Using the Lynx Web browser

27. April 2011 · Comments Off on Using the Lynx Web browser · Categories: Linux, TechBits · Tags: Linux, Web Apps, Windows
Last updated on 09/01/2024

Lynx is a text-only web browser originally designed to run on UNIX, but today it also runs on Linux, VMS, MacOS, Windows and other platforms. It was initially developed by a team of University of Kansas students in 1992 for distributing information on a campus-wide information system and as a Gopher client, but it quickly became popular with visually impaired users because of its text-to-speech friendly interface. Although less used today as part of text-to-speech translating systems due to the technological improvements in screen readers, Lynx is still developed, useful, and it’s included as part of many Linux and UNIX distributions, including Cygwin. Lynx is licensed under the GNU General Public License.

lynx window no color

Release built with curses (not color-style)

Uses for Lynx:

  • Reading documentation or downloading files in a text-based environment
  • To access websites without graphical displays
  • For use on low bandwidth Internet connections
  • For use on older and slower computer hardware
  • For fast, safe browsing of text-based web sites
  • Search Engine View Emulation
  • Incorporating into scripts and to automate tasks

Advantages of Lynx:

  • Fast, free, and safe
  • Handles cookies
  • Has many options
  • Multilingual
  • No ads

 

lynx color

Release built with curses (color-style)

lynx slang

Release built with slang


Using Lynx:

Browsing with Shortcuts:

To start browsing, press “g” on the keyboard, enter a website URL and press enter.

Use the “Right Arrow” or “Enter” key to open links.

Press the “Left Arrow” key to go back to the previous page.

Use the “Up” and “Down” arrow keys to scroll up or down.

Use the “Control + Z” keys to toggle max screen mode.

Use the “Control + B” keys to go back to the previous page.

Use the “Control + F” keys to go to the next page.

Use the “Control + A”  keys to jump to the beginning of the current page.

Use the “Control + E”  keys to jump to the end of the current page.

Use the “Control + L” keys to refresh the document of garbled text.

Use the “Control + R” keys to reload the document.

Use the “Control + K” keys to display a list of currently set cookies.

“h” or “?” keys for help.

“k” key to display key mappings.

“o” key for user options.

“d” key to download from a link.

“L” key displays all URLs on the page.

“p” key for print options.

“\” key to display the web page source code.

“/” or “s” keys to search within the displayed web page, use “n” for next occurrence.

“a” key adds the current document to bookmarks.

“v” key displays bookmarks.

“r” key removes a bookmark when positioned over that link.

“V” key displays visited links for the current session.

“u” key goes back to previous document.

“m” key jumps to home page.

“!” key spawns a command shell.

“=” key provides information about the current URL and current link, such as owner, size, mod date, and server type.

“backspace” key displays browser history.

“q” key quits the browser.

“Q” key quits the browser unconditionally.

Click here for a full list of keyboard commands.

 

Command-line Options:

On startup, Lynx supports a number of command-line options. See the following pages for more info:

lynx(1) – Linux man page

linuxcommand.org – Lynx Man Pages (archived web.archive.org)

 

Additional Help:

LYNX – The Text Web-Browser (what it is, how to use it, where to get it)

Free Text Based Browser For Windows: Lynx (browsing, downloading, ftp browsing and more)

Lynx Browser (quick info about Lynx)

Lynx Help for Beginners (quick start info for newbies)

Lynx Users Guide v2.8.7 (full manual)

 

Lynx Downloads:

Latest W32 Installers: https://invisible-island.net/lynx/#installers

Lynx PortableApps Version: https://portableapps.com/apps/internet/lynx-portable

 

 

 

Other Text-based Browsers:

 

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Adding PDCurses to MingW

05. April 2011 · Comments Off on Adding PDCurses to MingW · Categories: Development · Tags: Windows
Last updated on 10/07/2024

This guide illustrates a quick method to add pre-compiled PDCurses to MingW on WinXP and verifying the installation. From time to time, it may be necessary to compile source code in Windows where the NCurses or Curses library is required, and often PDCurses can be used as a substitute. Since PDCurses isn’t included with a MingW installation it must be installed separately. Although other tutorials for installing PDCurses are available, they may contain outdated information, require compiling source code, use overly complex installation instructions, or are specific for various IDEs. This guide uses pre-compiled PDCurses version 3.4 and MingW GCC version 4.50. You can type “gcc –version” (without quotes) at the msys prompt to identify your gcc version.

Background

PDCurses (Pubic Domain Curses) is the multi-platform, public domain implementation of the terminal display library NCurses. NCurses (New Curses) is an implementation of Curses (a play on the term cursor optimization), both of which are terminal control libraries for UNIX and UNIX-like systems. Although not identical, PDCurses, NCurses, and Curses enable programmers to add mouse support, screen painting, colors, key-mapping, windows, and more to text-based applications without regard to the terminal type. An example of PDCurses in use is shown here. MingW (Minimalist GNU for Windows) is a minimal Open Source programming environment for developing Windows native applications not requiring 3rd-party Runtime DLLs. However, MingW does utilize some Microsoft DLLs provided by the Microsoft C runtime library. It includes the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and associated tools, the GNU binutils.

Steps

Download the PDCurses version 3.4 file Download pdc34dllw.zip (86.9 KB) from Sourceforge.com and unzip it. This version is the Win32 DLL for console with Unicode. Copy the extracted files to the following folders:

  • pdcurses.lib to MingW’s “/lib” folder
  • curses.h and panel.h to MingW’s “/include” folder
  • pdcures.dll to MingW’s “/bin” folder

Test

Example command using PDCurses to compile the file checkthis.c:

gcc checkthis.c -o checkthis -lpdcurses

If the following code compiles, PDCurses is installed correctly.


/*  checkthis.c  */

#include <curses.h>

int main()

{

initscr();

wclear(stdscr);

printw("hello world\n");

wrefresh(stdscr);

system("pause");

endwin();

}
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