HREF="http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/";>site</A>;
| <LI><A HREF="mailto:leaves@intac.com";>Laura Eaves</A>;
| <LI><A HREF="mailto:kford@teleport.com";>Kelly Ford</A>.
| </UL>
|
| All these people are volunteers, who may be too busy<BR>
| to answer your inquiries quickly or at all.<P>
|
| <A HREF="http://www.loc.gov/nls/";>
| US National Library Service for the Blind & Physically Handicapped</A><BR>
| has some information about Internet resources.<P>
|
| <A HREF="http://www.empowermentzone.com/lynxtips.txt";>
| Visually Impaired Computer Users Group</A><BR>
| offers a lot of advice for using Lynx & related software.<P>
|
| There is a list-server
| <A HREF="mailto:listserv@uafsysb.uark.edu";>blind-l</A>,
| to which you can subscribe<BR>
| by sending the single line `subscribe blind-l' (omit the quotes).<P>
|
| Feel free to ask questions from <A HREF="mailto:lynx-dev@sig.net";>lynx-dev</A>
| whenever you wish.
|
| <H1><A NAME="IC">Who's in charge of Lynx?</A></H1>
|
| <UL><LI>Lynx was created c 1994 at the University of Kansas<BR>
| & is now distributed under the GPL.<BR>
| <LI>Today -- February 2007 -- Lynx is maintained by Thomas Dickey.
| <LI>For all information about Lynx & how to get the latest version,
| goto <A HREF="http://lynx.isc.org/";>lynx.isc.org</A>
| & follow the various links from there.
| </UL>
|
| <UL><LI>The developers communicate
| via the <A HREF="mailto:lynx-dev@nongnu.org";>lynx-dev</A> listserver:<BR>
| use that link if you want to get in touch with them,<BR>
| making sure you give as much detail as you can<BR>
| about your problem or suggestion;
| <LI>you can <EM>subscribe</EM> to lynx-dev by sending the single-line message
| `subscribe lynx-dev' to <A HREF="mailto:majordomo@nongnu.org";>majordomo</A>.
| <LI>you can also visit the
| <A HREF="http://www.flora.org/lynx-dev/";>lynx-dev Archive</A>.
| </UL>
|
| <HR WIDTH="50%">
| <HR><P>
| <PRE></PRE>
|
| <P>
| Maintained by <A HREF="mailto:purslow@chass.utoronto.ca";>Philip Webb</A><BR>
| Last updated : 070214
| </BODY></HTML>
|
| --
| ========================,,============================================
| SUPPORT ___________//___, Philip Webb
| ELECTRIC /] [] [] [] [] []| Cities Centre, University of Toronto
| TRANSIT `-O----------O---' purslowatcadotinterdotnet
--
Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@invisible-island.net>
https://invisible-island.net