Definition and Benefits of Text-based Web Browsers
– Text-based web browsers render only the text of web pages and ignore most graphic content.
– They are faster than graphical web browsers under small bandwidth connections.
– Greater CSS, JavaScript, and typography functionality in graphical browsers require more CPU resources.
– Text-based browsers can be heavily modified to display content differently.
– They are useful for users with visual impairment or partial blindness, especially with speech synthesis or text-to-speech software.
Notable Text-based Web Browsers
– Browsh
– Charlotte Web Browser (for VM/CMS)
– Emacs/W3 & EWW for GNU Emacs
– Line Mode Browser (by Tim Berners-Lee)
– Links
Related Concepts and Protocols
– Comparison of lightweight web browsers
– Gemini (protocol)
– Gopher (protocol)
– Text-based email client
Progressive Enhancement and Compatibility
– Progressive enhancement allows compatibility with text-based web browsers without compromising functionality.
– Content readable through pure HTML without CSS or JavaScript.
– Ensures compatibility with more sophisticated browsers while maintaining accessibility.
References and Additional Resources
– Building a resilient frontend using progressive enhancement. (GOV.UK)
– Description of CHARLOTT. (IBM)
– This Web-software-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
– Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Text-based_web_browser&oldid=1171951782
– Categories: Text-based web browsers, Text mode, Web software stubs
This article needs additional citations for verification. (June 2016) |
A text-based web browser is a web browser that renders only the text of web pages, and ignores most graphic content. Under small bandwidth connections, usually, they render pages faster than graphical web browsers due to lowered bandwidth demands. Additionally, the greater CSS, JavaScript and typography functionality of graphical browsers require more CPU resources. They also can be heavily modified to display certain content differently
Text-based browsers are often very useful for users with visual impairment or partial blindness. They are especially useful with speech synthesis or text-to-speech software, which reads content to users.
Progressive enhancement allows a site to be compatible with text-based web browsers without compromising functionality to more sophisticated browsers, as the content is readable through pure HTML without CSS or JavaScript.
