[andrewstuart]

No, I meant a text mode browser that does not use HTML. Lynx, and all the existing text mode browsers are intended to render HTML as text.

This would be a browser that targets only text mode user interfaces. So pages would need to be written specifically to be rendered in such an environment.

Why? Because text mode browsers are really trying to do the impossible - to render modern web pages as text is essentially not doable in all cases. Instead make a browser for the text mode use case specifically designed for the medium.

A mashup of a web browser and ANSI/VT100/teletext. It would need a sandbox and a JavaScript interpreter.

Maybe call it the "Trowser".

[LargoLasskhyfv]

I do not really understand the need/want/wish for something like this. There is no real textmode on contemporary hardware anymore. That is all emulated to get the legacy during startup going, until some graphical environment takes over. Keyword is framebuffer here.

[beamatronic]

Sounds like gopher?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)

There was a sliver of time in the 1990s, in academic settings, where it was very easy to get onto an Internet-connected Unix computer, but before HTML existed. There were many plain text Internet applications.