[275] in World Wide Web
new macintosh web client ALPHA TEST
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (yandros@MIT.EDU)
Thu Jun 2 04:11:00 1994
From: yandros@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 94 04:09:48 EDT
To: sipb-mac-maint@MIT.EDU, macdev@MIT.EDU, www@MIT.EDU
There's a new macintosh web client:
ftp://ftp.einet.net/einet/mac/macweb/macweb0.98alpha.sea.hqx
appleshare is being a finiciky right now (surprise!) so it's not on
the SIPB server yet; I'll move it RSN. I tried it here on a heavily
customized PPC 7100 and it's really nice; looks good, and it's a lot
faster than Mosaic. It requires MacTCP 2.02 (claims to be happier
with 2.04, though), which may be a problem for some. Also, I got
dumped to the debugger on every other page, but I was always able to
continue without problems. This one has forms support and inlined
images and all that, but it's to be considered highly alpha.
Announcement follows:
Announcing the Release of
EINet MacWeb Version 0.98 Alpha
RELEASE INFO
MCC's EINet group is pleased to announce MacWeb Version 0.98 Alpha.
MacWeb is a full-featured World-Wide-Web, hypertext browser. It is
available as freeware from the URL:
ftp://ftp.einet.net/einet/mac/macweb/macweb0.98alpha.sea.hqx
MacWeb is also available via anonymous FTP from the machine
ftp.einet.net. Change (cd) to the directory /einet/mac/macweb and get
the following file:
macweb.0.98alpha.sea.hqx
MacWeb requires that your Macintosh be configured with System 7
and MacTCP 2.0.2 (MacTCP 2.0.4 recommended).
PROBLEMS AND COMMENTS
To report problems, suggest enhancements, or send general comments
about MacWeb, please send email to macweb@einet.net.
DESCRIPTION
MacWeb is a World Wide Web client which uses hypertext, or hypermedia
where references within a document are links which lead users to other
documents, lists, resources or actions. The World Wide Web supports
the display of text, graphics, sound, and video. It is also a tool
through which Internet users can access information using from various
other Internet front ends, navigators, information, services, and
resources.
FEATURES SUPPORTED
1. HTML Forms support.
2. Lightweight Memory footprint.
MacWeb has an executable size of approximately 370K. It has
been run on a 2MB PowerBook 100 using System 7!
3. User Interface features.
o Editable URL display. A user can open a URL by simply editing the
currently displayed URL or by typing in a new one and pressing
<return> or <enter>.
o Screen preservation. MacWeb was designed to maximize the screen
space dedicated to the display of documents, which had the following
effects on the interface:
- The horizontal scroll bar is small, and the remainder of the
area at the bottom of the window (to the left of the horizontal
scroll bar) is dedicated to the display of status messages.
- The History pop-up is not directly visible, but it can be invoked
one of three ways: 1. command-clicking on the title of the window
(ala Finder) 2. clicking and holding on the back/forward arrows
3. from the Navigate menu
o Styles. The MacWeb styles interface was designed for both flexibility
AND ease of use. It is so flexible that a user can edit the style of
virtually ANY HTML element. At the same time, users may easily change
the look and feel of an ENTIRE document through the inheritance
feature in the styles structure. All styles are initially configured
to inherit style attributes from their parent (the element in which
they occur in the document being viewed.) For example, a user can
change the document font by editing Root's font style. Other styles
can be edited similarly.
o Preferences. MacWeb currently supports 3 distinctive preferences
attributes:
- Users can specify a preferred hotlist to be opened automatically when
MacWeb is invoked, rather than having to explicitly open a hotlist
after the program is running.
- Users can explicitly define the document window background color
as a startup reference.
- Users can control blank line suppression. Some HTML writers use
multiple <P> tags for *explicit* control of whitespace. With
MacWeb, users can specify whether multiple blank lines should be
suppressed or allowed.
o Last URL Retained in Open URL Dialog. The Open URL dialog retains the
last path typed in by users. The Open URL dialog also contains a
pop-up menu containing hotlist items.
o Files Easily Retrieved and Saved to Disk. If the user modifies any
document-retrieving event with the <shift> key (e.g., by pressing
<shift> while clicking on a link, by pressing <shift>-<return> in
the URL display, etc.), the document will then be retrieved and saved
to disk in the user-specified file.
o View Source. MacWeb can generate HTML or retrieve a document source,
automatically save it in a temporary file, and invoke an external
editor on this file for viewing.
4. Apple Event support. MacWeb supports two notable Apple Events:
Open Document (ODOC) and Open URL (OURL). MacWeb supports the
ODOC Apple Event to open the specified document. This is very useful
for adding HTML rendering capabilities to other applications. In addition,
MacWeb supports the OpenURL Apple Event to retrieve and display the
specified document, and also has options to save the retrieved document in
a file with or without MIME headers.
5. Other nice features:
o Import of Mosaic Hotlists. MacWeb can import hotlists created by
the NCSA Mosaic for the Macintosh client software. Simply drag and
drop them on the MacWeb icon, or select them via the hotlist->open
selection dialog.
o Retains Window Scroll Position. Resizing scrolled windows retains the
current scroll position.
o Automatic Document Resizing. After a document window has been resized,
documents recalled from the history are automatically resized to
fit the new document window size.
o Configuration Information Defined in Resources. All of MacWeb's
configuration information is defined in Resources, thus MacWeb's
initial configuration may be changed by simply editing these Resources.
COPYRIGHT AND LEGAL RESTRICTIONS
Copyright 1994 Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation
(MCC). All Rights Reserved. EINet is a trademark of MCC.
All other product or service marks contained in this software are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
MCC grants to Licensee a license to use, copy, and distribute the
MacWeb Software for academic, research, and personal-user purposes
only, without a fee, provided that (i) the above copyright notice and
this permission notice appear in all copies of the Software and
related documentation, and (ii) the MCC and EINet name may not be used
in any advertising or publicity relating to the Software without the
specific, prior written permission of MCC, and (iii) that no charge is
associated with copies of the software distributed by Licensee to
third parties. Commercial use of this software is forbidden without
the express written permission of MCC and payment of a negotiated
license fee.
--
John W. Hardin phone: (512)338-3535
MCC email: hardin@mcc.com
3500 W. Balcones Center Dr fax: (512)338-3897
Austin, TX 78759-5398 uucp: ...!cs.utexas.edu!milano!hardin
chad
