understanding Lynx

[Al Gilman]

Try one or more of these:

1.  Read the Lynx User's Guide which you can find at:
   http://www.nyu.edu/pages/wsn/subir/lynx/lynx_help/Lynx_users_guide.html

2.  Join lynx-learners.  Send an email message 

        To: address@hidden
        (the Subject: doesn't matter, but
        in the message say:)
        
        info lynx-learners

It will send you sign-up instructions.

3. or try some of the following:

4 Getting comfortable with Lynx

Here we have sub-steps:
     4a getting to the help pages and back
     4b navigating with the arrow keys
     4c going directly to a page with the g)o command

4a getting to the help pages and back

As soon as Lynx starts, ignore the page that comes up and type a
question mark (?).  This will move you to the top page of the
help pages.  Note that at the top of this page it says you can
return from help by typing the left-arrow key.  This is the
leftward-pointing arrow in the four-key cursor-control group.
There are four arrow keys somewhere together on your keyboard or
you have a hard case beyond the ken of this tutorial.

OK, press the left-arrow key and you will _return to the page
you just came from_.  That is a general rule.  Left-arrow takes
you back to where you came from.

4b navigating with the arrow keys

Now hit '?' again and play with the other arrow keys.  First the
down arrow.  Look at the screen as you type one down-arrow, and
then another.  See how the highlighting moves?  On the screen
there is one _selected link_.  Pressing the down-arrow moves to
select the subsequent link, and pressing the up-arrow moves to
select the previous link.  Now we are ready to see what the links
are for: press the right-arrow.  A new page comes up.  Press
left-arrow to go back and be sure that you have not lost control.
Then press right-arrow again.  The highlighted words and phrases
on the page are _links_ (get the pun?  Lynx?).  They are like
footnotes an bibliographic citations in academic writing, but
they are better because you have the opportunity to refer to the
related material immediately.  They are references you can act
on.

4c going directly to a page with the g)o command

To get to a page you know about, but for which there is no link
on the page you're now at, you need to be able to tell Lynx where
to g)o.  As you may have guessed by that funny spelling, you
start this process by typing 'g'.  This will bring up a one-line
dialog _at the bottom of the screen_ where it asks you

URL to open:

Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are the addresses of pages you
want to visit.  Behind the text of links in Web pages there are
URLs that the browser will follow if you activate a link with the
right-arrow key.

Practice this by typing 'g' and then giving the following
URL:

     http://www.access.digex.net/~asgilman/lynx_start.html

[you will get tired of typing http and html soon].
This is the page that my Lynx goes to when I start it up.  You
can have one of your own, too.  That's for a later, more advanced
lesson.


5 Getting familiar with a few Web sites of continuing interest
   to you; bookmark these.

As you look at this page, type the 'a' key to give Lynx the
a)dd_a_bookmark command.  At the bottom of the screen it will
prompt you whether you want to add the d)ocument or l)ink [or
c)ancel the request].  Answer 'd' and then <CR> to accept the
name it gave this link.

Now type a 'v' for v)iew_bookmarks.  You should see a page with
the link you just added on it.  Follow the link.  This will save
you typing all that garbage in the URL.  Having bookmarks for the
right few starting places that you like is the beginning of true
self-determination on the Web.  Too many people are out there
trying to grease the skids for you to go this way or that.  If
you have salted away your favorite places in bookmarks, you can
do it _your_ way.

>From my start page (Welcome to the WWW by Lynx) visit the first
link, the one associated with the word Lynx in the first
paragraph.  This is the "Lynx Enhanced Pages" and is a general
starting point for information associated with Lynx.  Follow the
first link on this page, too.  This gets you to a semi-tutorial
short list of reference information sources.  Visit all the pages
linked to from here, briefly.  This will sharpen up your
navigation skills.  [Remember that back-arrow key?]

Visit other links from my start page if you care to.  a)dd more
bookmarks if some of these are things you want to come back to.

6 Sampling Web-available services at remote sites, in particular
   searching.

Both my start page and the "General Web Information" page at the
Lynx Enhanced Pages have links to search-engine services or
sites: Yahoo, Lycos, Alta Vista, etc.

[by now I hope you can get to either of these starting points
reliably.  Otherwise repeat a little of the above until you feel
confident.]

Follow the instructions on the forms at one of the search sites.
If the instructions are not coming clear in your mind, pop into
Help with the '?' key and read up on forms in the User's Guide
which is part of the help pages.  Then come back and deal with
the form that the search engine gives you.

Try something.  If you specify too many keywords, or a real hard
topic, you may get nothing.  Normally you will start with
something where there are thousands of "hits" or matches to what
you said.

The search engine puts together are response to your query as a
Web page.  Follow some of the links and see if it understood what
you were interested in.  If most of the hits it found are
garbage, try re-stating what it is you are interested in.  Back
up and try another search engine.  Or take a break: I would be
hypnotized by this point.

7 Downloading materials off the Web to your PC

Look up the d)ownload keystroke command in the Lynx help pages.
Check to see what kinds of downloads your modem program is
prepared to cooperate with.  The download options at MetaNet will
be different from those at some other sites.  Lynx does not
specify this, MetaNet selects what download options it will
support when it installs Lynx on purple.

Pick a small page or file and practice downloading.

8* Making working, local copies of pages you find on the Web

If you
   are at the page you want to copy
   type '\' <that's back-slash> to view_source
   type p)rint and select
       save to local file
   from the print menu of options.

It will query you to accept the file name it nominates.  You can
accept the file name (but copy it down for the next step) or
rename it.  In what follows I write <filename> where you are
supposed to write the name of this file (withOUT the <>'s)

Now get out of Lynx.

You can look at the source code again with

     !pico <filename>
or   !more <filename>

but you can visit it as a web page with
     !lynx <filename>

This has created a Unix file on purple at MetaNet.  You can see
that it is there if you say

AND NOW? !sh <CR>
purple ls <cr>

and notice that the filename is listed.

You may be comfortable editing files with Pico on purple or you
may wish to start out editing files at home on your PC.  In
either case, you can change anything in a borrowed HTML page that
is not in the tags -- the letters, words, and phrases wrapped in
<>'s such as <a href="foo">, </a>, etc.

Just change a little the first time.  Save a copy of the file you
didn't change.  Play a little.

9* Making your own home page at MetaNet.

Send mail to Scott and request instructions.  You have all the
basics.  Steal a page you like and just change it enough.  Find
one of the HTML tutorials and play a bit.