Version history

Version 1.4.1, 2 April 1997

• A few changes to the HTML 3.2 package to make it agree with the final recommendation from W3C 14 January 1997.
• Alpha can now optionally save a window without asking when you send it to your browser.
• If you have more than one version of the same browser and one is running, Alpha no longer tries to launch the second one when you send a file to the first one.
• You can now set the line width of your HTML documents (fillColumn variable).
• A couple of bug fixes. In particular a bug which in a few cases would extract the wrong width and height of gifs and jpegs has been fixed.

Version 1.4, 21 January 1997

• Files outside home page folders are considered to have URLs like file:///path/to/file.html. This implies that you can now check links between all files, not only the ones in your home page folders. Similarly you can make links via a file dialog between all files, and cmd-double-click now works for all files.
• Improved integration with Big Brother. (You need Big Brother 1.1 or later.)
• Each home page folder can have a corresponding include folder, where you can put all your files to be dynamically included. This include folder is mapped to the same URL as the home page folder.
• Move files works for files in these new include folders.
• 'Update folder' and 'update file' for include files.
• Case-sensitive link checking.
• You can now choose if you want to check anchors when you check links.
• Unsafe characters in URLs are coded when they are inserted, e.g. space becomes %20.
• Long opening tags are wrapped when they are inserted.
• Cmd-double-click on an include tag opens file.
• Home page URLs no longer have to be specified in two pieces.
• 'Check links' didn't work for anchors with spaces. Fixed.
• 'Check folder' can now optionally check subfolders.
• 'Convert NCSA map' couldn't correctly translate circle areas. Fixed.
• When image maps are converted, the default URL is now put last.
• color_9 ... color_15 can be used as keyword color.
• The predefined colors are replaced by the 16 ones defined in HTML 3.2.
• HTML manual can be opened from the menu.
• Added onReset to FORM.
• Added HEIGHT to TABLE.
• SHAPE=DEFAULT removed from HTML 3.2 package.
• ALT is now correctly a required attribute of AREA.
• A couple of other minor changes and bug fixes.

Version 1.3, 17 November 1996

• New submenu 'Browsers' where you can add all your browsers, and quickly choose which one to send files to. ('Choose browser' is gone, and as a concequence changed the key binding for SCRIPT back again.)
• 'Check links' now checks anchors.
• Fixed a bug in 'Check links' for links like HREF="#anchor" in files containing a <BASE HREF="url">.
• Improved error handling in 'Move files' and 'Update home page'.
• Fixed a bug with include tags split into two lines.
• 'Includes' now works for paths containing the characters "<>.
• Similar fix for 'last modified date'.
• A few other minor changes and fixes.

Version 1.3b2, 4 November 1996

• The HTML prefs file (if any) sometimes wasn't loaded in 1.3b1. Fixed.
• Modified Table template.
• New Tabs to Rows dialog.
• Function to import a table from a file.
• Make list can now optionally insert list tags.
• Untitled windows could not be sent to browser. Fixed.
• Updating dynamically included files now changes last modified date.
• Importing an exported URL cache missed first URL. Fixed.
• You can now go back in 'Clean up cache' dialog.
• BASEFONT added to HTML 3.2 package. (Included in the latest draft from W3C.)
• Described in this help file how to easily bind any menu item to any single keystroke.

Version 1.3b1, 22 October 1996

• You can now define more than one home page folder, each containing files of different sites.
• Support for dynamically included files.
• Conversion of NCSA and CERN image map files to client side image maps.
• New interface for defining colors. You can now also define a color by specifying its hexadecimal number.
• New interface for footers.
• When selecting a GIF or JPEG file for <IMG> via a file dialog its width and height are automatically determined. The algorithm for JPEG is taken from the perl script 'wwwimagesize' by Alex Knowles, alex@ed.ac.uk, and Andrew Tong, werdna@ugcs.caltech.edu.
• The URL cache can be exported to a file for later use.
• You can scan any file for URLs and import them to the URL cache.
• The names of the files in a folder can be imported to the URL cache.
• Last modified date can automatically be inserted when you save a file.
• Link checking can be done with Big Brother by François Pottier.
• Function to change choices directly in the document.
• Translation of <>&.
• A user friendly settings dialog.
• Cmd-double-click on a color attribute brings up a color picker and let you change the color.
• Ctrl-q to skip the rest of the attributes in status bar.
• Required attributes are asked for again in status bar.
• Links checks can be done in the current window.
• 'Comment' and 'Comment line' insert HTML comment or JavaScript comment depending on the position.
• Funcs menu lists headers H1-6.
• Function to select the content of a container.
• Shift-ctrl-opt-space bound to &nbsp;
• Table template optionally without TABLE tags.
• Comment color in JavaScript coloring can be changed.
• 'Reveal color' has moved to new 'Editing' sub menu, and has got a new key binding.
• Added ARCHIVE and MAYSCRIPT to APPLET.
• Some other minor changes.

Version 1.2.2, 3 October 1996

• You can now change browser for preview (option on 'send file to browser'). As a consequence, the key binding for SCRIPT is changed.
• 'Check links', 'Move files' and cmd-double-click now correctly interpret links like HREF="#anchor" as pointing to the file itself and not to "index.html#anchor".
• The same functions now ignores "news:" links like they always have ignored "mailto:" links.

Version 1.2.1, 12 September 1996

• Move files no longer remove blank lines in the moved files.
• Special window names _self _top _parent _blank correctly set to lowercase.
• 'Mark file' didn't find header when opening tag was split into two lines. Fixed.
• HTTP-EQUIV is no longer a required attribute of META.
• Value of NAME attribute to A, MAP and FRAME wasn't added to cache when tags were set in lowercase. Fixed.

Version 1.2, 3 August 1996

• The package HTML 2.0 is removed, since it is out-dated. From now on there will only be two packages, one with the latest official HTML and one where extensions have been included.
• There is now only two way to input attributes, the dialogs introduced in 1.1 and the status bar.
• Improved behavior when attributes are given in the status bar. ctrl-z to cancel, ctrl-f for a file dialog or new color. When a value is chosen from a popup window, Alpha immediately jumps to the next attribute.
• A new userfriendly way to add new HTML elements.
• A function to move files between folders and automatically update all links to and in them.
• Changed JavaScript coloring. Only reserved words are colored, not built in methods and properties. Comments in JavaScript are now colored.
• A window cache just like the URL cache. Frame names are automatically added to this cache.
• A new submenu with plug-ins.
• JavaScript's event handlers can now optionally appear in the attribute dialog.
• Only one menu item for <A>.
• Added SRC to <SCRIPT>.
• Added <NOSCRIPT>, <MULTICOL> and <SPACER>.
• Added FRAMEBORDER, BORDERCOLOR to <FRAME>.
• Added FRAMEBORDER, BORDERCOLOR, BORDER to <FRAMESET>.
• Added FACE to <FONT>.
• Added onMouseOut to <A>.
• Added onAbort, onError, onLoad to <IMG>.
• Added onClick, onMouseOver, onMouseOut to <AREA>.
• When trying to add a link via a file dialog, windows with ' <n>' added to the window name were asked to be saved even if they already were saved. Fixed!
• Send file to browser didn't work for windows with ' <n>' appended. Fixed!
• Problems finding the browser fixed.
• Reveal color didn't find color attribute if color wasn't quoted. Fixed!
• Check links didn't find BASE if it was split into two lines. Fixed!
• Check links and cmd-double-click now correctly interpret paths of the form "./file.html".
• Check links and cmd-double-click now search for a file index.html when a link points to a folder.
• Check links didn't work for files with UNIX or IBM newlines. (All links were found to be ok.) Fixed!
• Some lists couldn't be inserted when using the status bar. Fixed!
• 'Change opening' didn't work for INPUT elements in lower case. Fixed!
• The variable htmlElemAttrsForAll is no longer supported.
• Some other minor changes and bug fixes.

Version 1.1.1, 17 June 1996

• Rewrote some of the code so that HTML mode loads faster.
• The menu Use Attributes is disabled when it is not needed.
• Added <U> and <NOEMBED>.
• The new suffix mapping is used to determine if a file is a HTML file when deciding which files to scan to check the links.

Version 1.1, 21 May 1996

• The HTML elements are put into three packages, HTML 2.0, HTML 3.2 and Extensions.
• Support for JavaScript coloring and editing.
• A function to check that all links between files in your home page are ok.
• Attributes to an element can be input in one single dialog box, rather that giving the attributes one after another.
• When you are asked about an URL attribute, you can choose a file via a file dialog. The relative path is automatically inserted.
• "Fill paragraph" is now sensitive to HTML elements.
• cmd-doubleclick on a relative URL opens the file, or if it does not exits, it can create a new file and save it in the right place.
• You can define a new color when you are asked about a color attribute.
• You can define files with footers, which can be automatically inserted when you create a new document.
• Control that a value given to a number attribute is valid.
• Control that a value given to a color attribute is valid.
• New dialog box for "New document" where you can choose which elements you want in the head, and also select a file with a footer to insert in the end of the body.
• Character translation can be done in a selection. The translation is also a lot faster.
• Tab marks can be removed in a selection.
• "Select container" and "Untag" now find the correct pair of tags when there are elements of the same kind within each other, like a <TABLE> within a <TABLE>.
• "Select container" and "Untag" now ignores all tags without a closing tag.
• A function to select a tag with no closing tag.
• A function to untag a element with no closing tag.
• A function to untag a container and automatically select the content.
• A function to change an element in the document.
• New key binding for untag: ctrl-F1. It has been bundled with the new functions just mentioned.
• Mark file now finds headers with opening and closing tags on different lines. Each menu item is limited to 30 characters, not to make them too long.
• If you use any of the two old ways of inputting attributes, you can set a flag for each element, so that you can optionally be asked about the attributes not chosen in the "Use attributes" menu.
• A table template function, to quickly make tables.
• With "Tabs to rows" you can now optionally put table headers in first row and/or column.
• "Rows to tabs" now follow the HTML code, not the line breaks in the file.
• A function to insert <BR> at the end of every line in a selection.
• A function to remove every <BR> in a selection.
• A function to insert <P> at empty lines in a selection.
• A function to make a HTML list from a *'d list.
• Undo is now easier, although you sometimes still have to make two "Undos" to undo something.
• For attributes which can take any value, beginning and ending spaces are no longer removed. Sometimes these spaces are wanted.
• When <A NAME="xxx"> or <MAP NAME="xxx"> is inserted, "#xxx" is added to URL cache.
• New dialog box for cleaning up URL cache.
• Two identical colors can no longer be defined.
• New elements STRIKE and DFN.
• New element <INPUT TYPE=BUTTON> in extensions package. To be used together with JavaScript.
• A couple of new attributes added so some elements.
• For the AREA element, a check is made that you use one of the attributes HREF and NOHREF is used, but not both.
• The key binding for "Comment line" have been changed to ctrl-C-L to conform with other modes.

Version 1.0, 25 March 1996

• A lot of new elements are included.
• It's possible to define colors to use as background color, text color etc. from a color picker.
• Translation of accented letters (é, á etc.) to HTML entities and vice versa.
• The attributes of the elements are divided into required and optional ones. If you skip a required one, no element is inserted. You can no longer make elements like <A></A>.
• For some elements there is a separate key binding as well as menu item to automatically skip all attributes.
• Improved behavior when the status bar is used to input attributes.
• Untagging works better.
• Marking of the file works better.
• Plus a number of other small changes.