DosLynx version 0.27b brings a new Form input control supporting the HTML <TEXTAREA . . . tag. This control is based on the Turbo Vision class TMemo dialog already used in the DosLynx email client. Many of the Web sites including <TEXTAREA . . . tag(s) in their Forms will require the POST Form submission method that DosLynx doesn't yet support. So, the new <TEXTAREA . . . tag support may be best viewed as a preview feature at this point. However, it does all but complete the DosLynx user interface for Forms. So, you will now have an almost complete view of what to expect from Forms once DosLynx does support the <FORM METHOD=POST . . . variation.
As a byproduct of the <TEXTAREA . . . tag work, the email client's arrangements for using the TMemo dialog have been improved in a few ways. The most visible of these improvements is the addition of scroll bars to the email TMemo dialog. These help with text entries larger than the TMemo dialog's window. The email client has also been extended to accept multiple, comma separated, email addresses on its To: input line. In addition, the time zone offset, at the end of the transmitted mail's Date: header line, is no longer simply copied from the TZ environment variable. Rather, it is now provided in the standard way, by translating from an EST5EDT style TZ environment variable setting.
One other change you may notice in DosLynx v0.27b presentations, is the addition of place holders for HTML <IMG . . . tags nested within <A . . . blocks. These tags give up their ALT=text, if any, to the anchor they nest within. So, their visibility has been pretty poor up to now. That was thought tolerable because nested <IMG . . . tags are often used "only" to present a thumb nail or icon for the anchor's object. However, a fair number of Web pages have been found using nested <IMG . . . tags for "more important" images, which probably shouldn't be overlooked. Nor, require hunting-down. The added place holders will read either [IMAGE] or [urlfilename], depending on your showmetas= configuration option's setting.
Also notable, are some more big memory management improvements and other 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 v0.26b to v0.27b. 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. I've now brought it up to date and added a second page listing the "DosLynx Control, Movement, and Navigation Keys".
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 v0.27b 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
29 October 2004