Re: Minimal Browser Capabilities

On Wed, 26 Dec 2001, Kynn Bartlett wrote:

> At 5:25 PM -0500 12/26/01, Joe Clark wrote:
> >>No, we're not lucky, because it doesn't provide minimal web 
> >>functionality nor adherence to the standards,
> >I've used Lynx for up to ten hours a day for more than five years. I 
> >can assure you that (a) Lynx's "Web functionality," whatever that 
> >is, is high and (b) it supports HTML and XHTML *very* thoroughly for 
> 
> So it's decent at being an HTML-only browser -- for something put together

sometimes HTML is all you can get to

> Sure, IE sucks.  Sure, Opera is not all it could be.  Sure, Netscape
> 4 is crap and Netscape 6 is a work in progress.  That doesn't mean
> we can't talk about the shortcomings of Lynx, and the shortcomings
> include:  "It can't do anything except simple HTML."

no there is no perfect browser and each has it's strengths and weaknesses
the point I am trying to make is that a browser should be able to use a
web site no matter what browser is being used, that is universal access

now what is that minimum, Lynx for whatever reason is well accepted,
freely avaliable, supported, works on most OS, and something few others
can do,  it doesn't need PPP access to the web.  I keep trying to
emphisize this, the WORLD wide web needs to be able to be used WORLD wide
including in third world nations and on obsolete equipment in areas where
access to the web may be a very slow, expensive, and dirty telephone
connection, maybe even using an acoustic coupler.  
  A disabled person in Central America, Central Africa, many parts of
Asia, even the South Pole have very limited access to the web and must get
as much as possible under very difficult situations.  We can not design
out persons who may not be able to get the latest or faster OS and memory
or computers or even phone lines.
  When I was in Nicaragua there were only 20 phone lines into the town
where I was staying, a private phone was almost unheard of...plug your
modem into the back of a pay phone and HOPE you can get 5 clean minutes on
the web to get critical information.  for example, while there, there was
a bus accident, the local  doctor needed critical information on a
diagnosis, this link was all he had to save a woman's life, using an old
Mac....!

climbing down off my soapbox

Bob
  

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Received on Wednesday, 26 December 2001 18:06:56 UTC