h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I came across the anouncement on the digital village site in 2001 (*1) of h2g2 mobile, h2g2 WAP. I onder what has happened to it all. We have wap.h2g2.com (*2), but no content. Will there ever (has there) be a h2g2 wap site?

Also i wonder has there ever been a text only version of h2g2, you can browse from a non gui web browser?

I'll have to ask someone!!



(*1) http://web.archive.org/web/20110709051600/http://www.tdv.com/index.html
(*2) http://wap.h2g2.com/



One idea i had a while ago was why not use a text interface for h2g2, there are alot of different types of ways this can be done. Does anyone know of the "monochrome" (*3) BBS system? It has a lovely text interface, easy to learn, and easy to navigate a massive site like this. In fact you could navigate a site like h2g2 drastically quicker with an interface like that. To see log in as a guest and have a look around! Very friendly people and place!!

(*3) http://mono.org/

( a wonderful online community just like h2g2, still going strong with a dedicated core userbase )

There was a WAP version of h2g2 many years ago, written in that lovely old language of WML, I remember it because I was one of about five people who was able to use it.

The problem was, it was ahead of its time, a bit like h2g2 itself, back then not many people had mobile phones, let alone ones that could connect to the internet.
Then, when h2g2 went to the BBC, because of a bizarre clause in the licensing agreement of something not even related to h2g2, the beeb had to stop the wap version.

A compromise was made and a plain skin version was created, and like a lot of the old skins, it's still kicking around, you can find it here:

http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/plain/home

The wap version though, I'm afraid that's gone. I've no idea what happened to the code over the years, but I don't think I've got a copy of it.

There is a new version of h2g2 on the way (when I finish writing it, unfortunately we're all volunteers so it takes time) which handles multiple skins properly, and one of those (which is actually the base skin) is plain text.

The problem is, the huge majority of our users are after the all singing, all dancing, very graphical front ends, and we have to focus our limited time where it's best served. Thankfully though, because the new version is plain text first ( until recently I used to build these systems for a living, have done for many years, and know the importance of that base ) we'll at least be able to support it.

Hi Pastey,

Wow! I wasn't expecting such a well informed reply to my journal post.
I was going to post something up somewhere more public: i'm impressed!!

Great! So there will be a proper text only skin? ANy chance of a peek? Do we have researchers testing stuff like that?

Pity about the wap version. I am impressed with the plain version though (the link from here doesn't work , but from outside h2g2 that link works - i googled and got that same link, also the "text only" bit doesn't work); it is awesome. I have tried using h2g2 from a text browser before - but it's not a good fit - i should have uses the plain skin.

It's not actually possible to test the new plain skin yet, I've got a forced override on the test system as we need to make sure that the new Pliny skin is working properly, as it's a completely redone front end. Once it is, and is rolled out to live, then work will begin on the other skins, as I'll have removed the block and they'll start working again.

Look forward to seeing the new skins. I'm still using Brunel actually, i like seeing the eyes it's a nice touch; Pliny looks way better though!

Just looking at h2g2 in the plain skin; it does indeed looks way better in a text only browser.

I'll keep my eye open for the new stuff!

Yeah, the eyes don't actually work

Oh yes i forgot about that! Everyone's lights are on, but may not be at home.(?)

Well i did like that feature when it worked.

There's an equivalent in Pliny that we're bringing in. It's too good a feature to lose

Yay! Love the eyes!

Hey! The plain skin is working!? Yay!!!!!!!!!!

It loks sooo good with the lynx text browser, impressive.

Wait 'til you see the new Eddie skin

All the old skins are being brought over to the new Pliny framework, including Plain, which we're updating to Eddie. It does what Plain did, gives you nothing but layout and content

Can't wait :p
Plain looks great on my mobile

re:- post 2
There IS a god, apart from me


all singing etcnah! just brunel