A browser, such as Mosaic, Netscape or MacWeb, accesses remote sites that are specified by use of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). The URLs may be specified by any one of the following three procedures:

1. Use the menu to display a dialog box in which you type the URL.

2. Store the URL in a Hot List. Then use the menu to display the hot list and select the required URL.

3. Store the URL as a link in a document written in the format of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Have the browser display the Hypertext document and select the required link.

The advantage of the third procedure is that Hypertext documents may contain links to other Hypertext documents, and so your list of URLs may be subdivided and accessed through an index (often called your home page). Also each list may be used with any browser. However, the links must be written in Hypertext.

The application MacPURL contains a translator that allows you to specify lists of URLs in a very simple manner. YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ANY DETAILS OF HYPERTEXT. When MacPURL saves any list it is saved as a Hypertext document that may be used by your browser. You may modify the lists. You may display several MacPURL lists and cut and paste information between them. If you wish, you may display and modify the MacPURL lists while the browser is in use, and URLs displayed by the browser may be pasted into your MacPURL lists.

When you create a MacPURL document the amount of data to be typed is often less than that required to create a Hypertext document. Therefore there is less chance of making an error, and if you do make a typing error it is easier to spot.

1.1 Use of h, g, f, F, t, L, m in Column 1

Each line of a MacPURL document begins with a character that acts as a label to indicate the type of data contained in the line. Column 2 is blank (optional). If the line specifies a URL, or an address to mail to, then the character in column 1 is chosen as follows:

h if the URL begins with the characters html://

g if the URL begins with the characters gopher://

f if the URL begins with the characters ftp://

F if the URL begins with the characters file://

t if the URL begins with the characters telnet://

L if the URL is for a file stored locally on your Macintosh

m for a mailing address

The letters h, g, etc in column 1 are abbreviations for html:// etc. Therefore a URL such as http://freenet.carleton.ca is typed as:

h freenet.carleton.ca

Similarly, the URL gopher://freenet.carleton.ca/FreeNets/URFA is typed as

g freenet.carleton.ca/FreeNets/URFA

1.2 Example of Creation of a MacPURL Document:

Launching MacPURL displays a window named Untitled in which, for example, the following may be typed:

h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/MUGNS/Home.html

h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/APENS/APENSPg.html

g gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/VRFA

g gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/Canadian Systems

Choosing "Save" or "SaveAs" in the "File" menu causes MacPURL to save the document in HTML format. You may then launch your browser and either use its menu to choose the MacPURL document or set the browser's preferences to make the MacPURL document its home page. When this saved document is displayed by your browser it will be shown in the form

http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/MUGNS/Home.html

http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/APENS/APENSPg.html

gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/VRFA

gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/Canadian Systems

in which each line is indented and forms a link. It may be underlined or shown in bold according to the settings of the browser. Clicking on a link directs the browser to access the specified site, directory or file. (You may wish to replace the names by pseudonyms as described in Section 1.3)

End of Example

Check this NOW by using MacPURL to open the document Example.html. Then view the same document with your browser.

THIS IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IN ORDER TO PRODUCE LISTS OF URLs THAT MAY BE USED BY THE MOSAIC, NETSCAPE OR MacWEB BROWSERS.

FOR ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF MacPURL SEE SECTIONS 2-5.

You may have your browser access MacPURL documents regardless of whether MacPURL is launched. However, if you launch both MacPURL and the browser, you may have the document displayed in both the browser window and a MacPURL window. You may use MacPURL to make changes to the document, save the document, and then have the browser restore its page to include the changes.

You may display several MacPURL windows. The active one has its title bar highlighted. Each MacPURL window may be scrolled, changed in size, or closed. The "Edit" menu supports "Cut", "Copy", "Paste" and "Select All". The "Search" menu allows you to search for strings of characters. The "Size" menu allows you to set the text size as 9 or 12. The font in a MacPURL window is always monaco. The delete key has the same effect as the menu item "Cut".

Text may be copied and pasted between MacPURL windows and also from a browser window to a MacPURL window. You may therefore use a MacPURL window as a memo pad while using a browser and then edit the copied text either before or after you disconnect from the remote site.

If you are using a browser to view a remote file and you wish to check some details of how to use MacPURL you do not need to switch the browser. Use the application MacPURL to view the document Manual.html. It will not be as convenient to read as when using the browser, but all the information is there and you will not have to quit your connection to the remote site.

1.3 Pseudonyms for URLs (Use of p in Column 1)

Suppose the first line in the example of Section 1.2 is replaced by the two lines

p Chebucto Free Net

h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

Each line that begins with the label p in column 1 defines a pseudonym for the next URL. Thus "Chebucto Free Net" is a pseudonym for http://wwww.ccn.cs.dal.ca. Your browser will display the lines in the form:

Chebucto Free Net

Clicking on the link "Chebucto Free Net" will cause the browser to access the site at http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

2. Further Details of MacPURL

The following sections describe how you may produce more elaborate lists of URLs.

2.1 Use of + in Column 1

The lines in the example of Section 1.2 could also be typed in the abbreviated form:

h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

+ /Technology/MUGNS/Home.html

+ /Technology/APENS/APENSPg.html

g gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets

+ /VRFA

+ /Canadian Systems

When PURL saves a line that begins with + in column 1, it automatically precedes the specified line by the URL that was most recently specified by use of h, g, f, F, t, L or m. Thus a MacPURL document that contains the above lines is displayed by your browser in the form

http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

... http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/MUGNS/Home.html

... http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/APENS/APENSPg.html

gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets

... gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/VRFA

... gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/Canadian Systems

in which each URL that was specified by use of + is preceded by three periods.

URLs that are specified by use of + may also be assigned pseudonyms as in the lines

h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

p Macintosh Users Group

+ /Technology/MUGNS/Home.html

p Assoc. of Prof. Engrs of N.S.

+ /Technology/APENS/APENSPg.html

which is displayed by your browser in the form

http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

... Macintosh Users Group

... Assoc. of Prof. Engrs of N.S.

The line h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca could also be assigned a pseudonym.

2.2 Inclusion of Comments and Blank Lines (Labels # and * and period)

MacPURL allows three forms of comments as described below:

1. The first form is specified by # in column 1 and a space (optional) in column 2. It may be regarded as a title comment. When displayed by the browser it will begin on a new line without any indentation.

2. The second form is specified by a * in column 1 and a space (optional) in column 2. When displayed by the browser it will begin on a new line indented the same amount as the URLs.

3. The third form is specified by any character other than

h, g, f, F, t, L, m, i, p, #, *, <, =, period (.)

in column 1. It may be regarded as an unlabelled comment. The character in column 1 is regarded as the first character in the comment. It may be the blank character. When displayed by the browser the comment will not begin on a new line. You may find it convenient to always include such comments in parentheses ( ) in order to ensure that the first character is not one of h, g, etc. This type of comment is intended for short notes and tags to be displayed by your browser in forms such as

(No response Aug 9, 95)

*Slow response

-New

...Verify

You may prefer to use images for tags as described in Section 2.8.

A blank line may be specified by a period (.) in column 1 and a space (optional) in column 2. A blank line in a MacPURL document will be ignored by the browser unless it contains a period in column 1.

The following is an example of a MacPURL document that contains comments and blank lines:

# ==========SOME FREENETS==========

# Chebucto Community Net

h www.ccn.cs.dal.ca

(Previously www.cfn.cs.dal.ca)

+ /Technology/MUGNS/Home.html

* Macintosh Users Group of Nova Scotia home page.

+ /Technology/APENS/APENSPg.html

---The Association of Professional Engineers of Nova Scotia home page.

# Vancouver Regional FreeNet

g gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets

(Accessed Oct 12, 1995)

+ /VRFA

(Check this)

+ /Canadian Systems

# Here is an example of a title comment that extends over several lines of text. It should be entered into the MacPURL document without inclusion of any line feeds. The browser will insert line feeds depending on the width of its displayed page.

# ==========END OF SOME FREENETS==========

Your browser will display this document in the form:

==========SOME FREENETS==========

Chebucto Community Net

http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca (Previously www.cfn.cs.dal.ca)

... http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/MUGNS/Home.html

Macintosh Users Group of Nova Scotia home page.

... http://www.ccn.cs.dal.ca/Technology/APENS/APENSPg.html ---The Association of Professional Engineers of Nova Scotia home page.

Vancouver Regional FreeNet

gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets (Accessed Oct 12, 1995)

... gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/VRFA (Check this)

... gopher://gopher.native-ed.bc.ca/FreeNets/Canadian Systems

Here is an example of a title comment that extends over several lines of text. It should be entered into the MacPURL document without inclusion of any line feeds. The browser will insert line feeds depending on the width of its displayed page.

==========END OF SOME FREENETS==========

End of Example

2.3 Specification of Links to Local Files (L and F and creation of an index)

In order to specify a link to a local file on your own computer the URL may be a path preceded by L in column 1 and a space (optional) in column 2. The path may be specified in a manner similar to the specification of unix or DOS files. Thus in a MacPURL document named Index the line

L freenets

specifies a link to a file named freenets in the same folder as Index .

Similarly

L folder1/test

specifies a link to a file named test within a folder named folder1 that is in the same folder as Index. Similarly

L ../data

with inclusion of two periods, specifies a link to a file named data in a folder that contains the folder that contains Index.

The line

L ../../direc1/direc2/myfile

is also a valid expression for a link.

Example of an Index to Other MacPURL Documents

The MacPURL document named Manual.html that you are reading now is in a folder that contains another MacPURL document named HomePURL.html. The MacPURL display of Manual.html contains a line:

L HomePURL.html

which is displayed by your browser as the link:

HomePURL.html

If you click on this link you will cause the browser to open the document HomePURL.html. Then click on the link Manual.html in HomePURL.html to return to the beginning of Manual.html.

Try it NOW.

End of Example

A link specified by an L in column 1 uses a path that begins from the document that contains the link and which may be called a relative path. A path to a local file may also be specified by an F in column 1, and the path must then be specified as an absolute path starting from the desktop. For example a path to a file named myfile.html in a folder named myfolder on a floppy or hard disc named disk1 may be specified in the form

F /disk1.myfolder.myfile.html

The link will be displayed by your browser in the form

file:///disk1.myfolder.myfile.html

2.4 Links to Internal Labels in a MacPURL Document (Use of = and browser label #)

If a line in a MacPURL document contains the character = in column 1 and a space (optional) in column 2 then the remainder of the line is treated as a label FOR THE BROWSER.

For example, suppose that a MacPURL document named MacSoftware.html contains the line

= Screen Savers

and that the browser displays another MacPURL document that contains the line

L MacSoftware.html#Screen Savers

The browser will show a link named MacSoftware.html#Screen Savers. Choosing this link will cause the browser to display the document named MacSoftware.html and will scroll, if necessary, so that the lines immediately below the label Screen Savers are visible.

The label Screen Savers will not be visible in the browser's display of the document named MacSoftware.html.

A link to a portion of the document that contains the link should not contain the document name.

2.5 Example of Link to Within a Document

The MacPURL document Manual.html that you are now reading has a Table of Contents that contains a line:

L #Further Details of MacPURL

The section entitled

2. Further Details of MacPURL

is preceded by the line (invisible to the browser):

= Further Details of MacPURL

Clicking on that line of the Table of Contents opens this document at the chosen section.

The first line of the MacPURL document Manual.html is

= Beginning

Try clicking on the line:

#Beginning

Try it NOW.

End of Example of Link to Within a Document

2.6 Deletion of Line Feeds

The browser will omit the line feed before a URL if the URL is preceeded by a line that contains < in column 1 and xx in columns 2 and 3 (or any other two non-special characters instead of xx).

You cannot specify omission of the line feed before a URL that contains the label + in column 1.

Example of Omission of Line Feeds:

Suppose a MacPURL document contains the following lines: .

# The files accessed by the links

<xx

L HomePURL.html

and

<xx

L NovaScotia.html are not very large. It is hoped to add more URLs as they become available and the names of the groups are publicised. The file accessed by the link

<xx

L ImagesForMacPURL.html

is much larger and is slower to read because it contains image files.

The lines displayed by the browser are:

The files accessed by the links HomePURL.html and NovaScotia.html are not very large. It is hoped to add more URLs as they become available and the names of the groups are publicised. The file accessed by the link ImagesForMacPURL.html is much larger because it contains image files.

End of Example of Omission of Line Feeds

If you wish the pseudonym for a URL to be not preceded by a line feed then use <xx either before the pseudonym or before the URL.

If you wish the URL specified by a + in column 1 to be not preceded by a line feed then use <xx either before the line that begins with + or before the pseudonym if such is specified. The URL displayed by the browser will be preceeded by ...

2.7 Inclusion of Hidden Comments

A MacPURL document may contain comments that are displayed by MacPURL but not by the browser. They are called hidden comments. The two allowed forms of hidden comments are as follows:

1. A hidden comment may begin with the label < in column 1 and end with the character >. It does not cause deletion of the line feed before a subsequent URL or comment line.

2. A hidden comment may begin with the label < and end (without inclusion of >) at the occurrence of a subsequent label such as h, g, etc. It will cause deletion of the line feed before the subsequent label.

Example of Hidden Comments:

Suppose a MacPURL document contains the following lines:

h www.ab.abc

h www.rst.xyz

<So is this

h www.def.ggg

The lines displayed by the browser are:

http://www.ab.abc

http://www.rst.xyz http://www.def.ggg

End of Example of Hidden Comments

2.8 Inclusion of Image Tags

A number of lines in the MacPURL document for this manual are tagged with images such as and .

A set of image tags is included in the folder named MacPURLimages. They may be viewed by using the browser to display the file ImagesForMacPURL.html . Try it NOW.

Note that the file named ImagesForMacPURL.html has a link named HomePURL.html and also a link named Manual.html#Inclusion of Image Tags that will return you to the section you are now viewing.

Each image tag refers to a file whose name has eight characters in which the last four are .gif and the first four are used to specify the image file in the MacPURL document. The specification uses a line in which the first character is i, the second is blank (optional) and the next four characters are the first four characters in the name of the image tag file. The specified image is displayed to the left of the next URL or comment of type * or #. For example the lines:

i gTic

h www.rst.mno

i rDie

+ /this/here

i rQue

* Believed dead.

are displayed by your browser in the form

http://www.rst.mno

... http://www.rst.mno/this/here

Believed dead.

You may use any GIF image in a MacPURL document provided its name has eight characters of which the last four are .gif and provided it is stored in the folder named MacPURLimages which is in the same folder as the MacPURL application. In the MacPURL reference to the file use only the first four characters of the name.

Any specification of a URL may be preceded by an image tag or a pseudonym or both.

You may save storage by dragging all unwanted image files to the trash. If you do not wish to use any image files, then drag the MacPURLimages folder to the trash.

2.9 Inclusion of mailto (Use of m in column 1)

If a line in a MacPURL document contains m in column 1 and a blank in column 2 (optional), the remainder of the line is treated as a link to an e-mail address. If your browser supports the mailto feature then choosing this link will display a box in which you may type a message. Choosing the Send Message button in the box will cause the message to be sent to the specified address.

Thus the following line in a MacPURL document:

m sheaps@loki.atcon.com (Stan Heaps)

is displayed by your browser as:

mailto:sheaps@loki.atcon.com (Stan Heaps)

Click on it to see if your browser supports the mailto feature. If it does then perhaps you will send me a message the next time you connect to the Internet.

The following two lines in a MacPURL document:

p Stan Heaps

m sheaps@loki.atcon.com

are displayed by your browser as

Stan Heaps

in which the link is represented by a pseudonym.

The subject displayed in the box contains the absolute path name of the MacPURL file that contains the line that begins with m in column 1. In the present example for my computer it is file:///UD240S/IntNet/PURLdocs/Manual.html. The subject displayed for you depends on where your Manual.html file is stored. You may change the subject displayed in the box to be whatever is appropriate.

3. Notes on Use of MacPURL

While using a browser you may find it useful to open an untitled MacPURL window for use as a notepad. Whenever the browser displays some text and/or URLs that you wish to save, just paste it into the untitled window. After signing off from the web, or while connected if connect time is not a problem, you may edit the notes and paste them into the appropriate MacPURL documents for future use.

When typing a URL be sure to follow it immediately with a line feed and do not include a space in column 3 . If you type a space in Column 3 or precede the line feed by a space then your browser will treat these spaces as part of the URL and it may not find the required site. Bear this in mind when pasting URLs.

If a pasted URL is not recognized by the browser it probably contains extra spaces or invisible characters before a line feed.

A MacPURL file may not contain more than 32,500 characters. If the number of characters in a file is within 200 of this limit you will see a warning message.

In the Get Info window for the application MacPURL, setting a size of 384 allows about 8 documents to be displayed. Setting a size of 512 allows about 13 documents. Setting a size of 768 allows about 19 documents. If you request to open a document and there is insufficient memory to allow its text to grow to 32,500 characters then the document will not be opened and a message will be displayed. Closing one, or more, of the existing documents will free sufficient space to allow you to open one, or more, other documents.

Dragging the cursor from inside to outside a MacPURL window causes the text to scroll.

Double clicking in the text of a document selects text between delimiters such as a blank or the slash character. A period between two characters does not act as a delimiter.

In use of the menu item "Find" the search is case sensitive. A search for "computer" will not find Computer. A search for "omputer" will find "Computer" or "computer" or supercomputer, etc. THIS MAY BE CHANGED IN FUTURE UPDATES OF REGISTERED VERSIONS OF MacPURL.

If the MacPURL text contains several adjacent spaces the browser will replace them by a single space.

If you do not follow the label in column 1 by a space in column 2 then MacPURL will insert a space when it saves the file.

If you wish a title, comment or URL to extend over several lines, just keep typing without the use of the return character. If you use a return character then MacPURL will look for a label, such as # or h or g, in column 1 of the next line.

A browser is designed so that certain combinations of letters containing the characters < or > or & control the display of text and generation of links. Therefore be very cautious in use of < and > and & within comments, except as described in these instructions.

If you wish to have your browser display < or > or & within text, then in the MacPURL document you should use the four characters (ending with a semi-colon) < in place of < and the four characters > in place of > and the five characters & in place of &.. Your browser will make the substitution and display < and > and & correctly.

Similarly double quotes (") should be represented by the six characters ".

When you first launch MacPURL it creates a file named MacPURLprefs that must be kept in the same folder as MacPURL. If you destroy the MacPURLprefs file you will not be able to read any of the files you have created until you register your copy of MacPURL.

4. The File Menu

New (Command N)

Displays a new empty window named "Untitled.html".

Open . . . (Command O)

Displays a dialog box to allow choice of a document to be displayed in a new window. Only folders and TEXT documents are displayed. Using Open for a document that is already open brings its window to the front.

Open Selected (Command L)

If the active window contains a highlighted string of text that is the name of a MacPURL document in the same folder as the MacPURL application then the document is opened and displayed in a new window.

For Open Selected to work correctly the selected MacPURL document MUST be in the same folder as the MacPURL application.

Close (Command W)

(Equivalent to clicking the mouse in the close box of the active window)

Removes the active window and releases all associated storage. If changes have been made to the document text or text size then a dialog box is displayed to ask if the changed document should be saved. Choose "Cancel" if you do not wish to save it. Choosing "Cancel" does not cancel the close operation.

Save (Command S)

Unless the highlighted window is named "Untitled.html", if changes have been made to the text or text size the document is saved to replace the existing document of the same name. While a document is being saved the cursor becomes rectangular with a dark portion that represents the number of characters saved. The rectangle becomes fully darkened when close to 32,500 characters have been saved. When a document is saved both the current size and position of the window are saved.

To save a document displayed in a highlighted window named "Untitled.html" use "Save As".

Changes to the size or position of a window are not saved unless other changes have been made or unless "Save As" is used instead of "Save".

Save As . . . (Command Z)

A dialog box is displayed to request a name for the saved document. While saving, the cursor becomes a rectangle.

Page SetUp . . .

A style dialog box is displayed.

Print . . . (Command P)

A dialog box is displayed to allow specification of how to print the document displayed in the highlighted window. Printing may be stopped by pressing the period (.) key while the Command key is down.

Quit (Command Q)

Performs the Close operation for each displayed window and then quits the MacPURL application.

5. Registration of Your MacPURL

You may use your unregistered copy of MacPURL provided you agree to:

1. Register it if you wish to use it after a 14-day trial period.

2. Distribute it to others only if they agree to register their copy if they use it after a 14-day trial period.

3. Accept all responsibility for any consequences that arise from your use of it.

When you register you will receive a keyword either by snail mail or e-mail. After you have entered the keyword your copy of MacPURL will be fully enabled to have the following features:

Launching MacPURL, and opening MacPURL documents, will be faster since messages about registration will not be displayed.

You will not be charged for future updates and documentation.

To register your copy of MacPURL please send a name of up to 20 characters and $20(US) or $25(Canadian) to;

Stan Heaps

25 Island View Drive

Boutiliers Point, N.S.

CANADA, B0J 1G0

------------END OF MacPURL MANUAL-----------

HomePURL.html