Re: Reviving the terminal internet ??? looking for collaborators

Hi Rudy,
Thanks =E2=80=94 you've nailed the real elephant in the room. It's not rend=
ering
CSS, it's not speed, it's JavaScript. These days a shockingly large slice
of the web is just an empty <div> shell waiting for JS to hydrate it, and
text browsers hit a stone wall that no amount of HTML parsing can fix.
A few directions I think are worth exploring:
1. A "render bridge" rather than a rendering engine. The terminal stays
pure text, but a headless engine (Chromium/WebKit in the background, like
Browsh/Carbonyl do) executes the JS, extracts the resulting DOM/text, and
ships only text + links to the terminal. Keeps the UX clean while the JS
problem is solved outside the terminal, by something that actually
implements JS.
2. JS-as-links instead of JS-as-dead-end. When a page needs JS to show
content, expose the underlying data/menu as direct links: media streams,
rendered text, downloadable resources =E2=80=94 exactly the transformation =
you
described. Some of it can be done statically by scanning scripts/bundles
for URLs; the rest needs a bridge.
3. Reader-mode-first philosophy. Treat every page like an article: fetch,
run JS headlessly only if needed, then serve back a clean text version
(like Readability/boilerpipe but as a service the terminal can call).
I'd love to hear from someone who's actually fought this fight for years:
what's the smallest thing that would unblock the top 20% of pages people
actually want to read in a terminal =E2=80=94 news, docs, forums, feeds? An=
d is a
headless-engine bridge something you've seen tried and rejected, or just
something nobody's done well?
Also =E2=80=94 Beast Hunt Vol 1 looks great, I'll check it out.
Thanks for taking the time to reply,
Mayank

On Mon, Aug 3, 2026 at 1:54=E2=80=AFAM Rudy Vener <[email protected]> wrote:

> The main drawback of text browsers has always been their inability to dea=
l
> with javascript and turn
> the javascripted elements into direct links to media streams,  rendered
> text, or  downloadable links to files as appropriate.
> Instead text browsers regularly hit stone walls of inaccessibility for
> something as conceptually simple
> as reading javascript rendered text.
>
>
> --
> Rudy Vener
>
> Can monsters be the good guys? Find out in Beast Hunt Vol 1:
> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPN1QGGJ
> Like lamentable Limericks? Read Boisterous Bison Tosses Tourist
> https://substack.com/@LimerickDude
> Website: http://www.rudyvener.com
>
> On Mon, Aug 03, 2026 at 12:56:40AM +0530, Mayank Bhardwaj wrote:
> > Hi Lynx devs,
> >
> >
> > Long-time user of Lynx (and w3m) here, and a bit of a fan of what this
> > project has always stood for: a web that's fast, keyboard-driven, and
> > readable in the dark on a 1998 ThinkPad.
> >
> > Lately I've been thinking that "surfing" the internet is gone ??? you
> don't
> > browse anymore, you get pushed. The terminal is the one place left that=
's
> > calm, focused, and weirdly beautiful. So I want to build a modern
> > terminal-based internet service in the spirit of Lynx, but remixed for
> > today:
> >
> > - text-first, zero-noise browsing
> >
> > - terminal-native feeds (RSS/Atom, maybe Mastodon)
> >
> > - collaborative browsing sessions (think SSH for the web)
> >
> > - fast startup, no tracking, no dark patterns
> >
> >
> > I know this list's culture: newcomers are welcome, but suggestions
> usually
> > come with patches. So my first step here is to listen ??? I'd love to
> hear
> > from the people who've been maintaining and improving Lynx for decades:
> >
> > 1. What do you see as the biggest pain points / missing pieces in
> text-mode
> > browsing today?
> >
> > 2. Is anyone interested in a more modern side-project in the same spiri=
t
> > (new engine, not a Lynx fork), or is that a fool's errand you'd advise
> > against?
> >
> > 3. If someone wanted to contribute meaningfully to Lynx itself, where
> would
> > you point them first?
> >
> > I'm prepared to write code, not just ideas. I'd rather spend my weekend=
s
> > building something with people who actually know this domain than
> polishing
> > a toy alone.
> >
> >
> > Happy to share a rough spec or prototype with anyone curious. Thanks fo=
r
> > keeping text-mode browsing alive.
> >
> >
> > Mayank
>