DosLynx Quick Start Home Page

DosLynx version 0.26b has a new configuration option called showmetas=. showmetas= controls the presentation of certain meta information found in many HTML documents. This information includes the HTML <META . . . tag content that DosLynx has displayed since version 0.20b. showmetas= allows those who haven't appreciated this information's presentation to turn that off.

At the same time, the showmetas= option has brought me liberty to push the presentation of meta information to a new level. After all, anyone who doesn't appreciate the additional meta information's presentation will now be able to configure showmetas=NO to turn it off.

Otherwise, we will now also see [urlfilename] in places where [ANCHOR] and [IMAGE] placeholders have been used to stand for missing ALT= . . . text. And, we'll now also see HTML <SCRIPT . . . > content that isn't enclosed in HTML comments nor other tags. It may be surprising to find how much of that there seems to be. The release package's sample DOSLYNX.CFG file includes comments with more about the meta information that now may be presented or suppressed.

You also may notice a change in the operation of the <BASE HREF= . . . tag added to the beginning of a local file copy of an HTML document. The link it exposes won't seem to bring you a refreshed copy of the original document anymore! That's because that function depended on a cache loophole that has been filled. That link is now seen to be directed to the beginning of the presently loaded document. From now on, use the Navigate|Reload Current menu entry, which also has been fixed, to perform the document refresh function. Once you get used to this change, you will be sure to appreciate intra-document navigation which now is completely free of waits for document reformatting.

The numeric key pad's Home and End keys (and, the top row 7 and 1 keys) will now take you to the top and bottom of the displayed document. And, as usual, there are other improvements and bug fixes that make for an ever stronger running version of DosLynx!

There are a couple other readme files for DosLynx. One is the again updated README.HTM which still tells about the original features, command line parameters, and other important stuff. There is also a history file which describes the major changes I've made in bringing Doslynx from v0.25b to v0.26b. The history file also contains known bugs or missing features. If you find one that isn't there, or don't like something about the way the forms support is shaping up, please email me at fmacall@nccw.net. Finally, Wayne S. Buttles has provided a little cheat sheet of the key commands to run Doslynx from the keyboard. It includes ones he added.

Remember that you can navigate with your numeric key pad by putting Num Lock ON.

DosLynx no longer contains a built-in graphics viewer. That has been replaced with a swap out and call to DLXVIEW with a parameter naming the .BMP, .GIF, .JPG, .PCX, or .TIF file to be viewed. You may edit DLXVIEW.BAT to invoke your favorite viewer. The DosLynx v0.26b package contains a sample DLXVIEW.BAT which invokes LXPIC (requires CGA+).

As Wayne said: "I have enhanced DosLynx for my own personal enjoyment. It will never be as good as the ['386+ based] versions of Lynx, but at least it is better than nothing. . . . I am just releasing my changes to the general public in hopes that it will help some other Dos User. I have made every attempt to keep it compatible with the lowest IBM-Compatible computer so that the greatest number of people can benefit and I will continue to do so as long as I play with the code."

Good luck, and happy browsing.

Fred C. Macall
10 April 2004