Python 2.0 quick reference...

[Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes]

18 May 2001 04:52:54 -0400 in <mailman.990176006.32618.python-list at python.org>,
Tim Peters <tim.one at home.com> spake:
>[Simon Brunning]
>> I'm not familiar with Lynx. Which is consultant-speak for 'I've never
>> heard of it'. Could someone point me at it? (I did a quick google, but
>> most of the links point at some obscure browser.)

  This just makes me laugh...  "Use Lynx to get a text version of your
web page."  "All I can find is some text-based web browser..."

  You're blond, aren't you, Simon?

> Bingo.  Lynx is an obscure text-only browser, hence Andrew's suggestion to

  "Obscure" may not be the right word, given that it's the oldest
browser still in use, and about 1% of the users who hit my site use it
(at ~28000 hits/month, that's probably a tolerable sample size),
according to my logs.  It's also the primary browser for the blind, and
for Unix users who can't be bothered to waste time waiting for X and
Netscape to start up.  Lynx starts in a fraction of a second (0.012s
according to time).  Very useful.

  I've encountered people who are hostile to it before (sometimes VERY
hostile, verging on religious jihad, as though the existence of a text
browser is somehow causing them direct physical harm), but this is the
first time I've seen someone who allegedly uses computers regularly who
didn't know what it was.

> use Lynx for obtaining a plain-text version of your quick reference guide.
> But you would be well advised to follow the usual "you suggested it, you do
> the work" rule in this case <wink>.
> may-as-well-print-your-page-and-scan-it-thru-an-ocr-system-if-you-
>     don't-run-lynx-already-ly y'rs  - tim

  Why, you're right, that's MUCH easier than installing a simple program
like Lynx (it's a standard part of almost all Linux installations -
Linux wins again in the ease-of-use and most-programs-readily-available
departments) and typing `lynx --dump url >url.txt` (or browsing with
lynx and "printing" to a text file, if you don't believe in automating
things).

  And making people who suggest good tools do all the work with those
tools for others, why that's just common sense.  Wouldn't want to make
anyone learn new things, or encourage anyone to share information like
that, now would we?

-- 
 <a href="http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/"> Mark Hughes </a>
"I will tell you things that will make you laugh and uncomfortable and really
fucking angry and that no one else is telling you.  What I won't do is bullshit
you.  I'm here for the same thing you are.  The Truth." -Transmetropolitan #39