# Testing new browser.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-new-browser/134251>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [October 28, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-new-browser/134251 "2002-10-28T14:59:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-new-browser/134251/1 "2002-10-28T14:59:21Z")

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Posting to the SDMB in text-only mode.

Maybe ChiefScott would appreciate it. I can’t see any smilies.

😃

I can’t even see where they are, on preview.

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**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-new-browser/134251/2 "2002-10-28T17:50:38Z")

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Pretty cool. I can get here using lynx, but I don’t believe I ever succeeded in logging in with it, without which I could not post.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [October 28, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/testing-new-browser/134251/3 "2002-10-28T19:57:06Z")

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**AHunter** : I used links to get here. links is like lynx meets ncurses: It supports nicer-looking pseudo-graphical elements (drop-down windows and even dialog boxes) and it even has a Mac-like toolbar you can show and hide. Very, very cool for a text-only browser. 😃

I got links as part of [surfraw](http://surfraw.sourceforge.net/), which is a way to find information online using the command line in a way that abstracts the browser to just below the user interface.

Here’s an example:  
$ google HACKMEM  
That tells a surfraw elvi (a simple script file) to point the browser to [google.com](http://google.com) and find the string HACKMEM with that search engine. You get a links session displaying the results, which you can browse through in a lynx-like way. It’s _really, really_ neat for finding things online quickly when you don’t really want to leave the comforts of the command line (which may entail starting X). It’s all designed around the command-line power-user who likes fast information without useless chrome slowing things down.