Release notes for Greg's Browser 2.7 (20 June 2000)
Full documentation for Greg's Browser is available from within the Browser application by either selecting “Browser Docs...” from the Help menu or pushing the “Browser Docs” button in the “About...” box.
Greg's Browser 2.7 is compatible with all versons of the Mac OS from System 7 through Mac OS 9 (including 9.0.4).
To use Greg's Browser, just double-click the “Browser” icon. It is just a normal application, so you can put it wherever you want on your hard drive. If you use it all the time, you might want to put it in your Apple menu for easy access or in your Startup Items folder so that it will automatically launch each time your start your Mac.
Greg's Browser is shareware; it is not free. If you use it for more than a couple of weeks, you should pay a $20 registration fee. You can register online by credit card at <http://order.kagi.com/?GL&S>. If you are not a fan of online commerce, you can also pay by check or cash by old fashioned snail-mail using the enclosed “Register” application to create a customized registration form. You can turn off the opening shareware message using the “About Box at Startup” check box in the “Preferences” dialog, but please leave it on as a reminder until you have paid. Thank you.
For the latest version of Greg's Browser, as well as information about my other shareware, visit the Greg's Shareware page at <http://www.kaleidoscope.net/greg/>. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions, or bugs to report, please feel free to e-mail me at <greg@kaleidoscope.net>.
-- Greg Landweber
Changes Since Version 2.6.1
You can now edit file type and creator codes by clicking the file kind at the bottom of the Browser window or pressing <command>-<return>.
Added an option for live window resizing in the Browser Preferences box. Live resizing is extremely processor intensive, and it works well only on very fast machines.
The Browser now plays appropriate sound effects from the current Appearance sound track under Mac OS 8.5 and later.
Choosing the Expand command from the Browser's Magic Menu no longer causes a crash on Power Macs.
Fixes glitches with the Label submenu of contextual menus and contextual menus for invisible files.
The file info at the bottom of the Browser window now draws in Geneva 10 instead of Geneva 9, and the text automatically compresses if there is not enough room.
The Browser can now directly manipulate StuffIt 5 archives, changing file names, labels, types and creators, as well as creating new folders and deleting files inside of archives.
The Browser now recognizes files compressed with StuffIt SpaceSaver, and you can use the Magic Menu to compress and decompress SpaceSaver files. (However, the SpaceSaver Info menu item works only with version 4 of the StuffIt Engine.)
Changes Since Version 2.6
Fixes bugs that caused an erroneous alert when moving files to the trash and a beep when emptying the trash.
Fixes a crash when launching the Browser if StuffIt SpaceSaver is running.
Rewrote the font anti-aliasing (smoothing) code, borrowing heavily from SmoothType (one of my other shareware programs). Anti-aliased text now looks better, draws faster, and requires less memory. You can also now set the font size to anything from 9 to 16 point, since anti-aliased text often looks best at odd font sizes.
When you select a URL clipping, the Browser now displays the URL at the bottom of the window.
Makes several other minor improvements and fixes.
Changes Since Version 2.5.5
The Browser is finally compatible with Mac OS 8.5 and higher. In particular, folder icons now show up correctly at the bottom left of the window and in the bookmarks on the shelf up top, and as an added perk, the Browser supports the 32-bit icons introduced in Mac OS 8.5.
You can now browse into StuffIt 5 archives, and the Browser sports a spiffy new Magic Menu. These features are brought to you by Leonard Rosenthol. Thanks Leonard!
The Browser now supports useful things such as Contextual Menus and the Extended HFS format (for volumes over 2 GB), but most importantly it is now fully Appearance (and Kaleidoscope!) savvy.
Makes several dozen minor changes, fixes, and improvements, making browsing more fun than ever!
Changes Since Version 2.5.4
The Browser is now compatible with Mac OS 8.
Updated the user interface slightly to better resemble the Mac OS 8 Platinum Appearance.
Changes Since Version 2.5.3
The Browser now shows the size of folders and multiple files at the bottom of the window (you need the Thread Manager, which is built into System 7.5, to calculate folder sizes).
You can now change the names and labels of files in a StuffIt archive.
Fixed two bugs with StuffIt archives. The Browser would hang when working with single-file archives, and the Browser would stuff files twice when dragging them to an archive on a PowerMac.
Keyboard type selection now works correctly in non-alphabetical lists, such as the Desktop list.
Improved memory efficiency, fixed a few minor bugs and conflicts, and made several small improvements.
Changes Since Version 2.5.2
You can drag files from the Browser and drop them onto an application icon in the Finder.
The Browser automatically switches to the Finder and back if the Finder is performing a lengthy file operation or needs to display an alert.
Holding down the <option> key changes the “New Folder” command to “New Archive”, which creates an empty StuffIt™ archive (this does not require the StuffIt Engine™, although you cannot do very much with an empty archive without it).
The Magic Menu™ now has a “View...” command which uses the viewer from Aladdin Desktop Tools™, and the menu title has been changed from the word “Magic” to Aladdin's Magic Menu icon.
The file lists draw significantly faster, and they no longer flicker when updated.
Optimized the anti-aliasing routines. They should be between 10% to 50% faster depending on your machine.
Many other minor bug fixes and improvements.
Changes Since Version 2.5.1
You can now register via credit card using the Kagi Shareware registration service.
If you have the Scriptable Finder (included in System 7.5), then a <control>-drags creates an alias to the original files in the destination folder.
Redesigned the “Preferences” dialog box and removed the “Apply” button.
Fixed a bug in which the file selection could get confused after a drag on Power Macs.
The info at the bottom of the window now updates more promptly.
Changes Since Version 2.5
The Browser no longer switches to the Finder when performing file operations. Some people liked this feature, but many found it annoying or thought it was a bug.
Version 2.5.1 again has 680x0 and “Fat” versions. I never released a “Fat” version 2.5.
Several minor tweaks.
Changes Since Version 2.4.1
If you have Japanese file names and select a Japanese font in the Prefences box, the Browser uses Osaka 9 in place of Geneva 9 for the file information at the bottom of the window. In short, your file names won't look like gibberish. (This applies to other script systems, too.)
Added a “Magic Menu™” (trademark of Aladdin Systems, Inc.) that lets you stuff, binhex, and expand a variety of file formats. This menu appears only if it is turned on in the Preferences box, and the options are enabled only if you have the “StuffIt Engine™”.
The Browser now recognizes StuffIt SpaceSaver™ compressed files, identifying them with a mini-icon and showing their expanded size. The “Magic Menu™” contains options to compress and expand StuffIt SpaceSaver files.
Whenever you perform a file operation (i.e., copy, move, Duplicate, etc.), the Browser now switches to the Finder to show the progress box and/or any potential error alerts. The Browser will then switch back when the operation is completed.
Added “Eject” and “Erase” menu items to the “Special” menu. These work only if you have System 7.5 or the “Finder Scripting Extension“ and will be disabled otherwise.
When you “grow” a window (i.e., when you change its size by dragging the box in the lower right corner), the Browser restricts the drag to a quantized grid of possible sizes.
If you switch systems or monitor setups, the Browser no longer opens windows off the screen.
The Browser no longer requests ejected disks unless it has a good reason to.
Changes Since Version 2.4
I have a new internet e-mail address. It is given at the top of the Browser Docs window.
Triple clicks are now treated as a double click and a single click, not two double clicks.
Added mini icons for JPEGs, MPEGs, MacsBug, and PlainTalk voices.
The Browser now recognizes PowerPC shared libraries, showing the correct icon and “kind” string, and putting them in the “Extensions" folder when dragged to the “System Folder”.
You can now have more than one moveable modal dialog box on the screen at once. This occurs if you choose “Browser Docs...” from the Help Menu while using the About or Preferences box.
Made preparations to translate the Browser into other languages. French, German, and Norwegian versions should be appearing shortly. Let me know if you want to voluteer to translate the Browser into any other language.
Changes Since Version 2.3
Instead of releasing a PowerPC-only version, I have switched to releasing a “Fat” version.
If you drop a file or folder on the Browser application icon, the Browser opens a new window and jumps to the dropped file or folder in the file lists.
You no longer need “Macintosh Drag and Drop” in order to stuff files by dragging them to a StuffIt archive. You do need the “StuffIt Engine™”, though, and unstuffing files via drag and drop still requres “Macintosh Drag and Drop”.
If you are browsing a StuffIt archive and double click or choose “UnStuff...” from the file menu, the Browser defaults to the folder containing the archive in the standard file dialog requesting the destination. This feature requres “StuffIt Engine™” version 3.5 or later.
You can now browse into StuffIt 1.5.1 archives.
If a file is an alias, its name at the bottom left of the Browser window is displayed in italics.
Drops onto bookmarks behave exactly like drops onto the corresponding files in the file lists. In particular, the Browser routes files dropped on a system folder bookmark to the appropriate subfolders, and it stuffs files dropped onto a StuffIt archive bookmark (if you have the “StuffIt Engine™”).
The file lists now update correctly when files are removed.
You can now perform file operations (open, get info, reveal, etc.) on the “Trash” in the “Desktop” file list.
Added mini-icons and “kind” strings for various new file types introduced in System 7.5.
The Browser no longer shows the invisible “Mail Enclosures” volume that appears when PowerTalk is running.
Fixed a bug that caused the Browser to crash when browsing Compact Pro archives with comments longer than 128 characters.
You can now create new folders within a StuffIt archive (if you have the “StuffIt Engine™”). You need to specify the folder name in a dialog box, though, since you cannot edit its name once you create it.
You can now open files with the keyboard shortcut <command>-<down arrow>, just like in the Finder.
When browsing StuffIt archives, the Browser now displays the size (both stuffed and unstuffed) of subfolders within the archive.
The Browser now saves its documentation as a styled text file.
The Browser no longer attempts to mount volumes referenced in the bookmarks when it starts up. You will need to click the bookmark to mount the volumes.
If you press the up or down arrow keys in a list with no selection, the Browser selects the first item.
Several other minor improvements and bug fixes.
Changes Since Version 2.2
You can now browse into Stuffit and Compact Pro archives (and self-expanding archives) just like they were folders. You cannot change the name, label, or invisibility of files within an archive, though, nor can you perform most Finder-like actions on them. This feature does NOT require the ”Stuffit Engine™”.
If you have both “Macintosh Drag and Drop” and the “Stuffit Engine™”, you can drag files into or out of Stuffit archives to stuff or unstuff them. You can NOT drag files from an archive to the trash to delete them; you'll need to use the Stuffit application for that.
The Browser now brings up the “About...” box at startup, and you must dismiss it manually before continuing. You can turn this off with the “About Box at Startup” checkbox in the “Preferences” box.
If you drop files on the “System Folder”, the Browser will now route them to the appropriate subfolders.
The “Preferences” box now has an “Apply” button so you can view your font, size, and anti-aliasing changes without closing the dialog box.
The “Trash” is now included in the desktop file list.
If you have “Macintosh Drag and Drop“, the file lists will auto-scroll when you drag to the top or bottom.
Put in small icons to show the “Projector”/“SourceServer” status of project files. If you do not know what this means, then you will not need this feature and should leave it switched off.
Fixed a bug that caused the Browser to crash when changing the label or invisibility of a file. This could happen after performing a drag on a Mac without "Macintosh Drag and Drop".
You can no longer edit file/folder names if their “Name Locked” flag is set. This prevents you from renaming the “System”, “Finder”, etc.
Fixed a problem that could cause the Browser to access the hard disks every ten seconds, even if nothing has changed.
Changes Since Version 2.1
Added a Finder-like “New Folder” feature in the “File” menu.
Added a Finder-like “Label” menu.
Put an “Invisible” command in the “Label” menu, letting you make files visible or invisible.
You can now edit file names by pressing <return> or clicking on the file name at the bottom of the window.
Rewrote the code using C++ and MetroWerks Code Warrior (as opposed to C with THINK Object Extensions). This allowed me to produce the PowerPC native version, as well as paving the way for lots of future improvements (such as the ability to browse into Stuffit and Compact Pro archives).
Changes Since Version 2.0
Put the documentation file into a “Browser Docs” window, available via the About... box or the help menu.
You can now change the font and size of Browser windows in the Preferences box.
If you check the “Anti-aliased (smoothed)” box, the Browser will use the TrueType version of the selected font to blur the font's edges. This process slows down text drawing considerably, but it looks fantastic with a large font on a high resolution (>88 dpi) screen.
New Browser windows now open to the same position in the file lists as the frontmost window. If you hold down <option> when opening a new Browser window, the Browser will resolve the currently selected file (if it is an alias) and jump to the original file in the new window's file lists.
Holding down <option> changes “Get Info” and “Reveal” to “Get Original Info” and “Reveal Original” respectively, in which case the Browser will resolve any alias files in the current selection before performing the desired action on the original files.
<option>-clicking on an alias bookmark will resolve the alias file and jump to the original file in the file lists.
Bookmark icons are now handled better. Bookmarks that become detached or refer to files on unmounted volumes will be drawn with the “offline” shading.
FIle sizes over 1023K are displayed in megabytes, and when a volume is selected, the Browser displays the amount of free space in place of the size.
Improved memory management so that the Browser will no longer crash when you open too many windows or open a folder containing more than 480 files.
Added several more mini-icons, fixed a number of bugs, and made many small improvements.
Changes Since Version 1.x
Lots of 'em. In fact, there are so many changes that it would be terribly tedious for me to write them out (or even remember them), and it would be even more tiresome for you to read them all. It would be much easier for you to just mess about with the Browser for a few minutes to work them out for yourself. So there!
The Browser is now an application. Since it is no longer a control panel, there is absolutely no need to put it in the Control Panels folder. In fact, it never needed to be put there in the first place (as you already know since you are the type of person who reads the documentation).
The Browser now supports multiple windows, and whenever you launch the Browser, it restores your windows (both their screen positions and their file lists) to their configuration when you last quit.
In previous versions, you could drag the large icon from the lower left of the window. In version 2 the large file icon is there strictly for your viewing pleasure, although I do have plans to make its life more meaningful in future versions. If you feel like dragging something, you can now drag files directly from the file lists.
