Reading the handbook from console

[Ian Smith]

In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 449, Issue 9, Message: 25
 [ pardon loss of threading ]
On Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:56:24 -0800 <dteske at freebsd.org> wrote:

 > > From: Polytropon [mailto:freebsd at edvax.de]
[..]
 > > > > There is no text mode web browser in the base system.
 > > > > Installing one is easy: As the HTML files generated
 > > > > for the Handbook are good quality, they display nicely
 > > > > in lynx, links, and w3m (probably the most prominent
 > > > > three text mode web browsers).
 > > > >
 > > > >
 > > >
 > > > I must know...
 > > >
 > > > What is Polytropon's favorite of those listed? (and perhaps also "elinks" ?)
 > > 
 > > Hard to say, now that X is everywhere... :-)
 > > 
 > > In the past, I've started using lynx because it was "the
 > > default". Somehow I even tend to remember that it was part
 > > of the default installation in around FreeBSD 4 or so...
 > > but that could be wrong.

No that's right, it had been lynx since 2.2, if not earlier.  Somewhere 
early in 5.x, by 5.2 at least, it had changed to links:

=======
Options Editor

Name            Value                   Name            Value
----            -----                   ----            -----
NFS Secure      NO                      Install Root    /
NFS Slow        NO                   >> Browser package links <<
NFS TCP         NO                      Browser Exec    /usr/local/bin/links
NFS version 3   YES                     Media Type      <not yet set>
Debugging       NO                      Media Timeout   300
No Warnings     NO                      Package Temp    /var/tmp
Yes to All      NO                      Newfs Args      -b 16384 -f 2048
DHCP            NO                      Fixit Console   serial
IPv6            NO                      Re-scan Devices <*>
Skip PCCARD     NO                      Use Defaults    [RESET!]
FTP username    ftp
Editor          ee
Tape Blocksize  20
Extract Detail  high
Release Name    5.5-STABLE

Use SPACE to select/toggle an option, arrow keys to move,
? or F1 for more help.  When you're done, type Q to Quit.

This is the browser package that will be used for viewing HTML docs
=======


 > > Later on I tried w3m and also found it usable.
 > > 
 > > Today I'd say I prefer links for interactive text mode
 > > browsing. Still "lynx -dump" is a welcome tool in some
 > > of my scripts, and never change a running system. :-)

I used to use lynx a lot, browsing the web through a 56k modem in the 
late '90s, however I made far more headway with links as it could deal 
reasonably well with basic functional javascript where lynx couldn't, 
at least then, and I seem to recall an issue with upstream maintenance.


 > Ok, the reason I ask is actually because I have this insane (?) idea of shoving
 > one of the aforementioned solutions onto the installation media so that (gasp)
 > we can have that functionality back like we had in the days of sysinstall.

Shock horror! :)  No, not insane at all.  I can't believe the disconnect 
from newer FreeBSD users' needs that bsdinstall presently represents, 
especially those with less than the latest awesome kit, and I applaud 
you carrying on with bsdconfig and improving bsdinstall, about which I 
have far too many suggestions that might steal this topic :)

 > So naturally, my first question is "which one?"
 > 
 > Thoughts?
 > -- 
 > Devin

Well I doubt links works any less well that it did, though it's probably 
not up to all the latest JS, CSS and other recent tricks 'out there'.  
Certainly for the stated purpose of rendering Handbook and FAQ it will 
do fine.  It does (did then) weigh more than lynx but worth it, I feel:

smithi on sola% ls -l `which links`
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  2959956 Oct 25  2006 /usr/local/bin/links
smithi on sola% ls -l `which lynx`
-r-xr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1078068 Jul 26  2006 /usr/local/bin/lynx


Polytropon concludes:

 > > However, The FreeBSD Handbook and the FAQ mostly contain
 > > text, I mean, that's what they are about, and for reading
 > > text I don't see a need for graphics. If I want graphics,
 > > I have X. :-)

Exactly.  Although regarding installing X on 9.1 before newer packages 
are available - and it IS painful or at least very slow to build on the 
likes of 1GHz laptops - I can't see any reason the X that was working 
as of mid-October would be any problem, unless there's been some major 
revision or security scare since?  The 9.x ABI is constant.  I grabbed:

ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-9-stable/Latest/en-freebsd-doc.tbz 
(dated 10/16/12 09:13:00) and pkg_add'ed it, and will do the same for X 
when I get 9.1 also going on my 'big' 768MB RAM ThinkPad.

For those with the horsepower, sure, build X, KDE/GNOME, OpenOffice etc.

cheers, Ian