CERN Launches Line Mode Browser Emulator

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CERN Launches Line Mode Browser Emulator

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday October 1, 2013 @11:50AM from the out-with-the-new-in-with-the-old dept.

itwbennett writes "As part of the project to preserve the world's first website and all of the accompanying technology, CERN last week launched a line mode browser emulator. To make the browser experience authentic, the developers recreated how terminals would draw one character at a time by covering the page in black and then revealing each character by erasing a character-sized rectangle from that cover, one-by-one, line-by-line. They also recreated the sound of typing on older keyboards, specifically an IBM RS/6000 keyboard, by using HTML5 audio elements."

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Looks familiar... by ak_hepcat · 2013-10-01 12:04 · Score: 3, Interesting

Almost exactly what browsing with lynx looks like on my CIT-101e VT100 dumb terminal that i still have, and still works.
It's been a workhorse since 1989 or so, and has yet to fail.
Granted, i don't keep it ON all the time.
Now, is CERN going to make an archie/veronica tty client for the web as well?

--
Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
1. Re:Looks familiar... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-01 12:40 · Score: 1
  
  Now, is CERN going to make an archie/veronica tty client for the web as well?
  I'm never sure, but I think that's irony.
2. Re:Looks familiar... by MouseTheLuckyDog · 2013-10-01 19:24 · Score: 1
  
  They have a link for gopher but it doesn't go anywhere. ( Yet?)
3. Re:Looks familiar... by rvw · 2013-10-01 23:02 · Score: 1
  
  Almost exactly what browsing with lynx looks like on my CIT-101e VT100 dumb terminal that i still have, and still works.
  It's been a workhorse since 1989 or so, and has yet to fail.
  Granted, i don't keep it ON all the time.
  Don't keep it OFF too long, the cable might dry out and the thing might go up in smoke when turned on...
4. Re:Looks familiar... by CronoCloud · 2013-10-02 00:54 · Score: 1
  
  http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/
I might look into it. by gallondr00nk · 2013-10-01 12:05 · Score: 3, Insightful

It'll be better than using the beta.
Yes, that was a cheap shot, I admit it.
1. Re:I might look into it. by TWX · 2013-10-01 12:52 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Unfortunately I'm finding it difficult to disagree with you.
  
  When there wasn't an unlimited amount of screen or an unlimited amount of graphics capability, interface designers had to be very diligent in how they used what they had. With only eighty columns and twenty-five rows, or if you were lucky, one-hundred-thirty-two columns and forty-four rows, there wasn't a lot of room for waste or poor design.
  
  Modern web designers have embraced the ooh-shiny parts of modern HTML specifications but haven't held on to the basic purpose, to efficiently convey information. Beta is an example, embracing eye-candy at the expense of that which the site's purpose is for, to convey information that's mostly text-based.
  
  I also used to use Lynx/links/elinks as testing for what I wrote. I haven't written HTML in a big way in some time, but I imagine that most pages will fail the text-mode test.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Would you care to rephrase that? by JazzHarper · 2013-10-01 12:06 · Score: 2, Informative

FTFS: "...terminals would draw one character at a time by covering the page in black and then revealing each character by erasing a character-sized rectangle from that cover, one-by-one, line-by-line."
I don't know of any terminals that ever worked that way.
1. Re:Would you care to rephrase that? by OhSoLaMeow · 2013-10-01 12:14 · Score: 1
  
  FTFS: "...terminals would draw one character at a time by covering the page in black and then revealing each character by erasing a character-sized rectangle from that cover, one-by-one, line-by-line."
  I don't know of any terminals that ever worked that way.
  They didn't.
  
  I think what that poorly worded sentence meant to say was "... the developers simulated how terminals would draw one character at a time ..."
  FTFY
  
  --
  They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
2. Re:Would you care to rephrase that? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-01 12:52 · Score: 1
  
  No one claimed they did. You only quoted part of the sentence to make it say something different.
3. Re:Would you care to rephrase that? by JazzHarper · 2013-10-01 13:56 · Score: 1
  
  To be clear, I think what the summary should have said "the developers recreated the appearance of a terminal using an emulator which covered the page in black and then revealed each character by erasing a character-sized rectangle from that cover, one-by-one, line-by-line". The actions described are those of the terminal emulator. Saying "terminals would draw..." makes the historic video terminals, and not the emulator, the subject of the entire subordinate clause, which is obviously wrong.
4. Re:Would you care to rephrase that? by YesIAmAScript · 2013-10-01 16:13 · Score: 1
  
  They didn't, but Tek's 4014 and 4051 looked kind of like they were doing that.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpD1QXvtlcg&list=PL3DACE89AA461F5BC
  
  --
  http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
5. Re:Would you care to rephrase that? by drkim · 2013-10-01 17:45 · Score: 1
  
  They didn't, but Tek's 4014 and 4051 looked kind of like they were doing that.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpD1QXvtlcg&list=PL3DACE89AA461F5BC
  Very cool...
  Has any one made a text simulator that reproduces the way a storage tube display would draw characters, stroke-by-stroke, onto the screen?
6. Re:Would you care to rephrase that? by JazzHarper · 2013-10-01 22:34 · Score: 1
  
  I had forgotten that thing. I used a 4014 in 1979-1980. Apparently, our design automation department had acquired it as an experiment, but it was almost useless, since we had very little software (on the IBM mainframes) which could make use of it. I think I did manage to get curves and waveforms from SPICE simulations onto it. I still carry the Tektronix ASCII reference card that came with it.
7. Re:Would you care to rephrase that? by drkim · 2013-10-02 16:03 · Score: 1
  
  They didn't, but Tek's 4014 and 4051 looked kind of like they were doing that.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpD1QXvtlcg&list=PL3DACE89AA461F5BC
  Very cool...
  Has any one made a text simulator that reproduces the way a storage tube display would draw characters, stroke-by-stroke, onto the screen?
  Yeah, but the 4010 and 4014 are the real thing!
  I was wondering if there was a simulator for PC.
Keyboard sounds by Guest316 · 2013-10-01 12:09 · Score: 5, Funny

I've occasionally startled people by identifying their brand and model of computer or terminal over the phone just by the sound of their keyboards. Membrane keyboards have deprived me of this form of amusement though.
1. Re: Keyboard sounds by TWX · 2013-10-01 12:54 · Score: 2
  
  Because that's about as funny as helping people install Windows 95 over the phone, and reciting those various feature-splash-screens, roughly as they appeared on the user's screen, from memory...
  
  I'm not proud of this, mind you...
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
2. Re: Keyboard sounds by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-01 13:12 · Score: 1
  
  Speaking of Windows sounds: Ever hear a person say "h", "t", "t", "p", "colon", "backslash", "backslash", ... ? It merits a face palm and a heavy sigh.
3. Re: Keyboard sounds by Concerned+Onlooker · 2013-10-01 13:19 · Score: 1
  
  Because it's only a guest user.
  
  --
  http://www.rootstrikers.org/
4. Re: Keyboard sounds by plover · 2013-10-01 13:41 · Score: 1
  
  Speaking of Windows sounds: Ever hear a person say "h", "t", "t", "p", "colon", "backslash", "backslash", ... ? It merits a face palm and a heavy sigh.
  Better. I helped a woman who mumbled something very much like "user is M12345, password is k-g-a-r-n-e-t"
  
  --
  John
5. Re: Keyboard sounds by flimflammer · 2013-10-01 14:14 · Score: 1
  
  Yesterday, in fact.
6. Re: Keyboard sounds by vlueboy · 2013-10-01 14:23 · Score: 2
  
  Speaking of Windows sounds: Ever hear a person say "h", "t", "t", "p", "colon", "backslash", "backslash", ... ?
  Incorrect. Several commercials for large, well known US companies often did that in the late nineties. They knew scant few people were aware of how to visit, so they had to encourage them to go by making it easy. This allowed them to enhance the point of a 30 second commercial, and had the appeal that eventually people would look up a product out of curiosity while never getting the urge to call an 800 number and get trapped by a live salesperson.
  Since the potential medium was not as mainstream to trigger as saying "call us now at the number on your screen" and leaving it on would be just as ignored as car commercial / lawyer ad fine print, reading the url was disruptive yet new-fangled enough to stand out. They just follow the queue of the professional 1-800 number ads... and dumbly recite the whole url letter by letter to ensure the viewers could at least tell it was important. It's similar to how on facebook's baby days, ads had improved to say "visit us at facebook.com/somelargecompanyurl." Nowadays they just say follow *us* (no explanation or canonical name) on facebook and don't even list their own megacompany public url.
  That's a downside of today's internet: sometimes you dumbly stare at some unknown company with a mystery logo pushing a cryptic ad that just points to a facebook or twitter page, which can then link elsewhere. No NAME, no PHONE*, and some presumed immunity to needing to list a fine print. They pay for cheap print ad space forcing curious eyes to a page that does all the talking in as much space as they want at virtually no additional cost. On their actual page (if they dare drive you to their own servers) they enjoy sneakily unleashing as many ads and affiliate crosslinks as they want... let alone being able to track the visitors the second they land on the page.
  * no hope of any interaction with real people should you have some trouble with what just caught your eye for a possible sale... OR RETURN
7. Re: Keyboard sounds by Em+Adespoton · 2013-10-01 16:22 · Score: 1
  
  Speaking of Windows sounds: Ever hear a person say "h", "t", "t", "p", "colon", "backslash", "backslash", ... ?
  Incorrect. Several commercials for large, well known US companies often did that in the late nineties.
  These ads you speak of, they said "backslash" when they meant "slash"? That's what GP was getting at by "Windows sounds" -- because people who'd only used Windows rarely used forward-slash, and thus might not realize the difference, or how the "back" got in the name of "backslash". (cf. DOS, where forward-slash was commonly used for switches, or Macs/UNIX/etc. where forward-slash was used as a path separator.) Personally, I suspect it was less about Windows as such, and more about the class of users who have exactly zero interest in computers and only learned enough about Windows to meet minimum competence to keep their office job.
  Then too, I think old versions of IE would "help" users who actually typed backslashes in their URLs by silently correcting them instead of displaying an error message, which no doubt contributed to their failure to learn...
  Yes, I remember DOS/Windows users thinking everything was a backslash back in the day... back then, Macs used the colon as a file separator, and the forward and backslash were used as textual elements.
  But back in the beginning it really mattered what you typed as your prefix, because people were entering http:/// gopher:// ftp:// telnet:// mailto:, and many other things into their web browser, which could handle all of them. Originally I thought Mosaic was great because it provided a single place to handle my URIs no matter what protocol I threw at it. So the backslash was just Windows-based silliness, but the http itself was required, as the world-wide-web was only one small part of the Internet landscape.
  Fast forward to today where people use hashtags and @s to draw you in, the "failed" Q-codes, and most people just put the domain as a plaintext link, because the browser (everyone's Internet Starting Place) will default to http unless you provide another handler.
  And yes, IE (and eventually Netscape too, IIRC) auto-converted backslashes to forward slashes. They did a number of other neat things too, like removing spaces found before the path separator and handling IP addresses written in octal (still works -- try it!).
8. Re: Keyboard sounds by Em+Adespoton · 2013-10-01 16:25 · Score: 1
  
  PS: Anyone remember TWA flight 800? And then many years later we had 9/11. Is there something horrifically special about the American phone system?
  I'll tell you about I-900, but it'll cost you....
9. Re: Keyboard sounds by qubezz · 2013-10-02 00:26 · Score: 1
  
  Speaking of Windows sounds: Ever hear a person say "h", "t", "t", "p", "colon", "backslash", "backslash", ... ? It merits a face palm and a heavy sigh.
  People say things like this because they like to parrot words that they think make them sound smart. If they just learned "backslash" they'll be sure to pepper their speech with it even when the character is just a slash, just like calling the box with the power switch the "hard drive".
10. Re: Keyboard sounds by sgtrock · 2013-10-02 04:29 · Score: 1
  
  Speaking of Windows sounds: Ever hear a person say "h", "t", "t", "p", "colon", "slash", "slash", ... ?
  FTFY ...What? Am I the only one who remembers which was designated which back when typewriters and terminals ruled the world? Just because Microsoft chose to confuse people yet again doesn't mean we should perpetuate the mistake! :-)
11. Re: Keyboard sounds by Richy_T · 2013-10-02 06:03 · Score: 1
  
  Whoosh
12. Re: Keyboard sounds by sgtrock · 2013-10-02 07:27 · Score: 1
  
  It's only a whoosh when you've never had a senior help desk monkey tell you that. :-)
I'd use it for every website ... by MacTO · 2013-10-01 12:09 · Score: 1

... if they can emulate the tactile feedback of those old terminal keyboards. :)
Boring by atari2600a · 2013-10-01 12:12 · Score: 1

I'd be more impressed if it SSH'd into a VM running lynx/links/elinks/etc.
1. Re:Boring by philip.paradis · 2013-10-01 16:01 · Score: 1
  
  What you're describing would truly be boring. I guess you need AjaxTerm; knock yourself out.
  
  --
  Write failed: Broken pipe
2. Re:Boring by atari2600a · 2013-10-01 17:28 · Score: 1
  
  Because simulated mechanical keyboard sounds is just...terrible. & I can't even figure out how to enter a URL on this UI.
KSR33 by d'baba · 2013-10-01 12:29 · Score: 1

I'm just sayin'
Re:So you found the god particle by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-01 12:32 · Score: 2, Funny

Next on the list: Emulate oldest terminal browser, drink single malt, fire paladium at each other w/accelerator for fun cause there is no more science left!? #waste
There's plenty of science left. Please do the following (in this order):
1) Cure my goddamn jock itch.
2) Give the guy in the next cube some kind of space age denture glue so he stops making all those disgusting sounds with his dentures.
3) Make me a pill that will give me the ability to tell that cute girl in accounts that I'm really sorry about what happened after the company barbecue last month.
Get back to work, boys!
lynx ruled! by mekkab · 2013-10-01 13:10 · Score: 1

WE picked up a vt220 from the dumpster outside the compsci building and had a direct link in one of our freshman dorm rooms. Oh yeah, lynx (served from a Challenge L running irix)... thems was the days!

--
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
1. Re:lynx ruled! by drinkypoo · 2013-10-01 22:47 · Score: 1
  
  I lived in a house with six pair to every bedroom back in the nineties, and a Linux server in a garage with a 28.8k CSLIP to scruznet. We installed serial terminals in two of the bedrooms to permit housemates without computers to use the network, over three wires, right next to the phone. At 9600 bps, it worked fine. This was before the widespread web, though.
  
  --
  "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Re:Sweet memories by Oligonicella · 2013-10-01 13:28 · Score: 1

I recommend the Verbatim. Feels like a business keyboard should, solid and with a heft that keeps if from moving around like the lightweights. Plus you get sound. Feels so nice I bought an extra in case mine gives out some day and they aren't available.
While they're at it... by TheloniousToady · 2013-10-01 14:05 · Score: 1

The simulated sound canvas just isn't complete without the horizontal scanning squeal of the CRT, which is about 15 kHz. Some of us used to be able to hear that 20 years ago. (Can't anymore, darn.) Around the time the web was born, I once walked past a computer that had a particularly loud CRT. I asked the woman who was using it how she could even stand to be next to the thing - it was that loud. She didn't seem to understand and looked at me like I was crazy. So, I explained it to her. But she still didn't seem to understand. I guess she couldn't hear it at all!
1. Re:While they're at it... by VortexCortex · 2013-10-01 17:55 · Score: 1
  
  The simulated sound canvas just isn't complete without the horizontal scanning squeal of the CRT, which is about 15 kHz. Some of us used to be able to hear that 20 years ago.
  
  I was 7 when I first started using computers and writing my own programs, and I could hear that squealing back then. It seemed my hearing actually got better since I could hear it even louder as I grew, well the CRTs got larger too. All through the 90's I spent more and more time coding and the CRTs squealed to me. I just learned to ignore it, didn't pay much attention to it. Then one day I watched a movie: The Matrix. Leaving the movie theater I thought I could still hear that faint CRT squealing? No, certainly not there were no PCs around. Then LCD screens came and the squealing got even louder... I noticed I could hear it all the way in the next room. In fact, I COULD hear the squealing everywhere! I just only paid attention to it when I was at the terminal! "My God, we're living inside the damn matrix!", I realized.
  Many Tinfoil Origamists hear the call but sadly, only Neo can be The One. "Quantum Physics" -- Information "packets"... Yep, only further confirmation. So the physics step size of the sim is 1 Plank Second; The more stuff in a given area makes time slow down "due to gravity" -- which doesn't exist, space time is just "curved" -- Uh hu, sure, couldn't be that it just takes more CPU power to process more matter/energy... The Drake Equation says there should be life, but the answer to the Fermi Paradox is: We're the only ones in the sim... Now I just take Quietus to silence the incessant squeal, and try to pretend the NSA really are just the Agents they say they are.
2. Re:While they're at it... by davewoods · 2013-10-02 08:04 · Score: 1
  
  I had fun reading this, mostly because I have had the same train of thoughts before. (Right up until the end)
Re:So you found the god particle by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-01 14:08 · Score: 1

lynx is actually older. It pre-dates http, in fact, since it was written for a different hypertext protocol and http support was added later.
Source: I'm a cougar.
Waste of time by Alomex · 2013-10-01 14:24 · Score: 1

All they will accomplish is remind people how utterly crappy the web was until Mosaic introduced the IMG tag.
1. Re:Waste of time by CronoCloud · 2013-10-02 00:44 · Score: 1
  
  The browser that CERN created first on their NeXt machine, called WorldWideWeb, had image support.
  The line mode browser was created for less capable machines.
2. Re:Waste of time by Alomex · 2013-10-02 02:19 · Score: 1
  
  I think you are mistaken. Here's a 1992 draft of HTML without IMG support:
  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-talk/1992MayJun/0020.html
  Here's another in November 1992 still without IMG tags:
  http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/MarkUp/Tags.html
  By early 1993 NCSA was working on Mosaic and it now included IMG support.
I can save them a LOT of work here... by pla · 2013-10-01 14:35 · Score: 1

# stty speed 300 # lynx http://www.slashdot.org
Re:Sweet memories by TheGoodNamesWereGone · 2013-10-01 14:40 · Score: 1

I'm typing this right now on a 1994-vintage Model M. :-)
Re:So you found the god particle by JustOK · 2013-10-01 14:55 · Score: 1

3) You ARE a pill.

--
rewriting history since 2109
Missing the authentic experience by PPH · 2013-10-01 15:13 · Score: 1

During the next two hours, the system will be going up and down several
times, often with lin~po_~{po ~poz~ppo\~{ o n~po_~{o[po ~y oodsou>#w4ko

--
Have gnu, will travel.
Re:So you found the god particle by Anonymous Coward · 2013-10-01 16:22 · Score: 1

You might want to recheck your information. Lynx was released as a beta version for the internal U of Kansas system (and gopher) in July of 92. The internet aware 2.0 version was released in 93. Considering the "first web page" went up in Dec of 90 and the first version of HTTP was documented in 91 lynx does not pre-date http, despite not supporting it initially.
Why print the javascript... by mattr · 2013-10-01 17:17 · Score: 1

I think all that javascript is a bit annoying. And probably just providing a gateway to lynx and tin would be surprising enough to people?
q: "I'm not a quitter"
1. Re:Why print the javascript... by Lennie · 2013-10-02 21:30 · Score: 1
  
  Serving the Javascript means a lot less load on the server and works in every modern webbrowser.
  This whole story is about webbrowsers.
  Anyway, if you check the interview section, the people that created it probably volunteered to do it.
  So why would you care ?
  
  --
  New things are always on the horizon
Can /. do this? by morethanapapercert · 2013-10-01 17:46 · Score: 2

Y'know, say for sysadmin appreciation day (July 25th) , or for April 1 instead of some gawd-awful "OMGPonies!" colour scheme?

--
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
Re:Cathode + Lynx. by Traf-O-Data-Hater · 2013-10-01 18:21 · Score: 1

Pretty, but the curved screen effect is way overdone to the point of being obnoxious.
Am I missing something? by jez9999 · 2013-10-01 21:07 · Score: 1

This emulator doesn't seem to be able to load an actual page on the web, just a limited bunch of stuff that's programmed into it, right? I mean if I type www.google.com and press enter, it doesn't load Google.

--
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.
1. Re:Am I missing something? by NetMagi · 2013-10-02 02:56 · Score: 1
  
  you have to give it the URL externally to proxy it. Kind of defeats the point, but does work: for ex: http://line-mode.cern.ch/www/proxy?url=http://a2dp4audi.com/ Swap my site address (I know, cheap plug), for any address, and it will work.
2. Re:Am I missing something? by pscottdv · 2013-10-02 05:06 · Score: 1
  
  Interesting. Google is completely unusable in this emulator, but IBM's website renders like it was made for it.
  
  --
  this signature has been removed due to a DMCA takedown notice
Lynx still works by water-and-sewer · 2013-10-01 23:34 · Score: 1

Cool demonstration. The last time I had a similar experience (except for the low bandwidth and latency) was about ... yesterday, when I used Lynx. It's still a great browser in my opinion. I prefer text, and it's fast on sites like nytimes.com or linuxtoday.com which both spend so much time loading crap and analytics when using a regular browser that they're almost unusable in my low bandwidth environment.
I still like Lynx and don't care that I don't receive all the pics and javascript shininess and flash advertisement and crap. I just want to read the damn articles. Even Slashdot on Lynx is decent.

--
If this were Usenet, I'd killfile the lot of you.
Gave up. by Cinnaman · 2013-10-01 23:46 · Score: 1

Figuring out how to view a website took too long. No obvious way to do after looking at the help pages and list of commands. Typing in a web address results in nothing happening.
No need for an emulator on Linux by CronoCloud · 2013-10-02 00:39 · Score: 1

On Fedora, in your favorite terminal:
yum install w3c-libwww-apps
www http://www.site.foo/
Re:Cathode + Lynx. by CronoCloud · 2013-10-02 00:47 · Score: 1

Lynx? Lynx is a screen mode browser with better UI, what you want is "www" which is the actual line mode browser.
It's like gopher on steroids. by key45 · 2013-10-02 03:46 · Score: 1

Nearly as cool as Gopherpedia http://gopherpedia.com/gopherpedia.com/
Re:So you found the god particle by amRadioHed · 2013-10-02 03:51 · Score: 1

You know what the E in CERN stands for, right? Hint: It's not America.

--
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Re:So you found the god particle by Lennie · 2013-10-03 08:08 · Score: 1

Also the people that worked on this probably volunteered. Just look at the interviews page on their site.

--
New things are always on the horizon