XPost: alt.msdos.batch, alt.comp.software.firefox

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs from a separate text list of book sites?

This is the current getbooks.bat file but it's cumbersome to maintain the
list of book sites in that huge line (which the newsreader may break up
into multiple lines).

@echo off
echo "Open Firefox Tor Browser to various book sites"
"C:\Program Files\Tor Browser\Browser\Firefox.exe"
"http://www.authorama.com/" "https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/" "https://www.feedbooks.com/catalog/public_domain" "https://www.free-ebooks.net/" "http://www.freeengineeringbooks.com/" "https://scholar.google.com/" "https://www.gutenberg.org/" "https://archive.org/" "https://manybooks.net/" "https://pdfget.com/" "https://www.science.gov/" "https://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/" "https://librivox.org/" "https://pdfgrab.com/" "https://sci-hub.ru/" "https://openaccessbutton.org/" "https://www.researchgate.net/" "https://www.academia.edu" "https://unpaywall.org"
"https://annas-archive.org/" "https://www.readanybook.com/" "https://www.base-search.net/" "https://openlibrary.org/" "https://www.tandfonline.com/" "https://libgen.rs/" "https://libgen.is/" "https://libgen.li/" "https://libgen.st/" "http://zlibrary.to/" "http://bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion/" "http://thepiratebay.org" "https://www.torrentdownload.info/" "https://www.limetorrents.lol/" "https://bitsearch.to/" "https://librarygenesis.net/" &

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web sites to open?

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XPost: alt.msdos.batch, alt.comp.software.firefox

Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs from a separate text list of book sites?

This is the current getbooks.bat file but it's cumbersome to maintain the list of book sites in that huge line (which the newsreader may break up
into multiple lines).

@echo off
echo "Open Firefox Tor Browser to various book sites"
"C:\Program Files\Tor Browser\Browser\Firefox.exe" "http://www.authorama.com/" "https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/" "https://www.feedbooks.com/catalog/public_domain" "https://www.free-ebooks.net/" "http://www.freeengineeringbooks.com/" "https://scholar.google.com/" "https://www.gutenberg.org/" "https://archive.org/" "https://manybooks.net/" "https://pdfget.com/" "https://www.science.gov/" "https://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/" "https://librivox.org/" "https://pdfgrab.com/" "https://sci-hub.ru/" "https://openaccessbutton.org/" "https://www.researchgate.net/" "https://www.academia.edu" "https://unpaywall.org" "https://annas-archive.org/" "https://www.readanybook.com/" "https://www.base-search.net/" "https://openlibrary.org/" "https://www.tandfonline.com/" "https://libgen.rs/" "https://libgen.is/" "https://libgen.li/" "https://libgen.st/" "http://zlibrary.to/" "http://bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion/" "http://thepiratebay.org" "https://www.torrentdownload.info/" "https://www.limetorrents.lol/" "https://bitsearch.to/" "https://librarygenesis.net/" &

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web sites to open?

Instead of a batch script, you could save all the URLs as bookmarks
under the same bookmark folder. When you want to open all of them, double-click on the bookmark folder, or right-click on the folder and
select "Open all bookmarks" in the context menu.

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XPost: alt.msdos.batch, alt.comp.software.firefox

Oliver,

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs
from a separate text list of book sites?

I think so, yes. You will have to find some script that will iterate thru
the list line-by-line, and than use the "start" command to execute FF with
that line as its argument.

Ofcourse, if you could alter that "getbooks.bat" script of yours to emit
those lines itself it would be easier. Like this :

set FF=start "%ProgramFiles%\Mozilla Firefox\FireFox.exe"
%FF% "http://www.authorama.com/"
%FF% "https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/"
....

Ofcourse, that %FF% variable is not neccessary, but it does make the whole a lot more redable. :-)

One drawback : As those %FF% .... lines are started at the same time a
number of them will not see an open FF window and as a result start their
own. The solution for that might be to put a delay after the first line
(does your OS have a "choice" command with a time-out ?) - which might be easier to do in something like VBScript ...

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

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On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 02:10:32 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote

Instead of a batch script, you could save all the URLs as bookmarks
under the same bookmark folder. When you want to open all of them, double-click on the bookmark folder, or right-click on the folder and
select "Open all bookmarks" in the context menu.

Thanks for the suggestion of bookmarks, but if I had wanted
bookmarks, I wouldn't need to write a batch file to get them. :)

I want to send the batch file to hundreds of others (mostly students) and I don't use bookmarks and I don't want all those others on all types of
browsers to have to import a bookmark file from me. That's nuts.

All I want is to know how to include a text file of URLs
so the students (and I) can put the URLs into that text file.

Then I can add the if/then/else stuff to make it work with all browsers.

For example,

I've already started to improve the batch file so it works for
hundreds of students (just by them running the batch file) because they can start to add their own browser by a simple numeric input.

It's not ready yet, but here's the idea I'm working on at the moment
to make it more universal (so any web browser people want will work).
@echo off
echo "Open web browser to a variety of book sites"
echo USAGE:
echo -Press "1" to open book sites in the Opera VPN Browser
echo -Press "2" to open book sites in the Epic Privacy Browser
echo -Press "3" to open book sites in the Firefox Tor Anonymity Browser
echo -Press "x" to exit.
echo.
set /p option=Your option:
if '%option%'=='1' goto :option1
if '%option%'=='2' goto :option2
if '%option%'=='3' goto :option3
if '%option%'=='x' goto :exit
echo Enter browser 1, 2, 3 or x

But that part I can figure out because I have working examples
for other purposes, so I'm only asking here how to get the
batch file to load the URLs from a text include file.

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Oliver,

I want to send the batch file to hundreds of others (mostly students) and
I don't use bookmarks and I don't want all those others on all types of browsers to have to import a bookmark file from me. That's nuts.

Yes, that would be nuts. But so is. IMHO, forcing your students browsers to open lots of websites at the same time. :-(

What you could do is write all those links into an .HTM file ( <a
href=.... ), which only needs to be double-clicked to open in a(ny)
webbrowser, and allows your students to easily open a website at their
leisure.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

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On 03/13/2024 2:24 AM, Oliver wrote:

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs from a separate text list of book sites?

This is the current getbooks.bat file but it's cumbersome to maintain the list of book sites in that huge line (which the newsreader may break up
into multiple lines).

@echo off
echo "Open Firefox Tor Browser to various book sites"
"C:\Program Files\Tor Browser\Browser\Firefox.exe" "http://www.authorama.com/" "https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/" "https://www.feedbooks.com/catalog/public_domain" "https://www.free-ebooks.net/" "http://www.freeengineeringbooks.com/" "https://scholar.google.com/" "https://www.gutenberg.org/" "https://archive.org/" "https://manybooks.net/" "https://pdfget.com/" "https://www.science.gov/" "https://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/" "https://librivox.org/" "https://pdfgrab.com/" "https://sci-hub.ru/" "https://openaccessbutton.org/" "https://www.researchgate.net/" "https://www.academia.edu" "https://unpaywall.org" "https://annas-archive.org/" "https://www.readanybook.com/" "https://www.base-search.net/" "https://openlibrary.org/" "https://www.tandfonline.com/" "https://libgen.rs/" "https://libgen.is/" "https://libgen.li/" "https://libgen.st/" "http://zlibrary.to/" "http://bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion/" "http://thepiratebay.org" "https://www.torrentdownload.info/" "https://www.limetorrents.lol/" "https://bitsearch.to/" "https://librarygenesis.net/" &

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web sites to open?

If it were me, I would put the above links in a word processor that can
save the file as an HTML file and send the students the HTML file.

If that way the ope the HTML file in a tab in the browse and they can
open each URL is separate tabs.

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What you could do is write all those links into an .HTM file ( <a
href=.... ), which only needs to be double-clicked to open in a(ny) webbrowser, and allows your students to easily open a website at their leisure.

if you add a "target=_blank" attribute to the "<a" tag every link will
opened in a new tab (keeping the list of links available in the tab it was opened in)

IOW,

<a href="{link here}" target=_blank">{description here}</a><br>

"{link here}" and "{description here}" can ofcourse both be the link itself.

And again, all of that can (very likely) be put into that "getbooks.bat"
script of yours.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

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On 03/13/2024 8:56 AM, knuttle wrote:

On 03/13/2024 2:24 AM, Oliver wrote:

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs from a
separate text list of book sites?

This is the current getbooks.bat file but it's cumbersome to maintain the
list of book sites in that huge line (which the newsreader may break up
into multiple lines).

@echo off
echo "Open Firefox Tor Browser to various book sites"
"C:\Program Files\Tor Browser\Browser\Firefox.exe"
"http://www.authorama.com/" "https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/"
"https://www.feedbooks.com/catalog/public_domain"
"https://www.free-ebooks.net/" "http://www.freeengineeringbooks.com/"
"https://scholar.google.com/" "https://www.gutenberg.org/"
"https://archive.org/" "https://manybooks.net/" "https://pdfget.com/"
"https://www.science.gov/" "https://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/"
"https://librivox.org/" "https://pdfgrab.com/" "https://sci-hub.ru/"
"https://openaccessbutton.org/" "https://www.researchgate.net/"
"https://www.academia.edu" "https://unpaywall.org"
"https://annas-archive.org/" "https://www.readanybook.com/"
"https://www.base-search.net/" "https://openlibrary.org/"
"https://www.tandfonline.com/" "https://libgen.rs/" "https://libgen.is/"
"https://libgen.li/" "https://libgen.st/" "http://zlibrary.to/"
"http://bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion/"
"http://thepiratebay.org" "https://www.torrentdownload.info/"
"https://www.limetorrents.lol/" "https://bitsearch.to/"
"https://librarygenesis.net/" &

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web
sites to
open?

If it were me, I would put the above links in a word processor that can
save the file as an HTML file and send the students the HTML file.

If that way the ope the HTML file in a tab in the browse and they can
open each URL is separate tabs.

I use WordPerfect to write the HTML file. I write the text I want in
the file and use the add Hyperlink function to add the active Links.

Saved as an HTML file you can open it to the active links with a browser.

Advantages you can could add instruction on the lesson plan, and notes
on why you want them to open each link.

The add Hyperlink is the only none word processing thing you would have
to learn when doing it this way.

You can copy the hyperlink to other parts of the document and edit it to
each URL in you list, or use the add hyperlink function Copy/edit is
faster that creating each hyperlink in WordPerfect.

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XPost: alt.msdos.batch, alt.comp.software.firefox

On 3/13/2024 3:10 AM, VanguardLH wrote:

Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs from a
separate text list of book sites?

This is the current getbooks.bat file but it's cumbersome to maintain the
list of book sites in that huge line (which the newsreader may break up
into multiple lines).

@echo off
echo "Open Firefox Tor Browser to various book sites"
"C:\Program Files\Tor Browser\Browser\Firefox.exe"
"http://www.authorama.com/" "https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/"
"https://www.feedbooks.com/catalog/public_domain"
"https://www.free-ebooks.net/" "http://www.freeengineeringbooks.com/"
"https://scholar.google.com/" "https://www.gutenberg.org/"
"https://archive.org/" "https://manybooks.net/" "https://pdfget.com/"
"https://www.science.gov/" "https://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/"
"https://librivox.org/" "https://pdfgrab.com/" "https://sci-hub.ru/"
"https://openaccessbutton.org/" "https://www.researchgate.net/"
"https://www.academia.edu" "https://unpaywall.org"
"https://annas-archive.org/" "https://www.readanybook.com/"
"https://www.base-search.net/" "https://openlibrary.org/"
"https://www.tandfonline.com/" "https://libgen.rs/" "https://libgen.is/"
"https://libgen.li/" "https://libgen.st/" "http://zlibrary.to/"
"http://bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion/"
"http://thepiratebay.org" "https://www.torrentdownload.info/"
"https://www.limetorrents.lol/" "https://bitsearch.to/"
"https://librarygenesis.net/" &

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web sites to >> open?

Instead of a batch script, you could save all the URLs as bookmarks
under the same bookmark folder. When you want to open all of them, double-click on the bookmark folder, or right-click on the folder and
select "Open all bookmarks" in the context menu.

FOR /F ["options"] %variable IN (file-set) DO command [command-parameters]

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On 3/13/2024 8:56 AM, knuttle wrote:

On 03/13/2024 2:24 AM, Oliver wrote:

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs from a
separate text list of book sites?

This is the current getbooks.bat file but it's cumbersome to maintain the
list of book sites in that huge line (which the newsreader may break up
into multiple lines).

@echo off
echo "Open Firefox Tor Browser to various book sites"
"C:\Program Files\Tor Browser\Browser\Firefox.exe"
"http://www.authorama.com/" "https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/"
"https://www.feedbooks.com/catalog/public_domain"
"https://www.free-ebooks.net/" "http://www.freeengineeringbooks.com/"
"https://scholar.google.com/" "https://www.gutenberg.org/"
"https://archive.org/" "https://manybooks.net/" "https://pdfget.com/"
"https://www.science.gov/" "https://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/"
"https://librivox.org/" "https://pdfgrab.com/" "https://sci-hub.ru/"
"https://openaccessbutton.org/" "https://www.researchgate.net/"
"https://www.academia.edu" "https://unpaywall.org"
"https://annas-archive.org/" "https://www.readanybook.com/"
"https://www.base-search.net/" "https://openlibrary.org/"
"https://www.tandfonline.com/" "https://libgen.rs/" "https://libgen.is/"
"https://libgen.li/" "https://libgen.st/" "http://zlibrary.to/"
"http://bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion/"
"http://thepiratebay.org" "https://www.torrentdownload.info/"
"https://www.limetorrents.lol/" "https://bitsearch.to/"
"https://librarygenesis.net/" &

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web sites to >> open?

If it were me, I would put the above links in a word processor that can save the file as an HTML file and send the students the HTML file.

If that way the ope the HTML file in a tab in the browse and they can open each URL is separate tabs.

Seamonkey has an HTML "Composer" tool you can play with.

Paul

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Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote

Instead of a batch script, you could save all the URLs as bookmarks
under the same bookmark folder. When you want to open all of them,
double-click on the bookmark folder, or right-click on the folder and
select "Open all bookmarks" in the context menu.

Thanks for the suggestion of bookmarks, but if I had wanted
bookmarks, I wouldn't need to write a batch file to get them. :)

I want to send the batch file to hundreds of others (mostly students) and I don't use bookmarks and I don't want all those others on all types of browsers to have to import a bookmark file from me. That's nuts.

All I want is to know how to include a text file of URLs
so the students (and I) can put the URLs into that text file.

Your last query was:

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web
sites to open?

Yep: export your bookmark folder to an HTML file. You could export
bookmarks to a .json file which is text, but I don't know that all web
browsers support import from .json file. Structure might be similar
between the text in a .json file to the text in an .html file, but an
HTML file can be opened as a web page, just like when you're web surfing
to load web pages.

Don't bother your students to import bookmarks. Export the bookmarks in
your web browser to an HTML file. Distribute the .html file to your
students. They use the File -> Open File menu in their own choice of
web browser on their choice of OS to load the HTML doc. They see a web
page full of titles (assuming you add titles to your bookmarks) that are hyperlinks to the URLs for the books. They can click on whichever one
they want to visit in their choice of order during whatever web session
they start.

They don't have to wade through all prior books in a script to get at a
later book. You don't need to maintain a table, or a huge 'if' block to
let them choose which book to visit. They aren't forced to view books
in the order you present using a 'for' command. They just open the
.html file, and click on a hyperlink to visit whichever URL they choose.
They don't have to run a script which requires them use Windows since
you're not providing forks of your script that will run under bash, or
whatever script interpreter is available in their OS.

Oh, you don't do bookmarks, but you'll do more work for a batch script.
Just how do you come ahead on your effort between the two? You write,
*debug*, and update (to add or remove books) a script that you have to redistribute. Or you maintain your own list of bookmarks in a bookmark
folder, and you export the bookmark folder to an .html file. No debug,
no expertise in writing HTML or Windows-only batch scripts, and you redistribute the .html file on update. How is maintaining a bookmark
folder harder than maintaining a script file? How much will you have to
learn of DOS batch scripting language to get a working and bug-free
script that only works on Windows, and that is as easy to use as a web
page presenting all the URLs (and whatever title you give to those
bookmarks to describe them)?

Is writing a script to control Firefox some class assignment for you?
You're making it far more difficult than necessary for both you and your students, and you cast away your students not on Windows platforms.

When you export your bookmarks, no one has to import them into their web browser. Export as an HTML file. Distribute the .html file to your
students. They open it as a web page, like use the File -> Open menu in
their choice of web browser on their choice of OS. Very easy to
maintain. Very easy to use.

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"Jonathan N. Little" <lws4art@gmail.com> wrote:

Oliver wrote:

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web sites to >> open?

Yes. Create a text file, "links.txt" and put url for each website per
line. Create batch file with text file "links.bat" below, or use full
path to "links.txt"

---------------------------------------------------------------
@echo off
set LINKS=links.txt
set BROWSER=firefox

FOR /F %%i in (%LINKS%) do start %BROWSER% -new-tab %%i

set LINKS=
set BROWSER=
---------------------------------------------------------------

If there are hundreds of URLs, a user would end up with hundreds of
windows or tabs in Firefox. Obviously no one can finish reading a book
by the time the next URL loads. The user would have to wait until
Firefox loaded all the hundreds of book docs before they could visit any
book, plus the much higher memory consumption for opening those hundreds
of tabs.

Once Firefox loads a web page, there is no halting the next iteration of
the 'for' loop. You would have to add a 'pause' command in each
for-loop interation, like:

for /f %%i in (%links%) do start %browser% -new-tab %%1 & pause

However, is the -new-tab an available command-line argument in every web browser on every platform? Probably not, and it is unlikely the OP can
force all his students to use the same web browser. Hell, his students
may be on non-Windows platforms (Linux, MacOS, iOS), so his batch script
is worthless to those students.

The OP needs to distribute an HTML file, so anyone using any web browser
on any OS can view his links, and pick whichever one they want to visit,
which one to revisit (to continue reading), or select a later book in
the next web session, instead of some fixed order the OP wrote in a
script.

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"R.Wieser" <address@is.invalid> wrote:

Oliver,

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs
from a separate text list of book sites?

I think so, yes. You will have to find some script that will iterate thru the list line-by-line, and than use the "start" command to execute FF with that line as its argument.

Firefox will not pend the batch script until it exits. Once you run a
command to load Firefox with a URL argument, the batch script will
continue onto the next command. If you had a hundred URLs to visit,
you'd end up with a hundred tabs or windows open of Firefox. In the
script, you would have to add a 'pause' command to ensure the next
instance of Firefox doesn't start until you're done with the prior
instance.

One drawback : As those %FF% .... lines are started at the same time a
number of them will not see an open FF window and as a result start
their own.

Loading lots of Firefox windows or tabs is overkill. No user can read
through the first book opened in Firefox before the next instance of
Firefox would load. Rather than a delay, pause after each load. When
you're done with one window or tab in Firefox, hit any key in the
console window for the batch script to move on to the next book.
Whether you close the prior instance is your choice, but lots of books
opened concurrently is no value to a human reading them one at a time,
and humans don't have multiple eyes to focus on different books at the
same time.

Instead of maintaining and exporting a bookmark folder and distributing
that to his students to import into whichever web browser they use, he
wants a script file to maintain and distribute to his students. He has
not reduced his effort, or that of his students, by using a script.
Maintain and distribute a .json file, or maintain and distribute a
script file.

Plus, the script will require debugging. Unlikely the script will be
perfect on first issuance. Obviously a script for DOS/Windows is of no
value to his students on other platforms where the script won't run. Is
the community of his students forced to use Windows, or might they be
using Linux, MacOS, or something other than Windows. So, is he going to
make further demands on his students by requiring them to install Cygwin
to use a bash script? Is he going to have forks of his DOS batch script
that will run under a bash, cshell, or other script interpreter? An
exported bookmark folder can be used on any platform with any web
browser for import.

In addition, his students will only be able to read the books in the
order he decides. If he decides to present a table of choices, then he
has to debug and maintain the linkage between table entry (or if or
select command) and his URL list. What if, in another web session,
they've already read some books, and want to start with a later one, or
return to a prior one but start from the first one? A .html file with
the exported bookmarks opened as a file in a web browser presents a web
doc with all the bookmarked URLs. The *student* gets to choose which
one to read, not the teacher.

"Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web sites
to open?"

That was his last query. Well, export to an HTML file, and let his
students open the .html doc to see a list of bookmarks to choose which
one(s) they want to visit.

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Oliver wrote:

The goal is efficiency and portability and the ability to run scripts.
a. Run the script when a book needs to be searched for
b. Up pops a query of which browser & then it opens the 25 (or so) tabs
c. Then you paste into each tab the same search (for example, an ISBN)

Your script can be improved if you maintain a list of keyword URLs of the actual search so all 25 of those searches do run concurrently.

I don't know the format for each site you're interested in but usually the search has a "?word1+word2+word3" type syntax which you'd figure out for
each URL what it is.

Then the script would only ask "what do you want to search for", and it
would then create the URLs for each search & run them all at the same time.

For duckduckgo for example, it would construct a url like this. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=game+of+thrones+pdf+free+download&ia=web

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On Thu, 14 Mar 2024 05:00:31 +0530, Indira wrote:

Then the script would only ask "what do you want to search for", and it
would then create the URLs for each search & run them all at the same time.

For duckduckgo for example, it would construct a url like this. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=game+of+thrones+pdf+free+download&ia=web

That's something of intelligence that a dumb bookmark can't do.
But what do those two "ffab" and "ia=web" keywords indicate?
Maybe they speed up the ddg search process?

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On Wed, 13 Mar 2024 18:14:54 -0500, VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote

Loading lots of Firefox windows or tabs is overkill. No user can read through the first book opened in Firefox before the next instance of
Firefox would load. Rather than a delay, pause after each load.

I haven't responded in this thread (while responding to the related thread) https://www.novabbs.com/computers/article-flat.php?id=77703&group=alt.comp.os.windows-10#77703
because I need to test out the batch suggestions people kindly provided.

The goal is efficiency and portability and the ability to run scripts.
a. Run the script when a book needs to be searched for
b. Up pops a query of which browser & then it opens the 25 (or so) tabs
c. Then you paste into each tab the same search (for example, an ISBN)

These searches each take time so they all run almost concurrently.
Then you visit each tab, in turn and either hone the search or kill the
tab.

You do that until you're done.
It's very efficient when looking for hard-to-find things like book PDFs.

If you google instead, 99 out of 100 results will be garbage.
With this search method, almost every hit is real.
And almost every "book not found" is also real.

Very efficient for hard to find book pdfs.
But if people love bookmarks, they can click on them all they like.

I like scripts. Not bookmarks.
If the question was about bookmarks I would have asked about bookmarks.

I will test the scripts and let people know how they work.
There's a lot to do but it's extensible to any set of URLs.

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On 03/13/2024 4:29 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

Oliver <ollie@invalid.net> wrote:

VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote

Instead of a batch script, you could save all the URLs as bookmarks
under the same bookmark folder. When you want to open all of them,
double-click on the bookmark folder, or right-click on the folder and
select "Open all bookmarks" in the context menu.

Thanks for the suggestion of bookmarks, but if I had wanted
bookmarks, I wouldn't need to write a batch file to get them. :)

I want to send the batch file to hundreds of others (mostly students) and I >> don't use bookmarks and I don't want all those others on all types of
browsers to have to import a bookmark file from me. That's nuts.

All I want is to know how to include a text file of URLs
so the students (and I) can put the URLs into that text file.

Your last query was:

Is there an easy way to just include a text file list of book web
sites to open?

Yep: export your bookmark folder to an HTML file. You could export
bookmarks to a .json file which is text, but I don't know that all web browsers support import from .json file. Structure might be similar
between the text in a .json file to the text in an .html file, but an
HTML file can be opened as a web page, just like when you're web surfing
to load web pages.

Don't bother your students to import bookmarks. Export the bookmarks in
your web browser to an HTML file. Distribute the .html file to your students. They use the File -> Open File menu in their own choice of
web browser on their choice of OS to load the HTML doc. They see a web
page full of titles (assuming you add titles to your bookmarks) that are hyperlinks to the URLs for the books. They can click on whichever one
they want to visit in their choice of order during whatever web session
they start.

They don't have to wade through all prior books in a script to get at a
later book. You don't need to maintain a table, or a huge 'if' block to
let them choose which book to visit. They aren't forced to view books
in the order you present using a 'for' command. They just open the
.html file, and click on a hyperlink to visit whichever URL they choose.
They don't have to run a script which requires them use Windows since
you're not providing forks of your script that will run under bash, or whatever script interpreter is available in their OS.

Oh, you don't do bookmarks, but you'll do more work for a batch script.
Just how do you come ahead on your effort between the two? You write, *debug*, and update (to add or remove books) a script that you have to redistribute. Or you maintain your own list of bookmarks in a bookmark folder, and you export the bookmark folder to an .html file. No debug,
no expertise in writing HTML or Windows-only batch scripts, and you redistribute the .html file on update. How is maintaining a bookmark
folder harder than maintaining a script file? How much will you have to learn of DOS batch scripting language to get a working and bug-free
script that only works on Windows, and that is as easy to use as a web
page presenting all the URLs (and whatever title you give to those
bookmarks to describe them)?

Is writing a script to control Firefox some class assignment for you?
You're making it far more difficult than necessary for both you and your students, and you cast away your students not on Windows platforms.

When you export your bookmarks, no one has to import them into their web browser. Export as an HTML file. Distribute the .html file to your students. They open it as a web page, like use the File -> Open menu in their choice of web browser on their choice of OS. Very easy to
maintain. Very easy to use.

OR Just drag the HTML file to a browser windows, no fancy import.

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"Jonathan N. Little" <lws4art@gmail.com> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

However, is the -new-tab an available command-line argument in every web
browser on every platform? Probably not, and it is unlikely the OP can
force all his students to use the same web browser. Hell, his students
may be on non-Windows platforms (Linux, MacOS, iOS), so his batch script
is worthless to those students.

OP's post was "...*Windows batch* way to make *firefox* tor browser open
tabs from a list of book sites"

Which makes me suspicious that the OP is not a teacher (violating
copyrights) and his "students" are anyone wanting to read the books
regardless of copyright violation. The scenario is a pretense. Why
would all his "students" have to use the Tor variant of Firefox to
legimately read an online book? Not everyone adores Firefox, so they
may choose a different web browser as their primary client, or as their
only web client. While the scenario present may be legit, a teacher
violating copyright is not a good representation to his students. If he
is a teacher, and they are students, don't public schools pay for the
class books, and colleges and universities have students buy their own [e-]books? The OP's scenario is how to circumvent copyright.

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Jonathan N. Little wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

However, is the -new-tab an available command-line argument in every web
browser on every platform? Probably not, and it is unlikely the OP can
force all his students to use the same web browser. Hell, his students
may be on non-Windows platforms (Linux, MacOS, iOS), so his batch script
is worthless to those students.

OP's post was "...*Windows batch* way to make *firefox* tor browser open
tabs from a list of book sites"

But that's a really valid remark from VanguardLH.

The original poster Oliver stated that he wants to "send the batch file to *hundreds of others* (mostly students)". So you can guess that there's a good percentage of his recipients who have no use for a "Windows batch file", because they don't use Windows at all.

And also, why should these links be opened with the Tor Browser? Wouldn't
a standard installation of Firefox be sufficient?
Alas the same question as above: what about the recipients who haven't installed *any* Version of Firefox at all?

IMO a Windows only batch file is a really unfit starting point for the
purpose of Oliver.

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knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

When you export your bookmarks, no one has to import them into their web
browser. Export as an HTML file. Distribute the .html file to your
students. They open it as a web page, like use the File -> Open menu in
their choice of web browser on their choice of OS. Very easy to
maintain. Very easy to use.

OR Just drag the HTML file to a browser windows, no fancy import.

Not an import, but a File -> Open to load the .html file. If drag
works, that is easier (if the file is not obscured by the browser
window, like it is fullscreened).

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Frank Miller <miller@posteo.ee> wrote:

Jonathan N. Little wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

However, is the -new-tab an available command-line argument in every web >>> browser on every platform? Probably not, and it is unlikely the OP can
force all his students to use the same web browser. Hell, his students
may be on non-Windows platforms (Linux, MacOS, iOS), so his batch script >>> is worthless to those students.

OP's post was "...*Windows batch* way to make *firefox* tor browser open
tabs from a list of book sites"

But that's a really valid remark from VanguardLH.

The original poster Oliver stated that he wants to "send the batch file to *hundreds of others* (mostly students)". So you can guess that there's a good percentage of his recipients who have no use for a "Windows batch file", because they don't use Windows at all.

And also, why should these links be opened with the Tor Browser? Wouldn't
a standard installation of Firefox be sufficient?
Alas the same question as above: what about the recipients who haven't installed *any* Version of Firefox at all?

IMO a Windows only batch file is a really unfit starting point for the purpose of Oliver.

Maybe it's a Jonestown community where Oliver is an oppressive master.
Don't drink the Koolaid.

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VanguardLH wrote:

"Jonathan N. Little" <lws4art@gmail.com> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

However, is the -new-tab an available command-line argument in every web >>> browser on every platform? Probably not, and it is unlikely the OP can
force all his students to use the same web browser. Hell, his students
may be on non-Windows platforms (Linux, MacOS, iOS), so his batch script >>> is worthless to those students.

OP's post was "...*Windows batch* way to make *firefox* tor browser open
tabs from a list of book sites"

Which makes me suspicious that the OP is not a teacher (violating
copyrights) and his "students" are anyone wanting to read the books regardless of copyright violation.

I've roughly got a glimpse on some of his mentioned URLs and there seems
to be nothing illegal.

The scenario is a pretense. Why would all his "students" have to use
the Tor variant of Firefox to legimately read an online book?

I guess he's one of these people today who think you've got to use Tor Browser in *each and every* situation. Otherwise CIA, FBI, FSA, evil terrorists and other black hat hackers snort out your personal data.

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VanguardLH wrote:

knuttle <keith_nuttle@yahoo.com> wrote:

VanguardLH wrote:

When you export your bookmarks, no one has to import them into their web >>> browser. Export as an HTML file. Distribute the .html file to your
students. They open it as a web page, like use the File -> Open menu in >>> their choice of web browser on their choice of OS. Very easy to
maintain. Very easy to use.

OR Just drag the HTML file to a browser windows, no fancy import.

Not an import, but a File -> Open to load the .html file. If drag
works, that is easier (if the file is not obscured by the browser
window, like it is fullscreened).

Just a sidenote: neither drag&drop nor "file -> open" work in Firefox on
actual Android devices. (Security reasons, you know..)
Nevertheless i think an exported html-snippet like described above could
be the most universal solution.

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On 13/03/2024 06:24, Arlen Holder known Paedophile asked:

Is there a Windows batch way to make firefox tor browser open tabs from a separate text list of book sites?

This is where Bookmarks are designed for! You need to open your
bookmarks menu and assuming these links are stored in a bookmark folder,
you simply choose "Open all in tabs". Everything opens in tabs.

How's your paedophilia activities going on?

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Frank Miller <miller@posteo.ee> wrote:

Just a sidenote: neither drag&drop nor "file -> open" work in Firefox on actual Android devices. (Security reasons, you know..)
Nevertheless i think an exported html-snippet like described above could
be the most universal solution.

Well, since the OP is mandating creation of a script that only works in Windows, and posted to a Windows newsgroup, he expects his students to
open web browsers (and just the one of his choice) on Windows.

You're correct that there is no File -> Open menu in Firefox Mobile. A
user in a forum said they could use file:/// in the address bar of Opera
(I don't use it), but said that doesn't work in Firefox on Android. I
was not aware Opera has an Android app, just Windows, Linux, and MacOS,
but there is one at https://play.google.com/store/search?q=opera&c=apps.

Mozilla also took away about:config in Firefox Mobile figuring us users
were too stoopid. Likewise, some users reported an older version of
Firefox Mobile (before Fenix, FF Mobile 68.x) supported file:///, but
then Mozilla took that away, too.

I've read there are alternate file managers for Android that let you
assign handlers to filetypes, so you could open an .html file to have it
load in your web browser. Example: File Manager Plus (https://play.google.com/store/search?q=file%20manager%20plus&c=apps).
However, it is adware, so unlikely to ever go on my smartphone. The
author's site (https://www.alphainventor.com/file-manager-plus) is very
bare, so no help there to get info on the feature set of his app. Plus
the solution adds more software into the mix.

The OP wants to write a batch script that runs only under DOS or
Windows, so Android just must not be an issue for any of his students.
In addition, the criteria that his students use Tor Browser seems
arbitrary. He might use it. I doubt those hundreds of students would
bother with tor or onion or VPNs or any of that hiding stuff. He isn't
linking to a book about building an a-bomb, WMDs, or DIY terrorism.

If this teacher intends to distribute his script or HTML file, how is he
going to do it? There must be some distribution channel he figures to
use to get it to his students. One way is to have it on a web server,
and his students access the file from the server. There are plenty of
free web host providers. I use one (epizy.com aka infinityfree.com) to
store an HTML version of my resume, and for free. Then I give the URL
to others to read. I don't use any fancy HTML, just really simple
stuff. Twas very easy to upload the files to my web host account. With
5GB for storage quota on a free account, the OP should find p-l-e-n-t-y
of room for a simple HTML doc that is just a list of hyperlinks, and
perhaps some more content, like titles on the hyperlinks (which an
export to HTML from Firefox would give the OP in the outputted .html
file). I'm sure I could find lots of other free web hosters to store
the file to let anyone just use a URL (and even a bookmark it) to reach
a file that renders as a web doc.

If he is a teacher, his school might have their own web site where he
could host his .html file. If he will not invest any time to copy an
.html output easily outputted by Firefox's Export to HTML to a web
server his students can access, I suppose he could mandate his students
install a local Android HTTP server (example: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.phlox.simpleserver) to
get at a local file using http://localhost:[port]/<filepath>. Far
fetched, you say? Well, he's mandating they use Tor just to view his
list of books. Might've as well issue other mandates. Or he could
relax his mandates to allow hist students to use any web browser that
does support file:/// in their address bar.

If he wants to restrict access to just his students for his web page,
he'll need a web hoster that includes authentication. His school's
server might already have that to limit access (of all or some pages) to
just teachers or students. epizy lets me designate protected
directories in a free acount, but I've never used them to know how that
works other than the visitor has to login.

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VanguardLH,

Firefox will not pend the batch script until it exits.

Actually ? Yes, it does.

At least it did when I tried it just two days ago - which was why I (found
and) mentioned the "start" command.

Loading lots of Firefox windows or tabs is overkill.

Indeed. But as long as it was what the user wanted that to happen to
himself, who's to judge ?

... and as you might have noticed, as soon as the OP made it clear *others* where expected to run the script my suggestion changed quite a bit.

He has not reduced his effort, or that of his students, by
using a script.

As far as I understood his "load all the tabs" script was generated*. So,
just a click for him and a click for his students. I do not see much of an effort in that.

* if it wasn't there are already suggestions to how to do that, including
mine. As for how he got the list of websites itself ? The OP has not mentioned that yet.

Maintain and distribute a .json file

Someone else already mentioned that an export of the bookmarks or a
batchfile are limited to Windows and FF. IOW, rather limiting.

And at least my version of FF doesn't seem to have the capability to export
a sub-section (a branch?) of the bookmarks. - and I think you will agree
that exporting and sending off *everything* is't really a good idea.

Besides the question of if those students do actually like to have the
teachers (ever-changing?) links stored in their browsers. I know I would
not.

In addition, his students will only be able to read the books
in the order he decides.

:-) By using a script ? With enough students there is bound to be at
least one who opens the script and "breaks" it to do whatever (s)he pleases. Starting with just copying any of the URLS mentioned in it and paste it into the browser themselves. And ofcourse tell it to the others.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

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On 13/03/2024 12:56, knuttle wrote:

If it were me, I would put the above links in a word processor that
can save the file as an HTML file and send the students the HTML file.

If that way the ope the HTML file in a tab in the browse and they can
open each URL is separate tabs.

You could do something like this:

firefox -url "http://www.authorama.com/"
"https://www.ebooks.com/en-us/free/" "https://www.feedbooks.com/catalog/public_domain" "https://www.free-ebooks.net/" "http://www.freeengineeringbooks.com/" "https://scholar.google.com/" "https://www.gutenberg.org/" "https://archive.org/" "https://manybooks.net/" "https://pdfget.com/" "https://www.science.gov/" "https://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/" "https://librivox.org/" "https://pdfgrab.com/" "https://sci-hub.ru/" "https://openaccessbutton.org/" "https://www.researchgate.net/" "https://www.academia.edu" "https://unpaywall.org" "https://annas-archive.org/" "https://www.readanybook.com/" "https://www.base-search.net/" "https://openlibrary.org/" "https://www.tandfonline.com/" "https://libgen.rs/"
"https://libgen.is/" "https://libgen.li/" "https://libgen.st/" "http://zlibrary.to/" "http://bookszlibb74ugqojhzhg2a63w5i2atv5bqarulgczawnbmsb6s6qead.onion/" "http://thepiratebay.org" "https://www.torrentdownload.info/" "https://www.limetorrents.lol/" "https://bitsearch.to/" "https://librarygenesis.net/"

Replace the full path for Firefox executable file. It could be:
"C:\Program Files\Firefox\firefox.exe"

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