TL;DR
A recent examination tested classic text-based browsers (ELinks, Lynx, w3m) against newer HTML features and found many of those features are ignored or rendered in full. That can break progressive-enhancement patterns and expose content authors expected to be hidden or interactive.
What happened
The author reviewed how legacy text-based browsers render several recent HTML additions by testing ELinks, Lynx and w3m. Because these browsers present essentially unstyled HTML with no JavaScript execution, interactive or semantic features frequently behave differently than in graphical browsers. Disclosure widgets (<details>) are always expanded, data lists are ignored and fall back to plain inputs (Lynx reported "bad HTML" for datalists), and <dialog> and Popover API content appears on the page as if permanently open. The global inert attribute does not prevent access to interactive elements inside inert regions, and elements marked with the HTML hidden attribute are still displayed. Likewise, any visually hidden content relying on CSS remains visible in these environments. The author categorized outcomes from acceptable to problematic, and highlighted the ignored hidden attribute as a major practical problem for progressive-enhancement workflows.
Why it matters
- Progressive enhancement strategies that hide content in HTML can fail when text-based browsers expose that content.
- Interactive HTML features (dialogs, popovers, inert) may not behave as intended without CSS/JS support, affecting usability and form behavior.
- Developers who test only mainstream graphical browsers can miss how sites appear to users of text-based tools.
- Ignored semantics can create accessibility and privacy concerns if content expected to be hidden becomes visible.
Key facts
- The author excluded browsh because it relies on Firefox under the hood and instead tested ELinks, Lynx and w3m.
- Text-based browsers render plain HTML with minimal styling (colors, indentation, centered text) and do not run JavaScript.
- The <details> element is always shown open in the tested text-based browsers; only the summary concept is not respected.
- Data lists (<datalist>) are ignored and inputs fall back to a plain <input>; Lynx reported encountering "bad HTML" for datalist markup.
- The <dialog> element and Popover API content are rendered as if they were always open; dialog-specific behaviors (e.g., method="dialog") are not honored.
- The global inert attribute does not prevent interaction with elements inside inert regions in the tested browsers.
- Elements marked with the HTML hidden attribute are displayed in these text-based browsers, contrary to the author’s expectation.
- Content intended to be visually hidden via CSS would still be visible in text-based browsers because those browsers do not apply CSS.
What to watch next
- Whether maintainers of text-based browsers will implement support for the hidden attribute and other newer HTML semantics is not confirmed in the source.
- Potential adoption or development of newer text-based projects (for example, readers mentioned a browser called chawan) and whether they address these gaps is not confirmed in the source.
Quick glossary
- Progressive enhancement: A development strategy that builds a basic, functional experience in plain HTML and layer on CSS and JavaScript for richer interactions.
- <details>: An HTML element that creates a disclosure widget with a summary that can hide or show additional content without JavaScript.
- HTML hidden attribute: An attribute that indicates an element is not relevant and should be hidden from rendering, similar to display:none in CSS.
- inert attribute: A global attribute intended to make part of the DOM unreachable and non-interactive, often used for modal dialogs.
- Popover API: A web API that standardizes lightweight popover UI patterns, including some dialog behaviors, without heavy scripting.
Reader FAQ
Which text-based browsers were tested?
ELinks, Lynx and w3m were used for the tests.
Do text-based browsers apply CSS or run JavaScript?
No — the tested text-based browsers present plain HTML and do not execute JavaScript or apply CSS in the way graphical browsers do.
Are elements using the HTML hidden attribute hidden in these browsers?
No — elements marked with the hidden attribute were still shown in the tested browsers.
Was browsh evaluated in these tests?
No. browsh was excluded because it relies on Firefox under the hood.
Will text-based browsers add support for these modern HTML features?
not confirmed in the source
Text-based web browsers EssayJanuary 8, 2026 Before I start, let me get two things out of the way: In this article I’m not going to include the admittedly cool browsh,…
Sources
- Text-Based Web Browsers
- Relatively New Things You Should Know about HTML …
- How modern browsers work
- Demystifying Browsers: How They Work Behind the Scenes
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