Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

W3M VS CMark

Compare W3M VS CMark and see what are their differences

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W3M logo W3M

w3m is a text-based web browser as well as a pager like ' ...

CMark logo CMark

CMark is CommonMark implementation based on the C reference, which is a rationalized version of the Markdown syntax coming with the spec.
  • W3M Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-06-22
  • CMark Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-01

W3M features and specs

  • Lightweight
    W3M is a lightweight browser, making it suitable for systems with minimal resources, and performs well even on older hardware.
  • Text-based
    As a text-based browser, W3M is useful for accessing web content via command-line interfaces, which can be beneficial for users who prefer non-GUI environments.
  • Fast Performance
    Due to its minimalistic design, W3M provides fast browsing experiences, especially when handling simple webpages or when operating over slow connections.
  • Keyboard Navigation
    W3M allows efficient browsing using keyboard shortcuts, which can enhance productivity for users who master these controls.
  • Inline Image Support
    W3M supports the display of inline images when combined with certain terminal emulators, offering better multimedia support compared to some other text-based browsers.

Possible disadvantages of W3M

  • Limited Modern Web Support
    W3M struggles with rendering complex websites that rely heavily on JavaScript and modern web technologies, limiting its usability on many current sites.
  • User Interface
    The text-based user interface can be difficult for new users to adapt to, especially those accustomed to graphical web browsers.
  • Limited Interactivity
    Due to its text-based nature, W3M has limited support for interactive web features, which can impede full functionality on interactive pages.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    The reliance on keyboard shortcuts and the lack of a GUI can present a steep learning curve for new users who are not familiar with text-based navigation.
  • Dependency on Terminal
    W3M requires a terminal interface, which might not be as appealing or accessible for users used to graphical environments.

CMark features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

W3M videos

Terminal-based Web Browsing with w3m - Lunduke Show

More videos:

  • Review - nVLC Browser Extension for W3M - Linux TUI
  • Review - w3m-img -- View Images in the Console - Linux CLI

CMark videos

No CMark videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to W3M and CMark)
Web Browsers
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Web Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Tool
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using W3M and CMark. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, W3M should be more popular than CMark. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

W3M mentions (11)

  • Surfing the Web Like It's 1992 (Lynx Browser)
    I should mention, there are other text-based browsers like w3m and Links, but I enjoy using Lynx most. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • dnf update is downloading ImageMagick?
    [code]Installed Packages Name : w3m-img Version : 0.5.3 Release : 57.git20220429.fc37 Architecture : x86_64 Size : 32 k Source : w3m-0.5.3-57.git20220429.fc37.src.rpm Repository : @System From repo : fedora Summary : Helper program to display the inline images for w3m URL : http://w3m.sourceforge.net/ License : MIT and UCD Description : w3m-img package... Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Setting up lynx
    You should check w3m http://w3m.sourceforge.net/. Source: about 3 years ago
  • The sad truth
    Try http://w3m.sourceforge.net some day. :). Source: over 3 years ago
  • w3m rocks
    Does anyone have a chart/rundown of why we should choose links/lynx/w3m? The old main page calls links / lynx "neighbors"... http://w3m.sourceforge.net/ I use links (gentoo user here), but I do not really see a huge difference between the three. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
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CMark mentions (6)

  • Why Is This Site Built with C
    Using a portable minimal markdown dependency (such as cmark [1]) I think markdown can be quite a low barrier here. I personally do similar to what you have described on my blog, with an additional cmark conversion and find it quite simple [2]. [1] https://github.com/commonmark/cmark. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Ask HN: What's the simplest static website generator?
    I use GNU make. Write content in markdown, feed it to https://github.com/commonmark/cmark to create html. I intended to splice files together using xslt but echo and cat written in the makefile sufficed. I'm not totally sure I'd recommend that but I do like the markdown => html flow. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Building a Personal Internet from Markdown Files
    I seem to be in the middle of trying to build something similar to this. I want it to run on an android phone but otherwise the same sort of idea, offline-first information I want access to. There's some weirdness around android browsers refusing to load html from the phone itself on security grounds. The OP uses a "progressive web app" which seems to be the proper way to do this at some point in the past, but... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Using Rust with Elixir for code reuse and performance
    Yeah no doubt it, although in this case the C implementation has been a long running project that's under the official commonmark GitHub repo at https://github.com/commonmark/cmark. But I think the most important thing here is an Elixir NIF already exists to use it. The blog post as is leaves readers having to implement ~100 lines of Elixir code to use the Rust version because the authors of blog post didn't... - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago
  • How do I link and use a c library?
    I'm confused about how to use a c library (specifically, cmark) from zig. Source: about 4 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing W3M and CMark, you can also consider the following products

Links - Links is a graphics and text mode web browser, released under GPL. Links is free software.

CrystalMark - CrystalMark is a full included benchmark application that can be utilized for surveying the execution and capacities of a PC.

Lynx.invisible-island.net - Thomas Dickey is the maintainer/developer of the Lynx text-browser. This page gives some background and pointers to Lynx resources.

Bazel - Bazel is a tool that automates software builds and tests.

ELinks - ELinks - Full-Featured Text WWW Browser

fio - Generate I/O for benchmarking, stress testing, verification or workload reproduction purposes.