Re: LYNX-DEV various words in brackets

[Subir Grewal]

On Thu, 2 Jan 1997, Laura Eaves wrote:

:On a lot of pages I've seen links with titles link
:       [LINK]
:       [ISMAP]
:Sometimes I'm able to follow these links and sometimes not.
:Are these bracketed words generated by lynx?  What do they mean?
:(When I see something like [26][LINK],
:I have no idea whether I want to select it or not.)

Lynx has to make do with the document it retrieves off the web.  What
you're encountering are documents that are not as well marked-up as we'd
like them to be.  In the case of "[LINK]" this is generally an image which
text for their image tags, in this case Lynx can only present the user
with a generic substitute.  I generally run Lynx in "Advanced mode" so I
can see the URL at the bottom, sometimes the URL will give you an idea of
what the document linked to is all about more often than not it won't. 
You can also see relevant information by typing an = This will take you to
the "information page" and this can help you make up your mind as to
whether you wish to follow the current link or not. 

[ISMAP] and [USEMAP] generally crop up when a document contains an image
map (clickable images).  Since Lynx can't display images for you to click,
it tries its best to make the content of the map available.  Generally
this means extrapolating a sort of menu in the case of a client side map
i.e. [USEMAP].  For server side maps, i.e. [ISMAP], Lynx simply follows
the link and if the author has been sensible enough to include a default
option for the clickable-image, Lynx will take you there. 

ISMAPs are generally not configured properly and you will find that few
authors are as considerate as to create a text menu.  With linked images
(i.e. [LINK]) you can play around, if you turn on "images as links" (with
the * key) you'll see "[LINK]-[IMAGE]" and if you're in "Advanced user
mode" (or use the = key to get to the info page) you might be able to make
some sense of the links from the URL linked to, or the name of the image
file (for instance, if the [IMAGE] is called "left-arrow.gif" you can
safely assume the [LINK] will take you to a previous doc in a set).

address@hidden  +  Lynx 2.6  +  PGP  +  http://www.crl.com/~subir/
This is for all ill-treated fellows
        Unborn and unbegot,
For them to read when they're in trouble
        And I am not.
                -- A. E. Housman


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