DosLynx Quick Start Home Page

With version 0.28b, DosLynx supports the HTML <FORM METHOD=POST . . . variation, at last! Together with support for the <TEXTAREA . . . tag, added in version 0.27b, this capability brings DosLynx users full read/write access to many of the Web's numerous Forum type sites. This support also may bring access to a few Web Mail sites. Those where scripts, https/SSL, and cookies capabilities aren't required. DosLynx Forms support now needs only the "file upload" capability to be considered complete.

The DosLynx Navigate|Show Destination URL (Alt-U) menu entry or command has been given additional reporting capabilities that complement the new Forms support. In particular, this command now shows whether a GET or POST request will result when a selected Form Submit Button is activated. It now also provides a scroller that brings unlimited visibility for the contents of long submissions. Besides reporting on the nature of Form Submit Buttons, the command's new Object Type: report line also clarifies a couple of other tricky cases. Object Type:  none indicates that the displayed document contains no anchor(s). And, Object Type:  Label indicates that a selected anchor is only a Label, with no destination.

Some reliability issues that seemed to target '286 based DR-DOS systems have been resolved, along with another old case of heap corruption. As usual, these and other bug fixes 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 v0.27b to v0.28b. 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 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 v0.28b 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
5 March 2005