Talk:Line Mode Browser/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: Malleus Fatuorum 16:21, 11 November 2010 (UTC)

My initial feeling was that this article fails 3a of the Good Article criteria, in particular because it says nothing about the numbers of users of this browser (on initial release or now), how it was received, how many times it was downloaded, and so on. Does anyone still use it today? If so, why? If not, then why is it still being distributed?

After looking at the article in more depth I am concerned that many of the citations do not appear to support what is being said, and so it also fails criterion 2b. I've left a few more detailed observations below, but so far as this review is concerned I think that the work required to reach GA remains considerable, and so I am closing this review as a fail.


 * Lead
 * Why does the lead start off "A Line Mode Browser"? Line Mode Browser its name, not its type.


 * "The browser is very portable". This doesn't sit easily with the statement in the History section that the developer failed to convert the source code to ANSI C, which would seem to limit its portability.


 * "The browser is very portable and could be ported to any operating system.[8][9]" Neither of the citations given support that statement, and the second assertion is absurd in any case. The most that could be said is that it could be ported to any operating system for which an ANSI C compiler is available.


 * The lead is too short to adequately summarise the article.


 * History
 * "The development started in November 1990[1][13]". Only the second of those citations supports that statement. What's the purpose of the first one?


 * The Agora world wide web email browser was based on the Line Mode Browser." The citation given doesn't seem to mention Agora so far as I can see.


 * "Robert Cailliau tried to update the browser code's programming language from C to ANSI C, which is more powerful". In what sense is ANSI C more powerful, as opposed to (potentially) more portable?


 * "... but Cailliau could not get the application compiled". Why not? Did he not have access to an ANSI C compiler?


 * "The general availability of the World Wide Web in 1991 increased interest in the project at CERN and other laboratories (i.e. the DESY)." That doesn't make sense. Should it be "e.g., the DESY"? I think it's stretching credibility to claim that the WWW was "generally available" in 1991.


 * "The Line Mode Browser is now largely irrelevant ...". Again, why the, as LMB is its name? You wouldn't say "the Internet Explorer".


 * Features
 * "It does not properly collapse excess whitespace in the HTML code, and has no support for tables or frames." The citation given doesn't appear to mention LMB that I can see.