Re: Any lynx users?

[Mayuresh <mayuresh%acm.org@localhost>]

On Thu, Apr 08, 2021 at 05:40:01PM +0000, Steve Blinkhorn wrote:
> I use lynx embeddided in a Tcl script to automagically generate tax
> returns from my accountiong system

elinks (or now felinks) is much better in many respects, built on same
philosophy as of lynx and you may like to try them. I used to use lynx but
switched over many years back and never looked back.

I am fond of such things, but wary of them, too! This is not the last time
they have changed something that breaks your automation and this will keep
happening over time. Hence one has to worry about maintainability of such
solutions.

There is a bunch of solutions I have tried over time:

1. wget (or curl, but I tried wget): Simplest of them all if it works.
Deals with posts, redirection, cookies etc.

2. elinks (lynx in your case). Advantage over above is to get the page
converted into simple text if that helps.

3. python-mechanize: more sophisticated, mimics the browser sans
javascript

4. python-marionette + firefox: For those nasty sites that won't work
without JS.  Over years many of the things I automated had to end up
adopting this approach as JS started dominating the websites.

5. python BeautifulSoup: In conjunction with above approaches for ease of
searches through the DOM, in case the htmls are complex

-- 
Mayuresh