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History of Arachne WWW browser
------------------------------
1.20 beta 7
----
Release date: Thursday, 15th January 1998
Bug fixes: Various 16 color EGA/VGA modes bugs were fixed.
Bug in "Save As" and "Save downloaded file" screens was fixed.
Various image conversion bugs were fixed.
Several bugs while surfing local disk were fixed.
Big system font can be used again.
Klos PPP dialer auto-instalation is works again.
Changes: "Emtpy cache" icon ("F8" key) was replaced by "Page Information"
icon ("=" key). "Empty cache" icon was moved to Utilities page.
Mail manager is now doing word-wrap for long lines.
Improvements: Cookies (!). Controled by ARACHNE.CFG variables "Cookies Yes|No"
= enable|disable, "CookieFile filename" = cookie jar to use.
Logo animation can be disabled -> speed improvement. "Logo 0"
Speed improvent (the one from xMas release).
Arachne desktop was added - better access to Arachne functions.
Useful "Picture Galery" function was added to file manager.
New file icons were added.
PPPD setup page and generic packet driver setup page were
improved to cover all possibile combinations.
1.20 xMas release
----
Not documented
1.20 beta 6.1
----
Release date: Thursday, 20th November 1997
Bug fixes: Many. Including XMS deallocation bug in preview relese.
Probably the most important bug fix is submitting of
CGI scripts with POST method - the trick was in sending
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded.
Improvements: Many. You will notice mainly new extension .AH - Arachne
HTML (or maybe Advance HTML ;-). This increases security
of Arachne. I don't want to mention security bugs here, as
it may encourage someone to hunt for users of older Arachnes ;)
New tags (HTML/4.0) were implemented: <BIG>, <SMALL>, <SUB>
and <SUB>. Many new ARACHNE.CFG keywords were added, work
on complete ARACHNE.CFG documentation just started.
User and provider profiles (files with extension ACF)
should allow creating of collection of usable configurations
for different providers.
Other improvements include: caching fonts in XMS, improved
mail send and receive, improved frames, improved error
messages (won't overwrite URL). New DJPEG.EXE can handle
progressive JPEGs and can use BMP as output format (faster).
Local JPEGs are now cached in CACHE subdirectory, which should
allow you to view JPEGs on CD-ROM drives.
New bugs: Probably many. However, there were so many bugs from preview
beta releases, that I almost decided to make this beta the only
publicly available release. With Frames variable set to No,
it should be anyway more usable than any previous version
of Arachne. Unfortunately, there appeared some bug in 16 color
modes, so I recommend users of 16 color modes to use old Arachne.
In final release, 16 color VGA support should be corrected.
1.20 pre-release
----
Release date: Friday, 3th October 1997
Bug fixes: Large image buttons will no longer hang Arachne during
"push" animation. Small (but fatal) GIF bug was trapped.
RefreshDelay variable was expected to be called LoadRefresh by
mistake. Page is now being displayed more carefuly.
Images with HEIGHT and WIDTH parameter equal to real size
are now displayed correctly. Several problems with history
of visited URLs and with submitting of fomrs were fixed.
Changes: Command line switch "-c" now turns off TCP/IP even when
ARACHNE.CFG contains line "Connection READY". This should
allow offline mail reading to users who use "Connection READY"
with SLIP or PPP dialer. BTW "-c" was originally shortcut for
"continue browsing", now it is "continue online".
"Use new settings" on SETUP.HTM and OPTIONS.HTM will restart
browser in online mode if you pressed the button in online mode.
(This may cause problem when trying to turn off TCP/IP using
setup page. In this case, you have to restart manually).
Improvements: FRAMES IMPLEMENTED! BETTER MAIL MANAGER!
MINITERM can use other COM port modes than 8N1 (variable Mode).
Virtual screen behaviour is controled by variable
ScreenMode. Value "Nice" is what was implemented in beta 5,
value "Auto" means that virtual screens are generated only
for pages which fit into size declared by VirtualScreen
variable. Probably most useful setting of ScreenMode is "Smart".
Virtual screen is generated only for the top of each
page, so scrolling speed is optimized: very smooth for the
top of the page, and normal screen refresh for the rest of the
page. Useful virtual screen size depends on the speed of your
CPU, value cca 2000 pixels should be usable on
most systems (and also most online pages fit this size).
OPTIONS.HTM page now offers button "Performance", which
allows you to configure Arachne for specific hardware.
Glen W. McCorkle sent me Thomas G. Lane's new 16 bit
and 32 bit versions of DJPEG.EXE, so Arachne now decompress
JPEG files to BMP file (we are less dependent on GIF file
format now). See upgrade note for 386 and AT/XT release list.
In <TEXTAREA> fields, you can use <F2> key to submit form
(warning: this will work ONLY if you are inside TEXTAREA!)
For your convenience, even <TEXTAREA> abandoned by mistake
saves itself to file called "textarea.tmp".
Mouse position is now saved in ARACHNE.PCK file.
Hotkey K displays list of hotkeys (compatibility: Lynx)
Hotkey <Alt>+<H> hangs phone (compatibility: Terminate & others)
Hotkey <Alt>+<E> escapes to dos shell (compatibility: Telnet)
Hotkey <Alt>+<Q> opens notepad (compatibility: Dos Navigator)
Hotkey <Alt>+<D> dials directly (compatibility: Terminate)
Upgrade note: Hotkey H CHANGED meaning: now displays Hotlist (Hotlist variable)
ARACHNE.PCK is not compatible. Please re-run SETUP.BAT,
delete cache index and history files, etc.
Arachne will automaticaly unload packet driver before dialing.
Default release of Arachne is now guaranteed to run on
following configuration: CPU 386+, 256 color SVGA card,
4 MB of memory (1MB conventional, 1MB disk cache, 2 MB XMS).
I think this is typical "cheap PC" configuration - if you
run PC with less system resources, you have to download
"Arachne light" patch (without smooth scrolling, virtual
screens and with 16 color EGA/VGA modes) or "Arachne ultralight"
(same as "light", but without mail, ftp, telnet, and many
other features - just WWW browser, nothing more).
New codes for distribution packages:
archn???.exe ... Default release, for i386+ CPU and SVGA cards
archm???.exe ... Same a archn???, but without PPP, telnet, etc.
archl???.zip ... "downgrade" for i8086 and/or 16 color VGA cards
archu???.zip ... "ultralight" edition (requires only 420 kB)
arcz????.??? ... Czech language distribution
arnl????.??? ... Dutch language distribution
1.20 beta 5 (released only as a patch, for "hardcore" Arachne fans)
----
Release date: Friday, 19th Spetember 1997
Bug fixes: Smooth scrolling and virtual screens now work much better.
Upgrade note: same as beta 4
1.20 beta 4 (released only as a patch, for Arachne fans)
----
Release date: Friday, 19th Spetember 1997
Bug fixes: 1.20 beta 3 was not able to read IP address from enviroment
variable (eg. %MYIP%...).
MINITERM included in beta 3 was still not able to connect
faster than 9600, now this bug was reported to be really
fixed. Also Autologin should work better. '\r' sequence can
be used to type additional <Enter>.
Improvements: SMOOTH SCROLLING was implemeted! Thanks to Zdenek Harovnik
(and of course thanks to money from Caldera, who helped us to
concentrate on development and forget about "real life" ;-)
(and of course thanks to hundereds of e-mails from Arachne
fans ;-), X_LOPIF library now supports virtual screens, which
enabled implementation of (almost) smooth scrolling (on
machines wiht XMS memory and 256 color video card only....)
Scrolling is controled by following ARACHNE.CFG variables:
VirtualScreen <pixels> ... size of virtual screen (eg. 1800)
SmoothScrolling Yes|No ... enables smooth scrolling
ScrollStep 40 ... small values mean slower PageUp/PageDown
If smooth scrolling is enabled, arrows can be used to scroll
the document (like in Netscape or MSIE), while "keyboard-mouse"
is still available when you hold <Shift> key.
Problem: Smooth scrolling will be completely unusable on slow PCs.
Please report me PC configurations where smooth scrolling had
to be turned off.
Plans: Virtual screen technology will allow creating snapshots
of HTML pages in BMP file format and also printing (print engine
from IBASE project will be licensed, which allows printing of
images on 9 and 24 pin Epson compatible printers and on
Hewlet Packard laser and ink printers (even with colours!).
Upgrade note: Just overwrite installation of 1.20 beta 3 with files from
ptch12b4.zip. Warning: new executable requires 20 kB more of
DOS memory (it should be last dramatic increase, as now
there is staticaly linked even HiColor grahics library -
not yet used).
1.20 beta 3
----
Release date: Monday, 15th Spetember 1997
Bug fixes: 1.20 BETA 1 AND 2 WERE NOT ABLE TO WORK WITH FIXED IP ADDRESS!
SMTP bug was finally fixed (?)
MIME mail reader was slightly improved (name="xxx"...)
MINITERM now connects faster than 9600 bps and can do autologin.
Upgrade note: Hotkey W was replaced by C ("compose message").
Hotkey I now shows INBOX mail folder (document information
is now available using "=" key). New hotkey mapping
is trying to follow PINE and LYNX (popular text mode
clients for Unix) key mapping.
Improvements: about: and arachne:dialpage URLs were added.
<U> (underline) tag added. Modem setting "Base Default" or
"Base 0x???" can be used in ARACHNE.CFG (it is passed to
PPPD.EXE and to MINITERM; not to PPP.EXE)
1.20 beta 2
----
Release date: Friday, 12th Spetember 1997
Bug fixes: SMTP e-mail now uses brackets <...> around e-mails.
MAILMAN now correctly assembles MIME messages (tested in PINE).
Some more bugs in mail manager and SMTP upload were fixed.
Improvements: Hotkey W ("write message") will display mailto: page.
Warning: Autologin with script is still not implemented for DOSPPPD!
Please wait for final release of 1.20 version (in three
languages!) for better documentation and more bug-fixes.
1.20 beta 1 (preview of first professional release)
----
Release date: Friday, 12th Spetember 1997
Upgrade note: ARACHNE.PCK is not compatible. Please re-run SETUP.BAT,
delete cache index and history files, etc.
EtherPPP dialer is now slightly different. Automagic creation
of DIAL.PPP from LOGIN.CFG is no longer supported. If you
were using EtherPPP, you may encounter problems (not tested).
Because author is not able to write his own PPP packet driver,
but able to write modem dialer, Arachne now attempts to use
MINITERM as universal dialer. As usually, 90% of Arachne users
will report that MINITERM doesn't work with their modems ;-)
BTW, default ARACHNE.CFG was completely rewritten to be more
clear for those who prefere text setup.
Bug fixes: Lowercase <hr> didn't work, while uppercase <HR> did - fixed.
Some small icons vere interpreted as clicking on history list.
In Lynx compatibility mode (while <Scroll Lock> is on), you can
use arrows to switch among text input fields, like in real Lynx.
Text input fields now should behave more normaly. "SavePasswords
Yes" setting will remove passwords from ARACHNE.CFG while
allowing you to define them for single Arachne session.
After pressing F2, original version of document will be saved
(eg. original JPG image, not a GIF copy, or source of mail
message, not HTML version) - <INPUT .... ARACHNEDOC>.
Mouse will move smothly even in *very* long HTML files with
very large tables.
Improvements: Direct DOSPPPD dialer support integrated to Arachne !!!
New ARACHNE.CFG variable "Dialer" and "UseTerminal".
"Animated" icons added. Added special tag <ARACHNE MSG=message>,
so Arachne fans can improve their pages by messages visible
only to other Arachne users. Message appears on the status bar.
More Lynx hotkeys were added: G - edit URL, = - info, same as I.
You can use ~ (tilde) key to turn on immediate image ignoring.
<EM> tag implemented (as equivalent to <B>).
Help line is now being displayed even for small icons.
If you have problems with SMTP, try to disable HELO protocol by
setting "NoHELO" variable to "Yes" in ARACHNE.CFG.
You can disable logo animation by setting "NoLogo Yes"
Input fields color can be controled by variable "Color X Y",
where X is foreground and Y background color index (0..15).
New hotkey "~" (tilde) will toggle ignoring both local and
remote images "on fly". Useful for very slow computers (AT/XT).
New Arachne extension <TEXTAREA ... ARACHNEROWS> will adjust
textarea size to screen size - see SENDMAIL.HTM or TEXTEDIT.HTM!
MIME compatible mail reader and composer (!) - variable
"MailEncoding" with values "MIME" and "UUENCODE".
WWWMAN and MAILMAN now use tag <BODY ARACHNE>, which means
BGCOLOR, TEXT and LINK colors are defined in ARACHNE.CFG.
Special: Arachne is now available also as "Arachne Light" - archive
archnXXXl.zip, which contains reduced CORE.EXE without mail,
gopher, finger, dialer support, etc. For users of very old PCs
who cannot get more than 430 kB free after connecting with PPP.
To use this release, you have to download full or minimal
distribution package firs.
1.10 (Holiday release)
----
Release date: Tuesday, 8th July 1997
Upgrade note: Due tu implementation of frames, ARACHNE.PCK is not compatible.
Please re-run SETUP.BAT.
Bug fixes: Hotlist addition repaired (was not working since last beta).
Inside <TEXTAREA> tag, no other HTML tags are interpreted
(I found out it is required for mail composer). Mouse should
now move more smothly. Sometimes, documents or image(s) were not
displayed at all in latest versions - fixed. Various scrollbar
bugs fixed. Several fatal DGI and CGI bugs fixed. After sending
mail from page with mailto: link, Arachne will return to this
page and won't go to MAIL.HTM. JavaScripts were chased,
trapped and comletely exterminated finaly (but it wasn't easy).
Improvements: Arachne now supports complete HTML/2.0 including <SELECT>
and <OPTION> tags, and entities """ and "ß" (the
second one was necessary for pages in German language).
Improved mail manager. Better documentation.
History list can be viewed clicking on mini-icon on the right
side of URL prompt. When mouse moves over big icons, help
message line apperars.
Changes: This release requires only 440 kB to run (without resident PPP).
(this is because big fixed array of pointers to HTMLatoms,
originaly situated in low memory, is now implemented as dynamic
list situated in xSwap (memory pages in XMS/EMS/disk).
Default setup now includes NextStep style scroll buttons;
users who prefered 1.0x appearance of Arachne can easily
switch back to it at Options -> Preferences setup screen.
Plans: I am leaving for holiday, so there won't be any new release
in next two months. I am planning to implement Netscpe FRAMES
as soon as possible, better mail manager is being developped
as well as faster and less screen-flashing icons.
1.10 beta 2
-----------
Release date: Wednesday, 2th July 1997
Upgrade note: ARACHNE.PCK is (again) not compatible (and it won't be in
the future versions - sorry).
Bug fixes: Download and local save now works. Memory allocation bugs
fixed (once again ;-) - you should get MUCH less "Non-fatal
error" screens and no red boxes instead of images (tested
for low memory sizes from 450 to 610 kB with step cca 10 kB).
Several bugs in SMTP upload and mail manager are fixed, but
mail reader is still not very usable (but at least you can
write replys and then delete/rename/archive messages from DOS).
Changes: This beta requires 450 kB to run (without resident PPP).
1.10 beta 1
-----------
Release date: Tuesday, 24th June 1997
Upgrade note: ARACHNE.PCK is not compatible, you have to run SETUP.BAT !
Improvements: In setup, you can select if you want to use XMS, EMS or disk
for memory swapping. This should help users with less
compatible systems to avoid Arachne crashing.
Arachne can do e-mail ! Very simple at the moment, but it
will be improved. New Arachne.cfg variable is "TimeZone".
"KillSent", "UseSignature" and "Signature" variables are not
yet implemented.
Bug fixes: Plug-ins are now correctly executed for online documents.
Small GIF scrolling bug fixed. Small bug in WWWMAN.EXE fixed.
1.08 (Friday the 13th bug-free release)
----
Release date: Friday, 13th June 1997
Bug fixes: Aborted documents with unknown mime type can be reloaded.
If backround bitmap is missing or corrupted, screen will
be cleared before refreshing page. Internal editor won't append
empty line at the end of the document after each modification.
<BLOCKQUOTE> tag was implemented (as indented paragraph).
JavaScripts between <SCRIPT> and </SCRIPT> tags are now
completely invisible. Multiple JPEG or PNG images on one
page will be converted only once per file. Unconvertable JPEG
or PNG images will not be uselessly reloaded from server.
Screen will not flash when refreshing page with many images.
256 color BMP images (ussual result of PNG conversion) are now
displayed properly (see http://www.w3.org). It means that
Arachne is finaly independent on LZW algorithm in GIF files!
It will decompress PNG images (perfect for net transfer) to
local 256 color BMP files (perfect for fast page refreshing);
Arachne is now ready for PNG, the future of the World Wide Web!
Improvements: HTML rendering is approximately 10 times faster because or
more efficient algorithm (previous versions were applying
cca 100 strcmp() calls on each HTML tag, while avarage
page contains thousands of such tags and pages with tables
must be rendered twice. Now Arachne uses only 1-5 strcmp() per
tag).
Comming soon: There is already experimental build of Arachne with HiColor
support, but there are still serious problems which prevented
me from releasing it. And after all, HiColor support via VESA
driver is on my AMD K5/133 much slower than using palette
mixing and 256 color modes. Possible use of HiColor modes
is on slower computers (386, 486) equipped with 1MB VESA cards.
After HiColor implementation, there will be available also
special builds of CORE.EXE without HiColor and/or EtherPPP
support. Version 1.1 (with e-mail support) is already under
construction and will be released before end of June.
1.07
----
Release date: 4th June 1997
Bug fixes: Disabled zooming while document download (it caused Arachne to
crash), some scrollbar bugs were fixed, F3 key disabled in
fullscreen mode, 32 color palette freezing was finally fixed.
On "Out of conventional memory" error now Arachne will not
exit, it will only restart and show NONFATAL.HTM. You should
generally get less screen flashing and offline and/or cached
documents should be viewed with ultra-low screen flashing.
Missing JPEGs and PNGs will not cause Arachne to cycle.
Changes: Scroll buttons (ScrollBarStyle ...) now scroll only half-page.
Improvements: When viewing cached documents (online pages, dgi scripts output,
etc.), Arachne now remembers last position in displayed
document. Useful for example when browsing long directory
listings and generaly for long HTML pages with many links.
Clicking on black zone of vertical scrollbar is now equivalent
to pressing <Page Down> or <Page Up>. Horizontaly it works
as horizontal home/horizontal end.
Preview: Send mail page (not functional)
1.06 (first version believed to be without major bugs)
----
Release date: 28th May 1997
Bug fixes: You should get less "Illegal xSwap operation" and "Out of
conventional memory" messages and less screen flashing when
viewing pages with lot of images. You should be able to easily
abort domain lookup. Many other small bugs were fixed.
Improvements: Login script for Compuserver was included. Experimental
implementation of "TerminalWindow" ARACHNE.CFG variable should
help those who cannot login with their provider. Experimental
implementation of "NoProxy" variable - list of hosts which
are unreachable using HTTP proxy server. Messages were separated
to single "messages.h" file, which will allow to compile
versions for various languages. Better WWWMAN.EXE
1.05
----
Release date: 19th May 1997
Bug fixes: Downloading of documents which can be viewed by external viewer
Improvements: Faster tables, better Save As.../Download prompt, experimental
EMS support (not tested)
1.04
----
Release date: 13th May 1997
Bug fixes: Serious palette mixing bug, memory management bugs,
<TEXTAREA> horizontal size bug.
1.03
----
Release date: 7th May 1997
Bug fixes: Errors in distribution package, various HTML layout errors,
various memory management errors, in HTML tag
<INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME=... VALUE=... > the VALUE is now
being passed to CGI scripts, "password" editor bug, "page up"
editor bug, mouse refresh bug, browser resize and refresh bugs,
<TABLE BGCOLOR> and <TR BGCOLOR> tags are now implemented
correctly, faster mixing of single color to long palette.
Improvements: Improved documentation, 3D-elements (<TABLE> and <HR>) are
now colored differently on white (BGCOLOR=#FFFFFF) pages.
Better italic fonts (sent by some Arachne fan).
User definable scrollbar width, various scrollbar styles
(Arachne, Windows, NextStep and experimental one), optional big
system font (ARACHNE.CFG variables ScrollBarSize,
ScrollBarWidth, BigFont), <TEXTAREA> tag (not tested online !),
F4 key (editor), F2 key (save), renaming of downloaded files.
1.02 (first official release)
----
Release date: 30th April 1997
Bug fixes: Netscape compatible comments <!-- xxx>, reload is enabled
when using proxy server.
1.01
----
Release date: Never released for public use
Bug fixes: Faster version of graphics library, table rendering bugs
1.00
----
Release date: Never released for public use
Bug fixes: <INPUT TYPE=IMAGE>, CGA support, submitting of forms without
submit button, HTML entities
1.0 beta 9
----------
Release date: 2nd April 1997
Bug fixes: *BIG* table rendering bug fixed
(try http://browserwatch.iworld.com)
Netscape image-resizing emulation.
Improvements: Handles virtual domains (HTTP keyword Host: implemented)
1.0 beta 8
----------
Release date: 28th March 1997
Bug fixes: Insufficient memory bug fix. Downgrade of EtherPPP.EXE
Improvements: New ARACHNE.CFG variables: CreateScript, WaitFor?, Response?,
ExitOnHangup. Improved ARACHNE.BAT. Klos PPP support.
After optimization, CORE.EXE is 60 kB shorter.
Requires less memory. Faster graphics on VESA cards.
More user-friendly setup.
1.0 beta 7
----------
Release date: 13th March 1997
Bug fixes: Stack overflow. Image loading and JPEG conversin bugs.
Horizontal keyboard scroll bug (Shift+End).
Change: Arachne now requires 460 kB of DOS memory (580 with PPP).
Improvements: New ARACHNE.CFG variables: F3key (you can replace 'file:*.*'
default string), AutoF3key Yes/No ('file:*.*' when offline,
'http://' when online), SearchPage (will appear after pressing
F7). AltNameServer and AltGateway variables now allow to add
add second nameserver and gateway directly to ARACHNE.CFG
1.0 beta 6
----------
Release date: 5th March 1997
Bug fixes: Proxy support was finally implemented !
PPP.LOG file is now being opened by C sopen(), not open()
function, so file sharing errors in Windows DOS box should
disappear (but it was tested only with SHARE.EXE).
Improvements: 4 "Memory modes" implemented: "CRISIS","LOW","NORMAL","COOL".
Arachne now requires only 450 kB offline and 570 kB with PPP,
but users of QEMM, MEMMAKER or DR-DOS who have more
than 600 kB available will see no difference ("COOL" mode).
Palette mixing is now several times faster (better algorithm).
Free utility PKTSTAT can be called from utilities page.
Someone sent me newer version of EtherPPP (PPP.EXE); seems
to work at least not worse than the old one. And the graphical
PPP setup was changed to behave more functional.
Bug reports: JPEGs do not always behave as they should. The bug is not
yet fixed, because the other bug fixes had higher priority.
Message: New Scientist called Arachne "browser for poor". But I don't
think I am poor just because I don't want to buy new computer
ever year! Good news: Arachne will be incorporated as native
browser in Caldera OpenDOS operating system.
1.0 beta 5
----------
Release date: 16th February 1997
Bug fixes: some of image redraw bugs fixed
Improvements: images in 16 color VGA and EGA modes, <Scroll Lock> activates
"Lynx mode" - surfing with cursor keys. <Backspace> = history,
<Shift> + <Home>, <Shift> + <End> = horizontal scroll.
Some HTML/2.0 entities. <A HREF="#..."> ... <A NAME="...">
"Kill hotlist" icon in Utilities page - example of DGI
Message: Number of visitors of Arachne homepage was increased hundered
times after publishing of short article in PointCast.
Many new mirror sites will be announced soon.
Microsoft offered me to move to Redmond and work for them -
really, I am not joking ;)
Possible use of Arachne in a single-chip Net Computer.
Arachne will be used in WebTyme - internet slot machine.
In future, Arachne may be integrated into GEOS and OpenDos
operating systems as native browser, if everything goes well.
To Jan Patera: sorry, to vraceni grafickeho modu jsem zase
nechal ve skole ;-)))
Note: You would expect teen hackers to perfectly manage low level
graphics or so, and senior programmers to be rather system
administrators, etc. Reality: I am 23, my father is 50.
If you like image viewing in 16 color VGA and EGA mode
(as well as very good palette otimization),
send credits to my father ;-)
1.0 beta 4
----------
Release date: 27th January 1997
Bug fixes: tables ("Netscape homepage bug" and others), hotkeys bugs,
"yahoo search bug" (error in form submitting), ">" entity,
Linux POP3 download bug, conversion bugs, many other bugs.
Cache size restricted to 256 files to reduce problems.
Improvements: 16 color VGA and EGA modes, registration key support,
links to <FRAME> sources (!), query strings passed to DGIs,
<Backspace> returns to previous document, <Shift>+<PgUp>,<PgDn>,
Message: There are signals, that in future Arachne may be used in
some slot-machines for public Internet access. This can mean
that more people taking care about optimizing pages for Arachne
and other "Other" browsers, like Lynx, Mosaic, etc.
It can be important step forcing webmasters to keep
high informational value of WWW and stop the latest "putting
TV-shit online" trends. REGISTER NOW to keep Arachne project
alive! Final release of 1.0 will appear until end of February.
Warning: No more changing homepage with <F4> in Volkov commander!
I take no responsibility for possible side effects of cracking
CORE.EXE, remember, I am not so bad programer... <g>
1.0 beta 3
----------
Release date: 6th January 1997
Bug fixes: tables, documentation, miscelaneous bugs
Improvements: background download of HTML documents, slight speed improvement,
1024x768 graphics mode, keyboard select <Tab>.
Message: Author have new e-mail address - xchaos@main.naf.cz
1.0 beta 2
----------
Release date: 22th December 1996
Bug fixes: gopher, finger, jpeg conversion, DGI calls, some HTML entities
Improvements: EscExits and LoadImages variable in ARACHNE.CFG, Load images
icon, Arachne now calls external telnet and ftp, public domain
Clarkson Univesity telnet and ftp binaries added to package
The way to 1.0 beta
-------------------
I first attempted to compile some DOS TCP/IP application at university in 1995.
It was based on NCSA Telnet sources, and for some strange reasons, the
attempt was complete failure. I didn't know much about TCP/IP at that time.
Then I started working as a webmaster for Video On Line, where I had
enought spare time to learn about TCP/IP protocols, to search WWW for
important software.... I started to hate Windows 95 as I was forced to
work with them. I started also with C programming for Unix, etc.
One day I tried to search Altavista for "WWW browser for DOS" - and I was
very surprised, that it found nothing! Well, there were about three or four
pseudo-browsers (Doslynx, Knots, Minuet and Open World Navigator), which
were so useless compared to Netscape, that I decided to try it on my own.
In fact, another DOS browser, SPIN, would probably discourage me from writing
Arachne, because the version I had oportunity to see last month was almost
usable. But it was also extremely unstable, and generaly, it could be compared
to Arachne somewhere in versions 0.91-0.92. And it was also much slower, at
least on my computer. (By the way, current betaversion of SPIN is now
comparable with latest release of Arachne...)
The reason why Arachne is so good is, that software included in Arachne
package is result of years of work of many good programers. Only few of
them are people I know... that's the cyberspace! My work can be best
described as "source code archeology" :-).
I only came, and linked it all together. Well, I also wrote HTML rendering
engine but compared to TCP/IP kernel, my HTML engine is children's toy.
Arachne is in fact based on "Popdump" aplication distributed
as example for using WatTcp TCP/IP library. I started work in April 1996
and I released several alfaversions (0.7, 0.8, etc...) for testing.
Then, when I made version about 0.9?? and started testing online homepage,
one of testers added my URL to Altavista, and it is the reason why
alfaversions 0.9?? ... 0.99 spreaded among people. When Arachne was once
"released", I simply had to fix the major bugs and publish at least
the most important updates.
In fact, my first official release was version 1.0 beta, and it
is also where the history list will start. I will not mention
any bug fixes form alfaversion, except of one: I succesfuly fixed the packet
driver interrupt crash (it was occuring in the moment when Arachne was
accessing XMS, which happens very often). It was most important event in
the alfaversion history. This bug is fixed cca since version 0.93 or so.
So - please DELETE ANY ARACHNE OLDER THAN VERSION 1.0 beta and upgrade !!!
Michael Polak, xChaos software