==================================================================== Lookout for OS/2 - Version 1.00 ==================================================================== Table of Contents: 0. What's new in this version? 1. What is Lookout for OS/2? 2. How do I install it? 3. How do I use it? 4. How does it work? 5. Where do I send bug reports & suggestions? 6. Known bugs & what's planned? 7. How do I register? ==================================================================== 0. What's new in this version? Version 1.00 - First GA release. Everything's new! ==================================================================== 1. What is Lookout for OS/2? Lookout for OS/2 is a internet notifier. It will watch Web, FTP and Gopher sites, and tell you if they have changed. A "Lookout" is also known as a "bot", an "agent" or an "informant". In this document, we refer to them as "Lookout"s. ==================================================================== 2. How do I install it? The file lko*.zip should unzip into 2 files, this read.me, and lookout.zip. Unzip lookout.zip with the -d option into the directory where you want it to stay. The -d option is needed to create the "cache" directory. ==================================================================== 3. How do I use it? Start by running lookout.exe. Program settings are saved in lookout.ini, and information about the various sites is stored in lookout.dat. There should be a lookout.dat included with this distribution. It will start you off watching one site, the "Lookout for OS/2 Home Page". The main window of Lookout contains a list box, where information about each Lookout is displayed and updated. You can right-click on a Lookout's line to display a popup menu, with choices of actions to perform on that Lookout. Here's a list of what you can do: Create - create a new Web, FTP or Gopher Lookout Edit - change the settings and parameters for a Lookout Delete - self-explanatory Check - have the Lookout check right now if the site has been changed Reset - change the Lookout's status to "Idle" Start watching - if the selected Lookout is suspended, start watching it Stop watching - stop checking the selected Lookout If the selected Lookout watches an FTP site, you also get the choice: Details - if an FTP site has changed, this will display a dialog that lists what files have been added, removed or changed. To create a new Lookout, select "Lookout|New|Web", or "FTP" or "Gopher". Most of the fields on the Create & Edit dialogs are obvious. Here are the not-so-obvious ones: Gopher: Selection string - the selection string of the Gopher item you want to watch. If left blank, will default to a new-line, which is the Gopher default. Web: URL - the "Universal Resource Locator(?)". Basically, this is what you see in the URL field on a browser. More... - displays another dialog, where you can enter words and strings that the program will ignore when comparing two HTML files to see if a site has changed. FTP: Directory - defaults to "/". More... - displays another dialog, where you can enter file names and parts of file names that the program will ignore when checking if an FTP site has changed. "index" is a good one to add here. Select "Settings|Program settings..." to bring up the settings notebook. Web, FTP and Gopher each have a notebook page where you can select and enter the client program used to "view" a Lookout. Also, there is a field to format the command line of the client program. For FTP Lookouts, place the following in the "FTP Client Parameters" field in the order your FTP client needs them: %host %user %password %port %dir Web Lookouts only recognize one parameter: %URL Gopher Lookouts recognize %host, %port and %selector For example, if you want to use the IBM WebExplorer as your Web client, and you normally start it from the command line with the "-q -t 6" options, in the "Web Client Parameters" field, you would enter "%URI -q -t 6". For another example, if you use VXFTP for your FTP client, you could enter the following command line in "FTP Client Parameters": "%host %user %password %dir". If a client program that you select is not in your PATH, you must enter the full path to the program in the "Client" entry field. ==================================================================== 4. How does it work? Each Lookout has a thread that does the checking. Every 30 seconds, the main thread goes through the list of Lookouts, and sees if it's time for any of them to be checked. If it is, that Lookout's thread is started, and it does the checking. ==================================================================== 5. Where do I send bug reports & suggestions? Obviously, I need bug reports. But, I am very interested in any ideas you have for improving the performance and usability of this program. If you have any problems, suggestions or enhancements, please send them to: ckennedy@primenet.com Also, use Lookout to watch the Lookout for OS/2 home page, at http://www.primenet.com/~ckennedy/software/lookout This distribution contains a lookout.dat file with the information for this site. ==================================================================== 6. Known bugs & what's planned? If the program is interrupted/exitted while one of the Lookouts is in the "Checking" state, the next time you run the program, it may crash. If you suffer a crash, delete the contents of the "cache" directory, then start the program again. What's not implemented yet? *POSTPONED - Applying temporary overrides permanently, on the "Global Overrides" page of the settings notebook. What's planned? Near-term ( before general availability ) *SORTA DONE - fix the interrupt/cache bug *UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE! - add intelligence about the command line formats of different clients *OOPS, PROBLEM, POSTPONED NOT DONE - add a toolbar *POSTPONED - applying the overrides *POSTPONED - Re-package Visual Age C++ dll's to reduce size. Mid-term ( version 1.1? ) - ability to kill off a "hung" socket - modularize the code - allow adding files to ignore list from the "Details" dialog - allow FTP'ing of files from the "Details" dialog - applying temporary overrides. Long-term ( version 2.0 ) - bring down entire web pages, for offline browsing - ability to watch more than one page/directory/selection at a site - use notebook as main user interface, with Lookout as one page - add pages for mail checker, ping, finger, webster ==================================================================== 7. How do I register? Please see the file "register.txt" included with this distribution. ==================================================================== Chris Kennedy July 31, 1997 Frugal Software ckennedy@primenet.com http://www.primenet.com/~ckennedy/software/lookout