Re: lynx-dev unanswered: DOS & blind users

[Doug Kaufman]

On Fri, 30 Jul 1999, Philip Webb wrote:

> 990727 Paul Needham ( address@hidden ) inquired: 
> > My father in law (who is blind) requires a good web browser for his PC.
> > He accesses the internet via Demon, which currently uses NetTamer,
> > which he is finding extremely difficult to use.
> > I believe Demon uses DOS-based systems,
> > can LYNX be used as a replacement for NetTamer ?
>  
> the Lynx DOS expert is Doug Kaufman, who may have overlooked your message.
> the site for DOS Lynx is  www.rahul.net/dkaufman/ ;
> you can find starting-points for blind users via
>  www.chass.utoronto.ca/~purslow/lhfb.html .
> 
> AFAIK you father-in-law should be able to use Lynx on his DOS machine.
> members of the blind community seem to find Lynx acceptable
> for use with speech synthesisers & similar equipment.

I don't know that I qualify as a Lynx DOS "expert", but I am certainly
a "knowledgeable user". Lynx, with associated programs, can work
well for net access from DOS, but it is essentially a kludge, trying
to make several programs work well together in an environment not
designed for this type of usage. This is not difficult to set up if
you feel comfortable editing files and working with instructions which
may not be crystal clear. Lynx itself now does http and ftp URLs. News
and nntp work somewhat. For telnet and mailto URLs you need accessory
programs. There are several different Lynx DOS binaries and packages.
The package at my site requires careful reading of the instructions
and some hand editing of configuration files. I believe that the
Bobcat386, blynx, and Lynx_kit packages try to automate the setup
more. You might want to start with the package on my site. There are
files from other sites that are required - the information is in the
README.DOS file. If you find it too difficult to set up, feel free to
write to me or to try the other packages. I should be updating my site
soon, but for now see:
"http://www.rahul.net/dkaufman/lynx2.8.3dev.3-DOS.zip"; or
"ftp://ftp.rahul.net/pub/dkaufman/lynx2.8.3dev.3-DOS.zip";.

Bobcat386 is available from:
"http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/sub/b386-e01.exe";

Lynx_kit is available from:
"http://rene.simplenet.com/download/lynx_kit.exe";

Blynx:
"ftp://leb.net/pub/blinux/lynx/blynx386/blynx386.exe";

And don't forget the original site for Lynx DOS:
"http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm";

                             Doug

__
Doug Kaufman
Internet: address@hidden (preferred)
          address@hidden