Re: lynx-dev Lynx work-todo

[Martin McCormick]

Philip Webb writes:
>the most urgent need is for someone at least to start the process
>of making Lynx Javascript-friendly: it's no use complaining,
>it's out there, more'n'more sites are requiring it
>& if Lynx wants to go on being relevant it has somehow to be done.

        Absolutely true.  This statement was actually directed to
another poster on this list, but I would like to help if I can.
The javascript problem is getting to be critical and I honestly
do not know yet whether I have enough computer skills to work on
it or not, but most of my favorite sites plus some I need for my
job are turning in to confusing pits of frustration and finally
becoming unusable even though I can still read the opening
screens.

        It is my understanding that javascript is interpreted
java.  Is this correct?  If so, what is needed is an engine that
will do the commands it can, fake the results it can, and ignore
the rest.:-)  For example, if a mouse click is needed, find the
cursor and determine what selection the client has chosen,
translate it in to the coordinates on the screen that a mouse
pointer would be sitting on and, when the client hits enter, send
whatever blast of data equals a mouse click.

        I also recently saw a site in which there was this
perfectly good field sitting there to enter for a search string,
but entering the string produced only a repaint of the page.
What, most likely, did the javascript tell me to do that I
could not understand for now?

        What I need is a good resource on javascript in
particular and then to look at the lynx source code to see where
such an engine would go.  Then, of course, there is the fun of
trying to get it to work, but I bet that is feasible as long as
we aren't trying to do optical character recognition on images
which brings in a whole new level of complexity.

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Data Communications Group

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