Lynx Instruction (a text web browser)

Pim Techamuanivit (ptechamu who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Wed, 28 Feb 1996 02:54:02 -0800 (PST)

5.1 World Wide Web

World Wide Web is a tool that allows you to explore the vast
amount of information held on computer databases connected through the
Internet. It was invented by the CERN (High Energy Physics) Laboratory
in Switzerland.

The information available through the World Wide Web is about the
sciences, arts, humanities, government, entertainment, and economics.
There is a growing amount of commercial information about business and
companies.

World Wide Web uses what is known as a "hypertext architecture".
This is a way of helping you choose what information you want to
explore. It works by displaying screens which contain linking words and
phrases. These linking words and phrases (known as links) are shown in
bold text on the screen. When you choose a link, you will be shown
another screen with more links. You choose links again and again to
reach the information at the level of detail that you need.

Since World Wide Wed is new and can be confusing, we recommend
that new users should start with a few half hour sessions, looking for
information that is of personal or professional interest. This will
allow you to get familiar with using the tool. You make a record of the
choices that you made to get to information that you found useful for
later reference.

Once you have located information which is of direct interest, we
recommend that you start widening your choices and start actively
exploring the Web. That will allow you to experience one of the delights
of the Internet - finding useful information which you did not know
beforehand would be useful.

Because there is so much information available through the
Internet, many people have produced catalogs or contents lists. You will
encounter a number of these catalogs on the World Wide Web. There is no
one single correct catalog. Each catalog is one view of categorizing the
information. They all point to virtually the same information sources,
and you may find one of more use than another.

5.2 World Wide Web screens

The World Wide Web displays pages of text that describe the
information and choices available. The text itself is of two types. The
text which is in normal typeface explains the information and choices.
The text which is in bold typeface are links. When you choose a link,
World Wide Web displays another page (or pages) of text. Each successive
page of text gives more specific information about the subject that you
chose, and displays another set of links for you to choose from.

Eventually there will be no more links to more detailed
information. You may want to note down the information displayed. You
then move back up through the choices that you made earlier, and make new
choices to get to new sets of information.

At the bottom of a World Wide Web screen are two lines of text
which tell you how to use your keyboard to interact with the Web.
----------------------------------------------------------
www.cc.ukans.edu default index (p1 of 2)

WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

You are using a World-Wide Web client called Lynx on a server operated
by Academic Computing Services at the University of Kansas, which is
the home of

* KUfacts, the KU campus wide information system, and

* the Lynx and DosLynx World-Wide Web (WWW) browsers.

The current version of Lynx is 2.3. If you are running an earlier
version PLEASE UPGRADE!

The Lynx 2-3-1 source code is now available for BETA testing.

INFORMATION SOURCES ABOUT AND FOR THE WWW
* For a description of the WWW choose Web Overview
* About the WWW Information Sharing project
* WWW Information By Subject

-- press space for next page --
Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list

---------------------------------------------------------

5.3 World Wide Web keystroke commands

All the commands used to interact with the World Wide Web are
single keystrokes. Press the appropriate key on the keyboard, and DO NOT
PRESS the return key afterwards.

The following list shows the most common keystroke commands. The
single-letter characters can be in upper or lower case. The cursor is
displayed as a reverse video block which covers a link.

All links are in bold typeface.

% To move the cursor to the next link: press the down arrow key

% To move the cursor to the previous link: press the up
arrow key

% To display the next page: press the spacebar or +

% To display the previous page: press - or b

% To choose the link which is covered by the cursor: press
the right arrow key, or the return key, or the enter key

% To go back from a link to the previous screen: press
the left arrow key

% To go back to the opening University of Kansas World Wide
Web screen: press m (and then input y to confirm this when asked)

% To leave World Wide Web altogether, and go back to your server
opening menu: press q (and then press return to confirm this when asked)

% To get help on these and other keystroke commands: press
h and then choose the link "Keystroke commands".

% To print or mail a set of information: press p and then
follow the instructions

There are three further points about interacting with World Wide Web:

- Sometimes, due to transmission errors, your screen will get
cluttered with characters left over from previous screens. Press the
control and the w keys together to refresh the screen and remove the
stray characters.

- Occasionally, a link makes a connection which is very slow. It
may seem that the whole system has frozen, and nothing you type in has
any effect. Most of these connections will eventually unfreeze and you
will regain control. Unfortunately, there is no way of knowing whether
the connection will unfreeze. If you cannot wait for the connection to
unfreeze, type the letter Z, it will unfreeze and you will regain control.

- If you find that the arrow keys (described above) do not work
as described here, then make sure your terminal is reset to vt100, and
refresh the screen.

5.4 A World Wide Web Tour

As World Wide Web can be confusing at first, here is a suggested tour.

5.4.1 Enter the WWW using your server's command, to see the University
of Kansas World Wide Web opening screen.
---------------------------------------------------------

www.cc.ukans.edu default index (p1 of 2)

WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

You are using a World-Wide Web client called Lynx on a server operated
by Academic Computing Services at the University of Kansas, which is
the home of

* KUfacts, the KU campus wide information system, and

* the Lynx and DosLynx World-Wide Web (WWW) browsers.

The current version of Lynx is 2.3. If you are running an earlier
version PLEASE UPGRADE!

The Lynx 2-3-1 source code is now available for BETA testing.

INFORMATION SOURCES ABOUT AND FOR THE WWW
* For a description of the WWW choose Web Overview
* About the WWW Information Sharing project
* WWW Information By Subject

-- press space for next page --
Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list
--------------------------------------------------------

5.4.2 Move the cursor down the screen. by using the down arrow
key until it covers the link called "Web Overview". Press the return
key. You will see the Web Overview screen from CERN in Switzerland.

---------------------------------------------------------- Overview of the Web

WWW ICON GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE WEB

There is no "top" to the World-Wide Web. You can look at it from many
points of view. Here are some places to start.

Virtual Library by Subject
The Virtual Library organises information by subject matter.

List of servers
All registered HTTP servers by country

by Service Type
The Web includes data accessible by many other protocols. The
lists by access protocol may help if you know what kind of
service you are looking for.

If you find a useful starting point for you personally, you can
configure your WWW browser to start there by default.

-- press space for next page --
Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list

-----------------------------------------------------------
5.4.3 The cursor will already be covering the link called
"Virtual Library by Subject". Press the return key. You will see the
Virtual Library subject catalog.

----------------------------------------------------------- The
World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue (p1 of 12)

VIRTUAL LIBRARY THE WWW VIRTUAL LIBRARY

This is a distributed subject catalogue. See Summary, and Index. See
also arrangement by service type ., and other subject catalogues of
network information .
Mail to maintainers of the specified subject or
www-request who-is-at info.cern.ch to add pointers to this list, or if you would
like to contribute to administration of a subject area.

See also how to put your data on the web. All items starting with !
are NEW! (or newly maintained).

Aboriginal Studies
This document keeps track of leading information facilities in
the field of Australian Aboriginal studies as well as the
Indigenous Peoples studies.

Aeronautics and Aeronautical Engineering
-- press space for next page --
Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list

---------------------------------------------------------

5.4.4 Press the space bar three times until the link "Computing"
appears on the screen. Move the cursor down the screen until it covers that
link. Press return. You will see a set of further links relating to
computing, including some bibliographic databases.

----------------------------------------------------------
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Subject Catalogue (p3 of 12)

Chemistry

Climate research
The Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum (DKRZ, German Climate Computer
Centre)

Cognitive Science

Commercial Services

Communications & Telecommunications

Computing
See also ! Tcl and Tk, and ! Visual Languages and Visual
Programming

Conferences

! Crystallography
-- press space for next page --
Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list

---------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Computing (p1 of 36)

[Virtual Library] The WWW Virtual Library - other subjects .

COMPUTING

Information categorised by subject. Please mail wizards who-is-at doc.ic.ac.uk
if you know of online information not in these lists.
_______________________________________________________
* Miscellaneous.
* Specialized Fields.
* University Computer Science Departments.
* Institutes, Centres and Laboratories.
* Other Organisations.
* Particular Systems.
* Magazine and Book Publishers.

_______________________________________________________
-- press space for next page --
Arrow keys: Up and Down to move. Right to follow a link; Left to go back.
H)elp O)ptions P)rint G)o M)ain screen Q)uit /=search [delete]=history list

--------------------------------------------------------
5.4.5 Move the cursor to whichever of these topics is of
interest and follow the link until some end information is found. Then
use the left arrow to move back up to the Virtual Library screen.

5.4.6 Move the cursor to another topic of interest, perhaps
"Communications and Telecommunications" or "Engineering", and explore the
information there. Then use the left arrow to move back up to the
Virtual Library screen.

5.4.7 Move the cursor to the link called "other subject
catalogues" and press return. You will see links which include the
"Virtual Library" (again), "Yahoo", and, on the next page, the "Whole
Internet Catalogue".

5.4.8 Choose the Whole Internet Catalogue link. This shows
another way of organizing the information available on the Internet.
Browse amongst these subjects. Remember that the left arrow key takes
you back to the next highest screen. You may then want to browse amongst
the Yahoo catalog from the University of Stamford.

5.4.9 When you have finished exploring, press the m key (and
confirm) to return to the University of Kansas opening screen, and use
your server's command to quit out of the WWW.