Re: LYNX-DEV Question about BASE implementation

[Subir Grewal]

On Thu, 24 Oct 1996, Foteos Macrides wrote:

:       I think that the number of people using Lynx because they have no
:GUI alternative is steadily declining, and the number of people using it for
:speed when they're after just content is increasing.  The latter reflects
:failure of the GUI developers to set up efficient "text only" modes for
:their clients, which presumeably will come when the glitz fads become old
:hat.

I think so too.  Though Lynx will probably always have a strong user-base
amongst people in other countries who might have very limited access.  One
of the ideas we've thrown around here at NYU has been getting a chapter of
the Internet Society set up in NYC.  We thought we might be able to
distribute things like old terminals that were being thrown away, teach
people to set them up with a basic shell account to work from there.  I
can see the other browsers setting up better text modes.  For most of
them all it would take is an option to turn the pesky "Unloaded image"
icons off and replace them with the appropriate ALT.  The points you'd
made a couple of weeks ago about running browsers on an older PC and
running them on a relatively powerful Multi-user system and then
displaying on an older PC/terminal are of course critical as well.  I
glanced at the pages that Netscape has up for 4.0.  They recommend Macs
with 16MB of memory and PCs >486 with at least 8MB.  Kermit runs on just
about anything ;~).  There is another issue at work as well, I find that I
pay a lot of attention to documents I view in Lynx, I actually bother to
run through structural elements sub-consciously as I read a document.  I
was using a GUI today to do some browsing and I felt myself not really
reading.  Somehow a mono-type font seems to grasp my attention.  It may be
just me though.

address@hidden * PGP * Blue-Ribbon * Lynx 2.6 * address@hidden
Those who can, do.  Those who can't, simulate.

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