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The documentation to CAB Version 1.4 (Translation by Joe Connor) 19.09.1996 by Alexander Clauss Stresemannstraße 44 D-64297 Darmstadt aclauss@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de Contents ======== 1 A short introduction 2 Legal 3 Address 4 System requirements 5 Installation 6 Navigating HTML Documents 7 Module for on-line Internet access 8 Description of menu items 8.1 Open URL... 8.2 Open local... 8.3 Reload 8.4 Print 8.5 New window 8.6 Close window 8.7 View source 8.8 Quit 8.9 Home page 8.10 Back 8.11 Find keyword 8.12 Hotlist 8.13 Document -> Hotlist 8.14 General options 8.15 Display 8.16 Font selection 8.17 External viewers 8.18 Paths... 8.19 Cache 8.20 Save options 9 Button bar 10 Thanks 11 Possible future updates 12 History 12.1 V0.8ß (20.04.1995) 12.2 V0.9ß (15.05.1995) 12.3 V0.93ß (07.06.1995) 12.4 V0.94ß (07.07.1995) 12.5 V0.95ß (04.08.1995) 12.6 V0.96ß (22.08.1995) 12.7 V0.98ß (03.10.1995) 12.8 V1.0 (01.11.1995) 12.9 V1.0a (12.12.1995) 12.10 V1.1a (01.04.1996) 12.11 V1.2 (10.04.1996) 12.12 V1.2a (16.04.1996) 12.13 V1.2b (19.04.1996) 12.14 V1.3 (20.05.1996) 12.15 V1.4 (19.09.1996) 12.16 V1.4a (01.10.1996) 12.17 V1.5 (20.10.1996) 1 A short introduction *********************** *CAB* - The Taxi to the information highway! *CAB* - Crystal Atari Browser Formerly called HTML-Browser This browser is capable of reading HTML format documents. The HTML documents could be on disk or CD. Reading pages on-line to an Internet World Wide Web (WWW) site requires a separate module. 2 Legal ******** CAB (HTML-Browser) is FREEWARE. It may be copied and used freely. Distribution by BBSs and PD libraries is allowed. However, CAB (HTML- Browser) may NOT under ANY circumstances be included in CD-ROM collections or on magazine cover disks without my prior written permission. CAB (HTML-Browser) and its documentation must always remain together and complete with all its files and documentation. Changes to the program and/or documentation is forbidden. If you like CAB (HTML-Browser) and you use it regularly, please register your copy, any currency is welcome. If you would like to see this program developed please send some feedback and register your copy. UK users can take advantage of local support, refer to SUPPORT.TXT for more details. No feedback means no development, it's that simple! 3 Address ********** *My address:* Alexander Clauss Stresemannstr. 44 D-64297 Darmstadt Germany email: aclauss@rbg.informatik.th-darmstadt.de WWW: http://www.student.informatik.th-darmstadt.de/~aclauss/ *Banking arrangements:* Sparkasse Darmstadt BLZ: 508 501 50 Kontonr: 0115032143 *UK support:* Joe Connor 65 Mill Road Colchester CO4 5LJ England email: jconnor@cix.compulink.co.uk *France support:* Jouffrey Romuald 1 chemin de l'église 38100 GRENOBLE email: rom38@gen4.pressimage.fr 4 System requirements ********************** The program runs on any computer using the (Atari-) TOS operating system with 1Mb or more memory. The memory requirements for images depends on the colour depth. The greater the colour depth the more memory required. Using a True colour graphic card (24 or 32 bit) gobbles up memory and you're likely to need considerably more than 1Mb. CAB is resolution independent with two limitations: At 320x200 (ST- low) not all of the dialogs fit entirely on screen, at 640x200 (ST- Medium) the screen display is distorted (half height). Consequently we recommend using CAB at resolutions of 640x400 (ST-high) or higher with any number of colours, a multitasking environment (e.g MagiC, Geneva etc) is also desirable. Although not absolutely necessary the use of vector fonts via NVDI v3.x or SpeedoGDOS is recommended. The system font or bitmap GDOS fonts can however be used if required. 5 Installation *************** *Attention:* Since v1.0 the program can no longer be installed as a desktop accessory. Configuration files from older versions of CAB (CAB.INF) cannot be used. Unfortunately you'll have to reset your settings manually. The format of the Hotlist file has also been altered but unless a file in the new format is available the old Hotlist file (CAB.HOT) is loaded. The new Hotlist file is called hotlist.html. As soon as the Hotlist has been saved in the new format the old file (CAB.HOT) can safely be deleted. HTML files downloaded from WWW sites often include long filenames which can easily result in duplication of filenames using the basic TOS 8+3 character file system. It's well worth setting up a Minix hard disk partition or other file system which supports long filenames to handle HTML files. The CAB distribution is supplied ready to run once unarchived onto your working disk but you should still review the settings in the Options menu and configure the options to suit your needs. 6 Navigating HTML Documents **************************** Click on any underlined keyword to branch to the new page. Press the [Undo] key to step to return to the previous page. Clicking on a link using the right mouse button will display the address of the page it links to. 7 Module for on-line Internet access ************************************* To browse WWW pages on-line to the Internet a further module (CAB.OVL) is needed. This module should be copied to the same directory as CAB.APP. This file contains the additional routines needed to access the Internet. On Minix partitions the x-flag of the CAB.OVL file must be set otherwise the modul can not be started. I'm not able to test an Internet module but have built an interface into CAB (HTML-Browser) to enable anyone capable of programming these routines to create an on-line module. The description of this interface is available on request and is available as commented C or Pascal source. I'd like to hear from anyone who programs an on-line module and would like a copy to distribute with CAB (HTML-Browser)... 8 Description of menu items **************************** 8.1 Open URL... ================ The *Open URL...* option in the *File* menu displays the URL dialog containing any URL (Universal Resource Locator) addresses you have set up to access the WWW. 8.2 Open local... ================== The *Open local* option in the *File* menu calls the file selector which can be used to open any HTML document from hard disk or CD-ROM. Any file types can be selected. HTML, XBM and GIF files are normally displayed by CAB (HTML-Browser) with other file types handled by external programs. Refer to *External programs* for more details. If a folder is selected the contents of the folder and sub directories are displayed graphically as an HTML page and any files and folders can be selected using the mouse! 8.3 Reload =========== Reloads the HTML page again. This function is useful (in a multitasking environment) for editing HTML pages in an editor with CAB running parallel to display the pages. If the page originated from the WWW using *Reload* will fetch the page from the WWW again -even if a copy is available in the cache. 8.4 Print ========== If GDOS is available the document in the topped window can be output as text. Bitmap fonts require matching screen and printer fonts whereas vector fonts under NVDI 3.x or SpeedoGDOS are automatically scaled as required. In the dialog the margins can be set. These are in addition to any offsets or margins attributable to either the printer or GDOS driver. A popdown menu offers selection between any installed GDOS driver including, so long as a suitable GDOS driver is available, GEM Metafile (*.GEM) or bit image (*.IMG). Successful image output relies on the GDOS printer driver supporting a particular VDI function which may or may not be implemented in the active driver. We recommend you try printing with images turned on and if it doesn't work simply turn the option off for subsequent output. If you're using a dot matrix printer activate the option to lighten images otherwise the printed output is likely to be too dark. 8.5 New window =============== Opens a new window displaying the contents of the previously topped window. 8.6 Close window ================= Closes the window. 8.7 View source ================ Displays the source text of the displayed HTML document. Also refer to the *External programs* menu option. 8.8 Quit ========= Exits the program. 8.9 Home page ============== This menu option displays the home page, if available. CAB tries to load the home page directly. Anyone who understands HTML syntax can easily set any page as the home page and create a page to reference other HTML documents. The file used as the home page can be set in the *General options* dialog. 8.10 Back ========== Displays the previous document. 8.11 Find keyword ================== This allows the user to perform a search for keywords in HTML files, and can optionally be case sensitive. The search can be conducted over one of the following ranges of documents: 1. Current document only. The text is searched for in the current document (the top window). If the text is found the window is scrolled so the text is displayed at the top of the window. 2. Local HTML Documents. The text is searched for in all local HTML documents contained in the paths specified in the *Paths* dialog box (and their subdirectories). The files that contain the text is made into a list of links in an HTML file called result.html. At the moment the HTML files searched by method two are searched purely as text, so hidden text such as comments, HTML commands, links and so are also found. Processing the files to ignore hidden text would be very time costly. This also means that special characters such as accents and so on which are written into HTML code using commands like ä are not found. This shortcoming may be addressed in a future version. Another tip: If you're searching for something which is often used in HTML code as a command or URL-address placing a space before it may make it less likely to turn up in commands or URL addresses.. For example: Searching for the text 'WWW' often matches subdirectories and addresses for pages in the form '.../WWW/foo.html...'. Placing a space before it in the search string, ' WWW' removes these occurences resulting in a better targetted search. These don't apply to methods 1) and 3)! 3. In the c't-CDROM Database. This option is only useful for people with the c't-CDROM (the 1994 (or 92/93) c't magazines in HTML format)! In this case the HTML files themselves aren't searched, but the index file on the CD is accessed instead. So that HTML-Browser knows where the files for this CD are kept are, you need to fill in the appropriate section of the *Paths* dialog box - the HTML documents (in \HTML which also contains the file DEFAULT.HTML) and the index database (\UNIX\CT94.DAT or \UNIX\CT9293.DAT). As in the previous method, matching documents are made into an HTML document called results.html which is then opened. 8.12 Hotlist ============= The hotlist is a list of your most used HTML documents. This list enables you to get quickly to you favourite pages, without having to navigate through a long series of pages to get there. The hotlist is divided into themed areas. Using the popup at the top of the dialog it's easy to switch between different themes. *The 'Theme...' popup:* *Change theme:* Changes the name of the current theme area. The /Miscellaneous/ area cannot be renamed. *New theme:* Creates a new theme area. *Delete theme:* Delete the current theme area. The /Miscellaneous/ area cannot be deleted. All remaining entries in a deleted theme area are moved to the /Miscellaneous/ theme area. *The 'New theme...' popup:* Using this option a selected entry can be moved to another theme area. *The 'Document...' popup:* *Delete entry:* Deletes the selected entry. *Change entry:* Changes the selected entry. Annotations to the page can also be made. *Open document:* Opens a document. *Add current doc:* Copies the current document to the Hotlist. Double clicking on an entry opens the document. The Hotlist is saved to disk as a normal HTML document which provides an easy way for anyone not familiar with HTML syntax to create their own home page. 8.13 Document -> Hotlist ========================= The current document is inserted in the Hotlist provided it's not already listed. It will be filed away in the /Miscellaneous/ theme area. 8.14 General options ===================== *Home page:* After launching CAB or by selecting the *Home page* menu entry the specified HTML file will be displayed. Often it's useful to create a home page containing references to frequently used HTML pages. By default CAB attempts to load home.html as the home page although any page can be set to be the home page -simply enter the URL address. If the file is located in the specified start directory for CAB.APP you can select the *Start folder* button and using the *Search* button select the desired file using the file selector. *Popup menus:* CAB provides a row of popup menus to relieve the tedium of navigating through HTML pages. Basic principle: ∙ Left click on a reference to branch to the corresponding page. ∙ Right click on a reference to display the destination of the reference. ∙ Click on the window background (not on a reference) to display further popup menus. You can set which menu will be displayed using the left and right mouse clicks (with and without holding down the [Shift] key). The following popup menus are available: *History:* Lists the previously displayed documents. *References:* Lists the references in the current document. *Menu:* Lists some menu items. *Miscellaneous:* During loading, formatting and data transfer from the Internet CAB displays a series of reports in a windowed dialog (if the option *Dialog for Status messages* is active) otherwise the window info line is used instead. The display in the window info line has a couple of disadvantages. First a window may not be open to display the information and secondly the dialog displays the information more clearly. On the other hand using the window info line allows a document in the window can be read and scrolled while the text is still being formatted. The *load index.html automatically* only has an affect on local references (ie to files/directories on your drive) If the reference points to a directory on a drive the contents will be displayed unless a file index.html exists in which case this is loaded instead. On use for index.html is to set up a page containing an index of all your favourite documents. 8.15 Display ============= In this dialog you can configure various display options for HTML documents. *Colours:* This section allows you to configure the display colours, for the foreground text, the background colour and link colour. If you're using less than 16 colours, the window background will always be white regardless of the settings here. In 16 colour mode, only the first nine colours should be used as the last 7 may be changed for pictures etc. In more than 16 colours, any of the first 16 can be used as they will not be changed. Some HTML documents include information about which colours should be used for text, references and the window background. The option *Use guidelines in document* tells CAB to use this information (if available). *Links:* Links can be displayed in underlined and/or bold text (this is important for monochrome systems which can't distinguish links by colour). *Images:* Controls image display. *Don't show* Prevents images being loaded and displayed which speeds up page loading. *Monochrome* Images are displayed in monochrome using dithering. It's the quickest method but this obviously the quality suffers. *Greyscale* Images are displayed as greyscales. Higher quality display at the expense of speed. *Colour* Images are displayed in colour depending on the hardware available: ∙ 4-8 bitplanes (16-256 colours). Images are dithered if the number of colours available is less than the number of colours contained in the image. In 16 colour modes greyscale display is often more suitable. ∙ 15/16 bit Highcolor (32768/65536 colours) eg Falcon Truecolor mode ∙ 24 or 32 bit Truecolor (16.7 million colours) *Text instead of images* The HTML language provides for text only systems by allowing images to be accompanied by some text which is displayed instead of the image. This enables WWW Browsers which cannot display images to display text output instead. If this option is active (crossed) only images for which no alternative text is available are displayed as images. *Text width:* Text can either be formatted at a fixed width or justified to fit the window width. Text justified to fit the window width looks better but takes longer to display as the text must be reformatted. 8.16 Font selection ==================== Wherever possible CAB (HTML-Browser) uses different fonts and point sizes to display HTML files. Optimal output quality is provided using vector fonts for which you'll need to install either NVDI v3.x or SpeedoGDOS. Normal bitmap fonts can be used but they're not nearly as nice. Next you need to tell CAB (HTML-Browser) which (GDOS) fonts to use for each corresponding style in an HTML document. Vector fonts as provided by SpeedoGDOS or NVDI 3.x are recommended. You must specify three fonts (sans-serif, serif and monospaced) in four different styles (normal, bold, italic and bold and italic) making twelve selections altogether. For the bold and italic settings you should use a 'real' bold or italic font wherever possible. If you don't have one available you'll have to simulate these text effects using the corresponding buttons adjacent to the font selection popup. If you're using vector fonts then use the appropriate font from the font family, if available. Some commands such as <PRE>...</PRE>, <FORM>...</FORM> etc will cause display format problems with /proportional/ fonts. To avoid these problems only use *non-proportional* fonts for *preformatted* text. The supplied INF file has the following presets (for NVDI 3.x): *Headings:* Swiss 721 (normal, bold, italic, bold+italic) *Normal text:* Dutch 801 (normal, bold, italic, bold+italic) *Formatted:* Letter Gothic 12 Pitch (normal, bold, italic, bold+italic) If you don't like or haven't got these fonts, you'll have to select alternatives. The size of the body text can also be altered. Don't make this too large or too small! Somewhere between 10 and 13 point is sensible (I use 12 point). If you haven't got access to vector fonts (i.e. you don't own a copy of NVDI 3.x or SpeedoGDOS) then the point size won't change, but the text can still be viewed using the system font, usually 10 point. 8.17 External viewers ====================== If a link in an HTML document points to a file which is not in HTML format, an external viewer can be called. These programs can be called in one of two ways and are configurable via the *External programs...* dialog via the *Options* menu. Individual file types can be assigned to different programs. File extensions are entered into the *Files* field. Several extensions can be entered using a comma to separate each entry. Programs are selected by clicking on the selection box to the right of the *Files* field which displays the file selector to select the desired viewer. Finally each entry includes a *Supports VA_START* checkbox which should be crossed if the viewer understands the VA_START message so CAB can send a VA_START message to the viewer so the file can be viewed with re-launching the viewer. The *Default* program (*.*) is called to display any files for which no program has been assigned. If one of more extensions have been defined without a program assigned CAB attempts to display the file. This is only sensible for *.gif, *.xbm, *.htm and ASCII files (for example: *.txt, *.doc, *.c, *.pas, *.tex etc...) for which CAB (HTML-Browser) includes built-in display routines. When any non ASCII format file is encountered CAB displays the file selector using which a copy of the file to be saved to any desired location. The current HTML page can be displayed as source text by selecting an application in the *Source* entry. This application is called via the menu entry *View source...*. If no application has been assigned the *Default* program is called instead. Double clicking on the *program path* boxes opens a further dialog with an option to clear the current path. Some suggested external programs: *.text,txt: ST-Guide, 1st-Guide (or none, then HTML.APP is used) *.mpeg,mpg,mpe: 1st-Guide (on a Falcon under Single TOS the fast DSP MPEG player is recommeded) *.jpeg,jpg,jpe: 1st-Guide, GEMview *.tiff,tif: GEMview, Imagecopy *.gif,xbm: GEMview, Imagecopy (or none, then HTML.APP is used) *.dvi: DVI display included in TeX archives *.* (Default): GEMview (or other program which handles as many formats as possible) *.html,htm: ST-Guide, 1st-Guide, (or and editor so the HTML source can be edited) 8.18 Paths... ============== If you have a copy of the c't ROM '94 (or 92/93) (CD containing the contents of the German magazine c't) then set the path for the field c't CDROM. In the *HTML folder* field set the directory which contains the file DEFAULT.HTM on the CD (eg ?:\HTML\, where ? is replaced with the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive). In the *Database* field set the path to the contents of the CD (?:\UNIX\CT94.DAT (or ?:\UNIX\CT9293.DAT), again ? is the CD-ROM drive letter). If you want to use CAB online to an Internet WWW site you should set the *Cache folder* where all files downloaded from the Internet can be stored. Ideally this folder should be on a Minix hard disk partition, or other file system which supports long filenames to handle HTML files because HTML files downloaded from WWW sites often include long filenames which can easily result in duplication of filenames using the basic TOS 8+3 character file system -and make sure the partition has plenty of room! In *HTML folders* you can enter the paths CAB (HTML-Browser) looks to find HTML files. HTML files contain absolute local paths (eg /path/file.html) which can soon turn the root directory of your partition into choas. The HTML folders help avoid this by telling HTML-Browser to look for HTML files in the folders specified. Here's an example: *Entered HTML folders:* ∙ F:\HTML.DOC\ ∙ G:\VARIOUS\ *Current drive:* F:\ *Path in HTML file:* ∙ /example/text/index.html *Where CAB looks:* 1. F:\example\text\index.html 2. F:\HTML.DOC\example\text\index.html 3. G:\VARIOUS\example\text\index.html Double clicking on the *program path* boxes opens a further dialog with an option to clear the current path. 8.19 Cache =========== CAB (HTML-Browser) uses two caches to maximise the display of files. The *Image cache* is used to avoid repeated unpacking and dithering which both take a great deal of processing time. Images no longer displayed are held in memory (RAM) in case they are needed again. Naturally this takes memory so the maximum size of the cache can be set in the *Maximum size* field. If the cache becomes full the least used image is purged from the cache to free up more space. Using the *Keep free* option it's also possible to set the minimim amount of memory free for other applications. The cache can also be manually purged using the *Free cache* button which can be useful to quickly free up more memory for another application under a multitasking OS. The cache remains empty until further images are displayed in CAB (HTML- Browser). *Attention* The actual memory consumption for the Cache can be higher than entered in the dialog. The *Internet Cache* is used to store files downloaded from the Internet on your disk to avoid repeatedly downloading the same files from the Internet if they're viewed more than once. See also *Paths* The *Maximum size* and *Keep free* options limit the amount of disk space used by the cache and CAB (HTML-Browser) will purge the oldest files from the cache to maintain the cache within the defined limits. If the *Delete after 'quit'* option is active (crossed) the files in the cache will be deleted on exiting CAB (HTML-Browser). Naturally unless disk space is limited or you're sure you'll never need the files again it's best to keep the files. The *Free cache* button is for emergency use in case you need extra disk space fast! Only files placed in the the cache directory placed there by CAB (HTML-Browser) will be deleted. 8.20 Save options ================== Save the current settings 9 Button bar ************* Each CAB window contains a button bar which provides an easy way to access some of the more important functions: *Back* Displays the previous document *Home* Displays the home page *URL* Select a document from a URL address *File* Select a file using the file selector *Source* Displays the source text of the currently displayed document *New* Reloads the current document again *Hotlist* Displays the hotlist dialog If a 'sad' smiley appears to the right of the buttons it means the displayed document is faulty in some way. Click on to the smiley to display detailed error information. This is a particularly useful option for anyone using CAB to author HTML pages. Only errors which CAB can determine without wasting disk space or processing time will be reported. Faulty documents are not neccessarily displayed incorrectly in CAB but may well exhibit display problems in other browsers (e.g. Mosaic, Netscape, WebExplorer etc) may not display the document as you intended. 10 Thanks ********** I'd like to thank everyone who through their praise, criticism, suggestions and bug reports have helped in the development of CAB (HTML-Browser). In particular the following people deserve a mention: ∙ Dan Ackerman ∙ Mille Babic ∙ Stefan Becker ∙ Ben Bell ∙ Stephane Boisson ∙ Joe Connor ∙ Dieter Fiebelkorn ∙ Nicholas Flintham ∙ Stefan Haake ∙ Romuald Jouffrey ∙ Ulrich Kaiser ∙ Ton Ketting ∙ Antonio Lillo ∙ Graziano Morando ∙ Thomas Much ∙ Tim Newsome ∙ Fred Nicklisch ∙ Rosario Pignatelli ∙ Manfred Ssykor ∙ Andrew Versperman ∙ Lodovico Zanier 11 Possible future updates *************************** ∙ Further implementation of HTML3 commands ∙ Image loading (Double click on [IMG] text) ∙ ... Please feel free to make further suggestions and constructive criticisms... 12 History *********** 12.1 V0.8ß (20.04.1995) ======================== ∙ First release version 12.2 V0.9ß (15.05.1995) ======================== ∙ Reduced memory requirements ∙ MTOS Drag&Drop (ARGS) supported ∙ External programs will now run under single TOS ∙ Error reports are now more descriptive ∙ Bugfix: when running as an accessory no longer tries to invert (non-existant) menu items ∙ The .INF file is now found even if HTML is not started in it own directory ∙ Is now a lot more tolerant of buggy HTML file syntax. ∙ home.html is now loaded on startup if possible ∙ Hotlist ∙ Configuration of window and text colours etc. ∙ Search (including searching c't CDROM) ∙ In-line images can be displayed as greyscales 12.3 V0.93ß (07.06.1995) ========================= ∙ Preparation for on-line operation implemented (although not activated in this version) ∙ Bugfix: Problem with line spacing fixed ∙ Bugfix: Endless loop with defective gifs fixed ∙ Bugfix: fclose() for Hotlist was forgotton :-( ∙ A few other minor bugfixes 12.4 V0.94ß (07.07.1995) ========================= ∙ Bugfix: Deleting the last Hotlist entry caused a crash :-( ∙ Bugfix: CR/LF inside tags led to problems ∙ Bugfix: Last word in an HTML file gobbled ∙ Documents access using absolute path information, including directories listed in the 'Paths...' dialog ∙ Contents of a drive can be displayed as an HTML document (including launching programs and viewing files)! ∙ Support for the special Netscape <CENTER> tags 12.5 V0.95ß (04.08.1995) ========================= ∙ Inline colour images ∙ Configurable image cache (in RAM) ∙ Configurable WWW cache (on disk) ∙ Option to automatically format text to the window width ∙ ASCII, xbm and gif files can now be viewed directly in HTML- Browser. Calling external programs is no longer required (but naturally still available as an option) ∙ Interface for 'Internet module' implemented Using a suitable module HTML-Browser could be used to display WWW pages on-line to the Internet, naturally you'd need an Internet account to do this! ∙ Support for xbm images 12.6 V0.96ß (22.08.1995) ========================= ∙ Lots of minor bugfixes 12.7 V0.98ß (03.10.1995) ========================= ∙ In colour resolutions with fewer than 16 colours the colour palette is no longer altered ∙ Zero length files should no longer cause problems ∙ The program is now called: CAB - The Taxi to the information highway! CAB = Crystal Atari Browser 12.8 V1.0 (01.11.1995) ======================= ∙ Minor adjustments to accomodate the 3D look under Geneva release 4 (unfortunately Geneva is not entirely MultiTOS compatible) ∙ Multiple open windows may be opened ∙ Each window may individually configured with its own colour and font ∙ Support for the following Netscape tags (commands): - <FONT SIZE=[+|-]n> </FONT> - <BASEFONT SIZE=n> - <CENTER> </CENTER> - <NOBR> </NOBR> - <BODY BACKGROUND=url BGCOLOR=#rrggbb TEXT=#rrggbb LINK=#rrggbb> ∙ Support for the <FORM>-area (forms) ∙ Tables (<TABLE>...</TABLE>) are supported. ∙ The Hotlist dialog has been extended to accomodate themes. Each entry can be optionally be annotated ∙ Cache management has been changed. Files are no longer saved in the cache using their original names which should avoid problems long filenames may have caused on standard TOS 8+3 character file systems ∙ History popup implemented ∙ Popup showing all links in a page ∙ <IMG ...> with the attribute ALIGN=LEFT or ALIGN=RIGHT now functions correctly. ∙ Font sizes in the <Hn> </Hn>-areas changed (in line with the method used by Netscape and Mosaic) ∙ Search now works correctly with the 92/93 c't ROM database ∙ New: Button bar in the window provides convienient access to most important functions. If a 'sad' smiley appears to the right of the button bar the displayed document does not conform to HTML specification. CAB will nevertheless try to display the document which may well look fine. On the other hand a 'happy' smiley does not indicate a perfect document because CAB does not waste resources analysing documents in-depth. ∙ Right aligned format (ALIGN=RIGHT) is now supported. ∙ Numerous minor bugfixes ;-) 12.9 V1.0a (12.12.1995) ======================== ∙ Bugfix: Where available the transparent colour of background images is evaluated. ∙ Bugfix: In larger than 32Kb HTML files where tables are included after the first 32Kb garbage (maybe even crashes) was likely. ∙ The cursor keys can be used to scroll the window. If a form is depicted and the cursor is postioned in an input field the cursor keys can be used to navigate the form. ∙ Bugfix: Inside <PLAINTEXT> empty lines are no longer ignored. ∙ Bugfix: Under old TOS versions hard drive directories were not correctly evaluated. ∙ Bugfix: Under old TOS versions there were sometimes problems if a window title was set straight after opening a window. 12.10 V1.1a (01.04.1996) ========================= ∙ When CAB is used offline (i.e. CAB.OVL is not installed) all links are sought after locally. For example an http address http://host/path/file would be handled as //localhost/path/file. ∙ When selecting the c't CD database it's now possible to use wildcards. For example 'K:\HTML\CT*.DAT' would find all the database files on all c't CDs. ∙ The closer icon now closes the window (previously this displayed the previous page). The previous page can still easily be accessed using the 'Back' button. ∙ In 640x200 (ST medium) resolution images are scaled to half height to maintain the correct aspect ratio (proportions). ∙ Holding down the [Shift] key when selecting a link displays the new page in its own window. Similarly holding down the [Shift] key when selecting 'OK' in the 'Open local', 'Open URL' and 'Hotlist' dialogs displays the new page in a separate window. ∙ CAB now displays the source code itself if no suitable external application has been installed. ∙ CAB has been extended to understand the following Netscape extensions: - Using the <HR> tag the WIDTH=, SIZE=, NOSHADE and ALIGN= attributes are evaluated. - Using <TD> and <TH> the WIDTH= and HEIGHT= attributes are evaluated. - Client Side Image Maps are currently partially implemented: <MAP NAME=name> <AREA SHAPE=rect COORDS="x1,y1,x2,y2" HREF=url> </MAP> ∙ Minor optimisation to handle certain boxed tables built-in. In principal tables should be repeatedly calculated depending on the width of the window and consequently such tables are processor intensive. Example: The (early 1996) FOCUS pages (www.focus.de) possess a boxed table with seven nested levels and these take a ridiculous time to calculate (e.g longer than five minutes for some pages!). Of the seven levels only two are used sensibly (the rest consist of cells containing nothing other than other cells (OK it may be legal but it's stupid!)). CAB calculates such tables as a single cell (i.e. column) which results in substantially faster calculation -although this still isn't exactly rapid it's an improvement. ∙ Any filetype which cannot be displayed by CAB itself and for which no application has been installed (as defined by the file extension) can optionally be copied to any desired folder. ∙ GDOS printing now possible. Currently only monochrome images can be output. Output via other GDOS drivers also possible, e.g. Metafile, IMG etc. ∙ The Hotlist dialog can now be completely keyboard controlled if desired. ∙ The Clipboard, Cut [Control]+X, Copy [Control]+C and Paste [Control]+V commands are supported in all dialog editable fields. ∙ The Clipboard commands are also available in document editable fields. ∙ The window position is now saved using the 'Save options' entry in the 'Options' menu. ∙ Support for new (HTML3) commands: - <BIG>, </BIG> large text - <SMALL>, </SMALL> small text - <SUP>, </SUP> Superscript - <SUB>, </SUB> Subscript - <Q>, </Q>, <LANG>, </LANG> ∙ Hotlist entries can now be completely manually created. ∙ Bugfix: HTML files with exceptionaly long comments at the start which didn't have use the .HTM file extender (or .html on systems with long filename support) were displayed as ASCII. ∙ Bugfix: Tables with large numbers of lines and/or columns caused problems. ∙ Even more tolerance built-in to accomodate HTML authors who invent astonishingly convoluted HTML tags -even when a simple HTML command already exists :-\ 12.11 V1.2 (10.04.1996) ======================== ∙ Bugfix: When memory gets short CAB will free up less urgently required memory (e.g. images in the cache RAM). Thanks to an incorrect calculation this could lead to an endless loop. ∙ Print in colour is now also possible (so long as your GDOS printer driver supports this). ∙ The absolute size in pixels (with tables or <HR>) are now converted to the existing printer resolution on printing. ∙ OLGA protocol: CAB is a OLGA client ∙ First attempt at supporting JPEG images, the file CAB_JPEG.OVL takes care of JPEG images and should reside in the CAB directory. Note: CAB.OVL is still required for on-line browsing, do not rename either file! 12.12 V1.2a (16.04.1996) ========================= ∙ Bugfix: If CAB runs short of memory it tries to release more memory (e.g. by deleting images in the image cache). Thanks to a faulty calculation of the available free value CAB could get stuck in an endless loop. 12.13 V1.2b (19.04.1996) ========================= ∙ The printer margin entries were not evaluated correctly, if the entries were 3-stellig?. ∙ Bugfix: CAB tries to format tables even if the <tr> tag is missing so long as the </tr> tag is available. Due to a bug in CAB this led to problems with boxed tables. It should now function again. ∙ Colour printing with NVDI4 should now function correctly. !Item Bugfix: If the 'Use document setting' option (concerning the text and background colours was not selected no background image was displayed. Both settings are now independent of each other. 12.14 V1.3 (20.05.1996) ======================== ∙ New JPEG module from Dieter Fiebelkorn ∙ Mail support (mailto:user@address) ∙ Proxy and SMTP-Server can be set directly from CAB (not applicable for local (offline) operation) ∙ A few more small bugfixes removed ∙ Unrecognised extensions ignored. For example JavaScript (<SCRIPT>...</SCRIPT>) is ignored and no longer displayed as HMTL text. ∙ 'Slide shows' via <meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="5; url=xyz"> now supported. ∙ <FONT> tag now supports colour (<FONT COLOR=...>) ∙ Colours in tables are now supported: BGCOLOR= for tables and/or cell background BORDERCOLOR=, BORDERCOLORLIGHT= and BORDERCOLORDARK= for the table edges ∙ The most important colour can now also be assigned by name as well as a hex number. For example COLOR=White instead of COLOR=#FFFFFF ∙ References can be followed during text formatting (the mouse is still not evaluated during image loading). Formatting is abandoned and the desired document loaded instead. 12.15 V1.4 (19.09.1996) ======================== ∙ Using NVDI 4 for printed output requires a lot less memory because NVDI 4 is now given the responsibility to scale images. In particular the TrueColor, i.e. halftone printer driver (32 bit/pixel). Unfortunately other GDOS software or replacements do not offer this feature -use NVDI! ∙ CAB now supports the same text colour descriptions as Netscape and MS Explorer. ∙ Stop button added so text formatting can be aborted using the mouse (corresponds to pressing the [ESC] key). ∙ During image conversion (dithering) CAB now notices AES events. This means it is possible to scroll documents, select links and break off formatting during image conversion. ∙ Bugfix: In 640x200 (ST-Medium) resolution the mouse co-ordinates for image maps where not scaled, now fixed. ∙ Source text is now displayed with all HTML tags and comments highlighted (HTML tags blue and comments red). ∙ The NetScape 'Frames' extension deviates considerably from the philosophy and practise of HTML. Normally WWW browsers can ignore any HTML tag it can't display without losing the underlying information in the file. Unfortunately this is not true for NetScape 'Frames' so browsers which do not support 'Frames' effectively lose information! CAB still doesn't support NetScape 'Frames' but now displays a list of all documents in a frame which provides access to the frame content. ∙ The external files and modules loaded by CAB can optionally be stored in a MODULES folder located inside the CAB folder or left in the same folder as CAB.APP. The following files are affected: - CAB_JPEG.OVL (this file may also be called JPEG.OVL) - CAB.INF - CAB.OVL - CACHE_ED.PRG and CACHE_ED.PRG (program to manage the WWW caches) - HOTLIST.HTML ∙ Images, with the WIDTH= and HEIGHT= attributes set are loaded after the text has been formatted. This means text is displayed faster. Images without the WIDTH= and HEIGHT= attributes have to be downloaded and displayed immediately because there is no way CAB (or any other browser) can know how large the image is. ∙ Bugfix: CAB could not load long filenames containing space characters passed via VA_START or Drag&Drop, this now functions again. ∙ New tags: - <DIV> </DIV> - <IMAGE> (another Netscape tag, identical to <IMG>) ∙ 'about:'-Protocol ∙ The WWW cache structure has been re-organised. Files are now stored in sub directories. This should avoid overfull directories and minimise the time taken to load/save files. On attempting to open an old format cache CAB automatically updates the file structure - this may take some time (but it is a once-only occurence). ∙ CAB-Protocol: Some AES messages to call various CAB functions from external programs has been implemented. A 'BROWSER' environmental variable should be defined containing the complete path to CAB. Programs requiring access to CAB functions can use this variable variable to locate/open CAB. ∙ In tables ALIGN=LEFT and ALIGN=RIGHT are evaluated. 12.16 V1.4a (01.10.1996) ========================= ∙ Bugfix: Some colours were not correctly depicted on printing via a TrueColor printer driver. 12.17 V1.5 (20.10.1996) ======================== ∙ Bugfix: CAB mistakenly used the global colour palette for GIF files which include local colour palettes. ∙ Support for animated GIFs. Animations can be halted at any time using the Stop button. ∙ GIF animations can be turned off the in 'Options/Display'. This saves both memory and system resources, because only the first frame of an animated GIF is decoded and dithered. Images already in the cache remain intact and are displayed as still images if the GIF animations option is turned off. ∙ CAB now displays the destination of any link in the window Info line under the mouse pointer - which changes to a pointing hand. It is now no longer necessary to right click to reveal the destination. ∙ Bugfix: If a new cache folder was selected but no CACHE.CAB file had been created CAB did not always initialise the cache folder correctly. ∙ Bugfix: The last element in a list inside <CENTER> tags was not displayed correctly. ∙ Newer versions of CAB.OVL install themselves even if STiK is not on-line. This resulted in 'Network down' messages when STiK was off-line. CAB.OVL is now only called if STiK reports 'On-line' status. ∙ New dialog 'Options/Internet programs'. Here different programs for the various Internet protocols can be installed. In the case a URL calls one of these protocols the corresponding program will be called (on condition the program accepts a URL as a parameter). All protocols (still) not supported in CAB.OVL and for which suitable programs exist can now be used via CAB. Entries in this dialog take precedence over CAB.OVL. ∙ New 'Binary file' entry added to the 'Options/External programs' dialog. File extenders to be handled as binary files can be entered. Binary files for which no application has been installed can, via the file selector, be copied anyway to disk and CAB will not attempt to display them. This entry only applies to non- readable ASCII file formats including uuencoded files, Mac BinHex files etc. Such filetypes should be entered into the dialog. CAB automatically recognises 'real' binary files so these should not be entered here. ∙ The icons in the button bar can be toggled on/off by clicking on the small triangle to the right of the Stop button. Turning off the icons conserves display space.