DBBasic TextBrowser Help

A text-mode web browser with AI assistance

🎯 Quick Start

• Press Ctrl-K to enter a URL or AI command
• Press 0-9 to follow numbered links instantly
• Press F to fill out forms (like search boxes)
• Press H to see this help page
• Press Q to quit

⌨️ Keyboard Controls

Navigation

• Ctrl-K - Open address/AI command box
• ↑ ↓ - Scroll up/down one line
• Page Up/Down - Scroll one page
• Home - Jump to top of page
• End - Jump to bottom of page

Links

• 0-9 - Follow links 0 through 9 instantly
• G - Go to link by number (for links 10+)
• Links appear inline as [0], [1], etc.

Forms

• F - Fill out form on current page
• Interactive field-by-field input
• Automatically submits when done

Other

• H - Show this help page
• Q - Quit browser

🤖 AI Features

AI Status

AI features require an OpenAI API key. Set it with:

export OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key-here

Using AI Commands

Press Ctrl-K and type natural language commands:

Content Analysis

• summarize this page - Get a concise summary
• what are the main points? - Extract key information
• explain this like I'm 5 - Simplify complex content
• what is this article about? - General comprehension

Information Extraction

• find pricing information - Extract specific data
• what does this say about [topic]? - Targeted questions
• list all the key dates mentioned - Extract structured info

Translation

• translate to Spanish - Translate content
• translate to [language] - Any language

Navigation (AI Function Calling)

• go to wikipedia for [topic] - AI navigates for you
• find the homepage for [company] - AI searches and navigates
• search for [query] - AI can search and navigate

How AI Detection Works

When you press Ctrl-K, the browser detects:

• URL (contains domain) → Navigate to page
• Natural language → Send to AI for processing

📊 AI Model

Currently using: GPT-5-nano

• Fastest and most cost-efficient GPT-5 variant
• Good balance of speed and quality for text processing
• Supports function calling for navigation

🎨 Visual Features

Color Coding

• Magenta - Headings (lines starting with #)
• Green - Links with numbers [0], [1], etc.
• Bright white - Bold text (**text**)
• Red - Emphasis (_text_)
• Yellow - Separators (=== or ---)
• Cyan - Status bar at top

Status Bar

Top of screen shows:

• Browser name: DBBasic TextBrowser
• Current URL

Help Bar

Bottom of screen shows available commands:

• Always visible keyboard shortcuts
• Dynamically shows "F: Form" when forms detected
• Shows "0-9/G: Links" when links available
• Scroll percentage indicator on right

🌐 Supported Sites

What Works

Sites that work well in text mode:

• News sites - BBC, NPR Text, CNN Lite
• Wikipedia - Full access to articles
• Search engines - DuckDuckGo, Google
• Tech sites - Hacker News, Stack Overflow, GitHub
• Old interfaces - old.reddit.com, Craigslist
• Lightweight alternatives - Invidious, Nitter

What Doesn't Work

Sites requiring JavaScript:

• YouTube.com - Use Invidious instead (yewtu.be)
• Twitter.com - Use Nitter instead (nitter.net)
• Facebook - No good alternative
• Instagram - Use bibliogram instances
• Modern web apps - Gmail, Google Docs, Slack, etc.

Detection

When you visit a JavaScript-heavy site, the browser will:

• Detect empty or minimal content
• Show a warning message
• Suggest alternative sites
• Offer AI assistance to find alternatives

🔧 Technical Details

User Agent

Lynx/2.9.0dev.6 libwww-FM/2.14 SSL-MM/1.4.1

The browser identifies as Lynx for compatibility.

Form Handling

• Supports GET and POST methods
• Handles relative and absolute URLs
• Interactive field input with type detection
• Skips hidden fields, submit buttons

Link Extraction

• Converts relative URLs to absolute
• Skips anchors (#), javascript:, mailto: links
• Numbers links in order of appearance
• Shows first 20 links in list at bottom

Text Rendering

• Wraps text to terminal width (with 4-char margin)
• Removes JavaScript and CSS from pages
• Converts HTML to markdown-style text
• Preserves headings, links, and basic formatting

💡 Tips & Tricks

Speed

• Pages load almost instantly (no JS/CSS/images)
• Use numbered links for instant navigation
• AI can navigate for you (faster than typing URLs)

Efficiency

• Start from the homepage (curated links)
• Use DuckDuckGo for searching
• Bookmark useful sites mentally (no bookmark feature yet)
• Use AI to extract info instead of reading entire pages

AI Best Practices

• Be specific: "find pricing" vs "summarize"
• Ask for navigation: "go to X" instead of visiting manually
• Chain requests: AI can visit multiple pages
• Extract data: "list all the features mentioned"

🐛 Known Issues

• JavaScript-heavy sites won't work (by design)
• Images are not displayed (text-only)
• Some tables may render poorly
• No download support yet
• No history/back button yet
• No bookmarks yet

🚀 Coming Soon

• History and back button
• Bookmarks manager
• Search within page (/)
• Better table rendering
• Download support
• More AI functions (extract to CSV, compare pages)
• Tab support

📖 Philosophy

DBBasic TextBrowser demonstrates that:

• Text-first browsing is fast
• Keyboard navigation is efficient
• AI makes text browsers intelligent
• The web can be accessible to everyone
• Simplicity beats complexity

Press Ctrl-K to navigate anywhere | Press Q to quit | Press H anytime for help

DBBasic TextBrowser - Fast, accessible, intelligent browsing