InfoMagic Internet Tools 1995 April/Internet Tools.iso/infoserv/gopher/Windows/wsg-10.exe/ANNOUNCE.TXT

Text File | 1994-05-09 | 9.9 KB | 236 lines

This announces the latest version of WSGopher, 1.0.  You'll find the
self extracting archive file 'wsg-10.exe' on boombox.micro.umn.edu in
pub/gopher/Windows, and sunsite.unc.edu in
pub/micro/pc-stuff/ms-windows/winsock/apps.

-- Please note:

    WSGopher is copyrighted software.  You may freely use any and all of
    the files in the WSGopher distribution, and you may freely
    distribute the file wsg-10.exe.  However, you may not distribute for
    profit the WSGopher executable or the file wsg-10.exe without
    permission from EG&G Idaho, Inc.  If you wish to do this, or if you
    wish to obtain a non-exclusive source license, please contact Steve
    Borror, email [e-mail], phone [phone], or mail me at
    [e-mail].

The file wsg-10.exe is a self extracting archive.  Please consult the
section below entitled "Installation".

If you try to run wsg-10 from the Program Manager, you will probably
get errors, and it certainly won't work.

-- Will the "real" 1.0 please stand up?

If you had a copy of 1.0 prior to this announcement, please upgrade.
The *official* 1.0 has a date of May 9, 1994; check the "About" box if
you have any questions.

-- Important additions since the last public release (0.9g):

*  WSGopher now has a help file, which includes pretty much everything
you need to know as well as a description of features, what's new, and
bug fixes.  The help file is also context sensitive, so you can easily
get help with whatever you are currently doing.

See the Help File for much more detail on the following items.

*  WSGopher now supports Gopher+, including Ask blocks (or "Ask forms"
as I call them in the help file).

*  WSGopher supports print preview and printer fonts.

*  WSGopher supports text search within a directory, text or phone
window using the "standard" Windows 'Find' dialog.

*  Changes to the Bookmark Editor include:

   It is now non-modal, meaning you can interact with other windows
   while the editor is up.  You can minimize the bookmark editor (which
   beats scooting it out of the way)

   It supports multiple sets of bookmarks, called "categories".  You
   can create, delete and rename categories via the category dialog.
   You can move bookmarks between categories.

   Because of the bookmark changes, the format of how bookmarks is
   stored is also changed.  See the "Installation" section for more
   information on how this may affect you.

   Bookmark Titles and paths are now stored with URL style encoding.
   This will mostly affect bookmarks with binary characters or trailing
   blanks in the path, or possibly special servers that let you hop over
   firewalls.  Also, titles with multiple languages are stored properly.

   You can select multiple items in the bookmark list.  This means that
   you can Move, Delete and copy to the clipboard more than one
   bookmark at a time.

   You can paste multiple bookmarks *from* the clipboard to the current
   category; these bookmarks can be in canonical format, or URLs.  Look
   out, Archie!

*  The "New Gopher" dialog now accepts Gopher URLs.  You can copy a URL
to the Windows clipboard, and when the dialog comes up, it will process
the URL just like it processes "standard" bookmark formats.  You can
also type or paste a URL into the dialog.

*  WSGopher will strip trailing dots from hostnames, for those users
having difficulty with their WinSock stack.

*  Both telnet and 3270 emulation is supported.  In addition, WSGopher
takes the experimental and radical step of supporting Gopher+
specification of terminal emulation.  This way, Gopher servers can
advertise new and exciting types of emulation without requiring that
new Gopher types be added to the core protocol.

WSGopher now supports host name and (optional) port numbers via command
line substitution; this means you can easily make a correct command line
for your favorite telnet program, and WSGopher will put in the host and
port values at the right time.  There are "Host" and "Port" buttons in
the telnet setup dialog to facilitate this.

*  The bitmaps and icons have been extensively revised, thanks to Ken
Blackney of Drexel University.  Also, thanks to the University of
Minnesota for their permission to use the "Happy Gopher" in the program
icon.

*  You can get the 'root' of a bookmark now.  This should be
particularly useful in Veronica searches.  It works for any active
window, not just directory items.

*  The vast majority of times you need to enter a path name, you can
now use a browser button.

*  Cleaned up the appearance of the Information dialog; the text inside
is cleaner, and you can see Gopher+ information such as views,
administrative info, abstract, etc.  Just use the Escape key to remove
the dialog, as with most Windows dialogs.  You can also minimize this
window.

The dialog also shows the URL, and a line of text that says what the
item type is in English (for those of us who don't memorize obscure
codes :-).

Also added one cool feature: not only does the info window track
individual bookmarks in a directory, but any time a window is activated
via the keyboard or mouse, it's bookmark is shown in the info window
(if it is up).

*  Changed lookup of files from current/installed/windows to
current/windows/installed/path (that is, the path environment
variable).  This was suggested by a user who administers a Novell
network, and it made quite a bit of sense.

The "What's New in WSGopher 1.0" topic in the help file lists the bug
fixes.  Thanks to all who helped me find them!

-- Installation

First, be sure to exit WSGopher if it is running on your system.  Bad
things happen when you overwrite a running program.

Generally speaking, you will execute the file "wsg-10.exe" and unpack
everything in it.  Please note the following:

* If you have existing bookmarks from previous versions of WSGopher that
you want to keep:

    First, rename your WSGOPHER.INI file to something else, maybe
    WSGOPHER.OLD.  Let's assume it is in your "wsgopher" directory.

    Execute the file "wsg-10.exe".  Unpack everything in the
    distribution.

    Using your favorite DOS editor, copy the "Bookmarks" section from
    WSGOPHER.OLD to the new WSGOPHER.INI.  Here is how you do that:

    1) Find the text "[Bookmarks]" in WSGOPHER.OLD.  Copy all this text,
    through the first blank line.  It could be a very large chunk of
    text, depending on how many bookmarks you saved.

    2) Open the file WSGOPHER.INI, go to the bottom of the file, and
    insert the text you copied from WSGOPHER.OLD.  Make sure there is a
    blank line before "[Bookmarks]".

    3) Close WSGOPHER.INI.  Run WSGopher 1.0.  When WSGopher sees
    bookmarks in the 'old' format it will create a category called
    "Default", translate all your old bookmarks into the new format, put
    them in the "Default" category, and delete the old bookmarks.

* If you don't care about keeping your old bookmarks:

Just overwrite your old WSGOPHER.INI file with the new one in the
distribution.  Are you *sure* you want to do this?

* Other things you need to do to after installing WSGopher:

See the Help Topic "Configuring WSGopher" for a list of suggestions.

-- Vendor Info

Known to work with:
*  SuperTCP (DLL and VxD beta)
*  Distinct (Lan and PPP).
*  PC/TCP; be sure to use version 1.10 of the DLL, NOT version 1.1
*  Trumpet

It's been reported to me that the following vendor stacks work:

*  Netmanage 3.12 and 4.0; some users have difficulty with 3.11 and
previous.  I have one report that a version of Netmanage 4.0 GPFs, but
apparently the latest patch file (c4004.exe) resolves that.
*  Windows for Workgroups *IF* you use the new Microsoft VxD beta WinSock
*  Lanera
*  Persoft
*  Wollongong, PATHWAY RUNTIME version 2.0
*  PC-NFS, IF you make sure you have the following patches:

    Go to ftp.york.ac.uk:/pub/pc/pc-nfs/Patches
    get     winsock.dll 24576 25/10/93
            wshelper.exe 51232 25/10/93
Thanks to Geoff Smethurst <[e-mail]> for this information.

*  Novell Lan Workplace 4.1; the following is from Mark Shapiro of Novell:

    Things to check.  They should have downloaded LWP168.EXE from NetWire or
    ftp'd to sjf-lwp.novell.com for tcpip.exe, wlibsock.dll, winsock.dll and
    novasync.exe in the directory ftpguest/lwp4dos/WinSock.  These files
    should be copied to the LAN WorkPlace bin directory, default is \net\bin.
    The lwpcon.* and snmp.exe files should also be copied there if they're
    running the LAN WorkPlace apps.

The following stacks are believed NOT to work:

Windows NT

-- Important notes:

*  Occasionally I hear from users who are trying to run WSGopher with
the WSGOPHER.INI file with the "read only" attribute, or perhaps in a
read-only directory.  This is absolutely impossible; it will not work.

*  The files "extviews.cnf" and "language.cnf" have been added to the
WSGopher distribution.  They need to be writable, and they should be
placed wherever you decide to put WSGOPHER.INI.  That can be in the
same directory you've installed WSGopher, in your Windows directory, in
the directory where you execute WSGopher (if differnt), or somewhere on
your DOS path.

-- Thanks

I'd like to give particular thanks to the beta testers, who looked at
several intervening versions.  In addition to the folks already
mentioned, thanks to Ashok Aiyar, Ken Blackney, Ray Born, Chris
Sacksteder, Dale Evans, Ellisa Evans, Sam Ramirez, Alex Reijnierse, Lois
Schoen, Mary Schonsberg and David Treadwell for working with these
versions, reporting problems and making helpful suggestions.  Thanks to
John Cooper, Rob Peterson, Phil Simpson and Steve Simon for their
support.  Thanks also to many, many others who have written with advice
and encouragement, problem reports and questions.

-- If you have any questions, please email [e-mail].

Thanks,
Dave Brooks