From: hrlaser@netcom.com (H.R. Laser)
Subject: AWeb II - mini review
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 16:32:16 GMT


AWeb II - (after having used it for one day).. 

I received AWeb II from AmiTrix development in Canada in yesterday's
mail.  AWeb II is a grapical World Wide Web browser for Amiga computers.

To run it, you need Amiga OS 3.0 or higher, at least 2 meg of memory
(more preferred), some kind of network connection (AmiTCP, TermiteTCP,
Miami, MLink, I-Net 225, or whatever), and some datatypes to view inlined
graphics (at least a current .gif and .jpg datatype will suffice).

The product is now shipping and can be ordered directly from AmiTrix
(see their press releases and web pages for addresses, pricing, and
other info). Amiga dealers should now have stock, or will shortly.
Depending on how you buy it, the package should cost about US$50.00.

The program is supplied on two 3.5" Amiga format floppy disks. The 2nd
disk contains HTML-Heaven, a suite of programs which talk, via ARexx,
to many popular text editors (including ED which is included with
every Amiga ever sold) and, using various button interfaces,
allow one to create HTML-formatted texts to be placed on a World Wide
Web server of your choosing for web-site creation.  I shall not
otherwise discuss HTML-Heaven here.

Also in the package is the AWeb II/HTML Heaven manual, a half-page-sized
16 page desktop-published affair with color covers. This manual
basically
gives an overview of the software you have in the package. It is not
an operational or reference manual. 

In HTML-Heaven's case, documentation is in an AmigaGuide file which
installs with the software. 

In AWeb II's case, documentation is in the form of .html files which
AWeb loads and displays. 

Both AWeb and HTML-Heaven have been in wide release for downloading
in demo form for many months and so those who have used them will already be
familiar with their documentation and how it works. 

So there's no need for a big fat book of docs for this software. 
You read the docs on your screen and, if desired, you can print
it all out. This method of documenting software decreases by a huge
factor the mfr's costs because he doesn't have to print and ship
a big fat book with each package. 

The downside is that you cannot read the docs unless you are at
your computer, or unless you print them out. 

--

As a long time online Amiga sysop (on Portal) and creator of both
my own and other Web pages (I do the Amiga Zone pages on Portal,
and also Video Toaster User magazine's site, and a couple of other
small one-off commercial pages) I have used every released 
Amiga Web browser there has ever been.  AMosaic. ALynx. Chimera.
AWeb. IBrowse. Voyager. Lynx in two different shell accounts
with terminal programs. I've used Netscape Navigator 2.0 under
Shapeshifter Mac emulation on my 1200.  I've used Netscape,
Internet Explorer, Netcruiser, and NetComplete on a friend's
PC. I've also used eWorld's (R.I.P.) web browser and AOL's on
my Mac emulator.

So I think I'm fairly familiar with browsers :) however I make
absolutely no claim to being any kind of a wizard on the HTML
specs. I can't write an ARexx program if I have to and I am not
now nor have I ever been a developer/programmer.

I have written tutorial files for Portal Amiga customers on how to
set up and use Amiga browsers.  I've written magazine articles about
the Web (Amiga World, March, 1995, and VTU, May 1996, the latter can
now be read on the VTU web site at www.portal.com/~amg)

I've used AmiTCP, MLink, and am now also using the new TermiteTCP
from Oregon Research. On the emulation side I use MacTCP, FreePPP and
SLiRP in a shell account. 

I have Portal Online, Shell, and PPP accounts. I have a Netcom
shell account (as a backup) and I have a ::shiver:: AOL account
mainly to grab software for my Newton message pad.  (Running AOL
on my 1200 is either a perversion or some kind of demented
masochistic pleasure ;)

So I think I'm fairly familiar with telecomm, having used a modem
since I owned a Vic20 back in the early 80s, through using them
on TRS80-Model IIIs, C64s, my own three Amigas and a CDTV, on my
Newton, and on various friends' and associates' PCs and Macs.

I include all this biographical bullshit simply so that folks will
know where I'm coming from, not to brag. 

--

AWeb is my favorite browser of all the browsers I have used. This
new commecial II version has immediately become my favorite. 

AWeb is simply the fastest damn browser I've ever used. Period.

The new version adds many featurs that are not available, or crippled
in the most recent 1.2 demo version you can download.

II can:
- display web page background colors and patterns from graphic files,
- display colored text and links,
- display centered texts, image borders, etc. and it has some
 rather primitive support for displaying frames: it creates a new
 hotlink for any frames it encounters and then displays the contents
 of that frame on a separate page
- open multiple browser windows
- open multiple (as many as you want) simultaneous net connections
- let you edit its hierarchical hotlist including indented groups
 and sub groups and sub sub groups
- read the hotlist files of any other browsers that save their
 hotlists as .html files
- offers plugin support for mailto: and ftp: URLs (plugins are included
 and installed with the main program)
And a bunch of other stuff I can't remember, plus, of course, do
everything all the demo versions do.

Saving a web page as plain text is still not built into AWeb II.. the
program only offers a "save source" menu item. However a nice little
CLI program called "HTTX" is included with it which does a beautiful
job in stripping out all the HTML <tags> to save a page as plain
text. (For some odd reason, HTTX seems to be the  only part of the
package that AWeb's otherwise fine installer script doesn't install..
you have to unpack the HTTX.LHA file manuall and install it yourself..
not a big chore, but I wonder why this wasn't in the main installer
script.)

AWeb II has an ARexx port and comes with some scripts. Further,
HTML-Heaven can use ARexx as a "viewer" when using it to edit
your web pages, authomatically updating AWeb II's display of the page
with each change you make (this is documented as a feature, although
I have not personally tried it yet, but I will).

AWeb II is serial-number protected and HTML-Heaven is .keyfile
protected.

AWeb II is still the fastest browser I've ever used. Upon hitting
a web page with a lot of text on it, AWeb lets you see the text
immediately as it's coming in over the modem and scroll down through it
as more loads in.  This feature alone is worth the price of admission
as far as I'm concerned. 

AWeb II has that nifty "network window" you can open to see EVERY
piece of a web page being loaded. Each piece/graphic shows its
size and has an incrementing meter AND a "gas gauge" progress meter.
No other browser I know of has anything close to AWeb's network window.
As with the demo version, it can handle password-protected web
pages via an "authorization" input window. 

As with the demo versions, AWeb's interface is driven by the "class act"
engine (which the Installer installs). It's not fancy. It's not laden
with gr00vie 3D textured buttons or animated icons. It's simple, it's
functional, and it doesn't get in your face or take up a lot of space
on your screen. Maybe you prefer your browser with more glitz. 
That's up to you. I can live with simplicity.

Again, if you haven't tried AWeb 1.2, the current demo version,
grab it and read its docs. AWeb II will do everything it will and
quite a bit more. 

I have used AWeb II via two shell accounts using MLink and via
my Portal PPP account using TermiteTCP and it performs admirably
with any of those connections.

Purchasers of AWeb II will be entitled to free upgrades and I've learned
that the next version is already in development and will contain even
more new features.  

AWeb II still doesn't display those table-laden web pages (such
as cnn.com) as well as IBrowse does. Hopefully this will be
addressed in future versions. 

I'd also like to see drag'n'drop in the hotlist editor. I mean, I
played with it for an hour, editing and grouping my existing AWeb 1.2
hotlist, and this requires selecting links and moving them up and
down the list, into newly created groups. I couldn't see any way that
this editor (built into AWeb II) would let you pick up a link and
drag it to a group, or move multiple links simultaneously. If you
have a huge hotlist as I do, this can get quite tedious. 

(Thanks to its MUI interface engine.. IBrowse does have drag'n'drop
hotlist editing.. I'd sure like to see this capability in AWeb!)

AWeb II also can't print out a window-less web page as some other
browsers (i.e. Netscape) can. 

Whether AWeb II contains enough features over the 1.2 demo version
for you to justify spending about $50 for it is up to you. 
However I'd certainly sooner spend $50 for this than for a couple games.
Just depends on where your priorities are. 

However the promise shown by the earlier AWeb demo versions is finally
being realized.  This is a slick piece of software and I highly
recommend it.

Harv                                       |  "Do you recognize the
harv@cup.portal.com                        |  Bell of Truth when you
http://www.portal.com/~harv                |  hear it ring?"
Home of the original Amiga Zone            |  - Leon Russell

ps.. in commemoration of AWeb II's release, I have added a white
background color (#ffffff) to the Amiga Zone Web page :)