Re: lynx-dev Adding script support

[Lloyd Rasmussen]

I'm sorry I don't have enough time and experience to move Javascript
support forward for Lynx.  But I think I am speaking for many blind
users of Lynx in the following:

David Wooley asserted that a Javascript version of Lynx which opened
up neww windows on the screen would be confusing for blind users. 
Most of the DOS screen readers can detect a box formed by extended
ASCII box-drawing characters and read the contents of that box when
it appears.  This requires some setting up, and wouldn't be very
satisfactory on a Lynx running through a modem, but it could be made
to work.  For the slow connections, output to a fixed region (perhaps
the last 3 lines of the display area) could also be used if
necessary.

People are having to refresh their screen reader's view of a page
when JS is used to provide expanding and collapsing menus on MSIE. 
Lynx's refresh behavior is a good thing for blind users, because it
gives us, rather than the page author, a chance to determine the
timing of web page transitions.

Javascript is often being used for browser sniffing, and different
versions of code are executed depending on the version of browser
running the code.  We would have to explain what Lynx does with some
of the constructs, if we ever could get it to do anything with them.

If anyone on the list finds any way for Lynx to tackle any of the
Javascript running rampant on the web, there are a number of testers
eager to try it out and report back.  And with some more prodding, I
could try my hand at compiling under Cygnus; that environment does
work tolerably with DOS screen readers.

On Sun, 25 Feb 2001 17:24:17 -0500, Ilya Zakharevich wrote:

>I looked through DOM-level1-html definition, 
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/level-one-core.html
> http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-DOM-Level-1/level-one-html.html
>
>and see nothing which cannot be *easily* supported by lynx.  Granted,
>there is no onclick() etc there, but do we actually *need* them (at
>least in the first draft)?
>
>I suppose that there is a library which implements DOM-level1-html.
>Then one needs to plug-in/rewrite document.write() code to work in the
>same spirit as HTftp.c or HThttp.c.
>
>To add the support for onclick() etc. all one needs to do is keep the
>DOM object pointer stored in the HTText object, and have HTanchor keep
>references to the corresponding DOM elements...
>
>Ilya
>
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Braille is the solution to the digital divide.
Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
home:  <address@hidden> <http://lras.home.sprynet.com/>
Work:  <address@hidden>         <http://www.loc.gov/nls/>



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