Hello everyone, This is a question from a developer. Back when I worked on the Mobile Manager for APH (around 2005-2010), we built a handheld Linux device before the Victor Stream came out. The web browser on that device worked in a text-based way-you navigated with arrow keys between links, images, and other elements. Think of something similar to the Pine email client.
What many people don't realize is that under the hood, that browser was actually Firefox. We ran a full GUI browser in a "faceless" mode, while interacting with it entirely through a text interface. That brings me to my idea: Instead of trying to maintain a stand-alone text browser like Lynx, wouldn't it be easier to build a command-line browser that uses a modern engine like Chrome or Firefox as the backend? You'd only need some X libraries installed, but not an actual running desktop. Interaction could be handled through text, while the backend stays updated automatically as Chrome or Firefox updates. This could be developed using faceless web automation tools, Python, and other components. Over time, it might become a powerful text-mode browser where you could even choose your backend (Firefox, Chrome, etc.). and activate media links through the tools you want to etc. I'm curious-would this be of interest to people here? Is there something wrong with this idea that no one is doing it? Thanks, Ken -----Original Message----- From: BRLTTY <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Aura Kelloniemi Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2025 9:44 AM To: [email protected]; Informal discussion between users and developers of BRLTTY. <[email protected]>; [email protected] Subject: Re: [BRLTTY] Is there a feature-compatible text-based broser Hello, On 2025-09-15 at 21:56 -0400, "S. Massy" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > So it looks like google pulled support for HTML-only text browsers at > long last. I am sitll able to use Google search using HTTP, not HTTPS. I also needed to spoof my browser's user-agent string. "wg0.9" at least works, but ELinks's default user-agent string does not. As a sidenote: wg is a simple command-line browser script which uses Links to render HTML: http://sange.fi/~atehwa/userland-scripts/wg -- Aura _______________________________________________ This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list. To post a message, send an e-mail to: [email protected] For general information, go to: http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty _______________________________________________ This message was sent via the BRLTTY mailing list. To post a message, send an e-mail to: [email protected] For general information, go to: http://brltty.app/mailman/listinfo/brltty
