Re: Oracle 8 *Top 10 wishlist*

Omegaman (omegam_at_cmq.com) wrote:
>: Not necessarily true. Some simply prefer lynx.

kevin_at_kombat.acadiau.ca (Kevin Swan) writes:
>Not often. Lynx is lacking some fairly vital things:
> images
> tables
> frames
> applet/script support

Lynx has tables (though the table-rendering needs work, a much better job could be done: compare the quality of tables from Lynx vs tbl and nroff, for example). The lack of images is a *feature* for many users, because of the lack of discipline of so many content creators. Most uses of frames make a site worse, hence when I use Netscape on X I generally use the middle button on framed pages to cause pages to open in a new window rather than in a frame. Finally, applets and scripts are such a security hazard that many corporate sites filter them out at the firewall.

>A little surfing with a real browser (oops, sorry, "GUI" browser) will show
>you what you're missing. There are VERY FEW sites out there that don't
>have ANY of the above. And they're numbers are declining every day.

I will agree with you that for many types of sites a GUI browser is necessary. But don't forget that users of the WWW have many purposes in mind. The user who's primarily interested in researching a subject or getting the answer to a question is only slowed down by large inline images, frames, and applets.

Even so, it's sometimes difficult to navigate with Lynx. The ideal is a browser that can turn off all the fluff: don't load images, turn off Java and Javascript, turn off frames. Too bad Netscape refuses to allow you to turn off frames, and too bad so many pages are broken. Netscape didn't put in <NOFRAMES> just so you could put a "Sorry, get a real browser" message in there.

-- 
-- Joe Buck	http://www.synopsys.com/pubs/research/people/jbuck.html

Help stamp out Internet spam: see http://spam.abuse.net/spam/