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TidBITS#328/13-May-96
=====================
This issue brings you news of new products being released in
conjunction with this week's Apple World Wide Developer
Conference and an timely essay about software development phases
and the meaning of the word "beta." We also cover recent Internet
provider arrests in France; review Mail Drop, an IMAP email
client; and note an upcoming live talk by Don Norman, and new
versions of FreePPP, StuffIt Expander, DropStuff, MacDNS, and
AOL's client software.
This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by:
* APS Technologies -- 800/443-4199 -- <sales@apstech.com>
Makers of hard drives, tape drives, and neat SCSI accessories.
For APS price lists, email: <aps-prices@tidbits.com>
* Northwest Nexus -- 206/455-3505 -- <http://www.halcyon.com/>
Providing access to the global Internet. <info@halcyon.com>
* Power Computing -- 800/375-7693 -- <info@powercc.com>
Now shipping... The Award-Winning First MacOS Compatible!
Press comments! <http://www.powercc.com/News/quotes.html>
* America Online -- 800/827-6364 -- <http://www.aol.com/>
The world's largest provider of online services.
Give Back to the Net -- <http://www.aol.com/give/>
* EarthLink Network -- 800/395-8425 -- <sales@earthlink.net>
Providers of direct Internet access for Macintosh users.
For eWorld refugees: no setup fee! <http://www.earthlink.net/>
* DealBITS: New deals on Macs, tools, software, and more!
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/> -- <dealbits@tidbits.com>
Copyright 1990-1996 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
Information: <info@tidbits.com> Comments: <editors@tidbits.com>
---------------------------------------------------------------
Topics:
MailBITS/13-May-96
French Internet Providers Arrested
WWDC Ware
Mail Drop, the Eudora Alternative
Waiting with Beta'd Breath
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/1996/TidBITS#328_13-May-96.etx>
MailBITS/13-May-96
------------------
**FreePPP 2.5 Released** -- On Sunday, the FreePPP Group released
version 2.5 of their free PPP client. FreePPP 2.5 is a major step
up from the previous 1.0.5 and contains more features than MacPPP
2.5, Apple's version of the same code. Make sure to read FreePPP's
documentation for a list of bug fixes and known conflicts. [ACE]
<http://www.rockstar.com/ppp.shtml>
**StuffIt Expander 4.0.1, DropStuff 4.0** -- Last week, Aladdin
Systems released new versions of their popular utilities StuffIt
Expander and DropStuff with Expander Enhancer. StuffIt Expander
4.0.1 - which decodes and decompresses a variety of online file
formats - continues to be free, and now offers much better
performance on Power Macs and better handling of split and
segmented files. DropStuff with Expander Enhancer enables users to
compress and BinHex files and significantly augments StuffIt
Expander's decoding abilities (including handling most PC and Unix
file formats). DropStuff 4.0 also offers improved performance on
Power Macs and better handling of segmented files. DropStuff is
$30 shareware, and (though the documentation doesn't seem to say
anything about it) registered users of previous versions of
DropStuff can apparently continue to use their registration
numbers. Aladdin's sites have been hard to reach, but the
following URLs should be accurate, and the software should appear
on Info-Mac mirrors in the near future. [GD]
<http://www.aladdinsys.com/>
<ftp://ftp.aladdinsys.com/>
<ftp://ftp.scruz.net/users/aladdin/public/stuffit_exp_40_installer.hqx>
<ftp://ftp.scruz.net/users/aladdin/public/dropstuff_w_ee_4_installer.hqx>
**Don Norman Speaks Live on the Net** -- Don Norman, Apple Fellow,
former Apple User Experience Architect, and expert in the field of
human interface design, will give a talk via the Internet at the
KMi Stadium on Wednesday, 15-May-96. The talk will take place at 5
PM British Summer Time (noon on the east coast in the United
States; 9 AM on the west coast). To participate, I recommend
dropping by the KMi Stadium Web site before the talk and trying
out one of the previous presentations. The Web site has links for
locating RealAudio (which you need) and for CU-SeeMe (which is
optional). I assume you'll also be able to play back the talk
after Don's live appearance, though you must attend the talk live
in order to be one of the lucky few who get to ask Don a question.
[TJE]
<http://kmi.open.ac.uk/stadium/welcome.html>
**DNS on Macintosh Heats Up** -- Apple has released version 1.0.2
of MacDNS (its DNS server software) for free. (DNS software maps
the names of Internet machines to their IP addresses; before Macs
had DNS capabilities, they were forced to rely on other platforms
for DNS service.) MacDNS is included in Apple's Internet Server
Solution package, and while it seems to function relatively well,
it has been criticized for not providing recursive or secondary
name service.
<http://cybertech.apple.com/MacDNS.html>
Not to be out-done, Men & Mice of Reykjavik, Iceland, released the
results of performance comparisons between MacDNS, Unix BIND, and
their QuickDNS Pro product. Though QuickDNS Pro costs about $300,
it does provide recursive and secondary name service, and appears
to out-perform other DNS options significantly. Men & Mice has
also made their test methodology available.
<http://www.menandmice.com/QuickDNS/Comparison/>
Glenn Anderson's free DNS server for the Mac, MIND, has been
useful for a number of Mac Internet sites, but it suffers from a
set of known problems and, according to Ric Ford's MacInTouch, no
further development of MIND is currently planned. [GD]
<http://www.macintouch.com/>
**AOL 2.7** -- America Online released version 2.7 of its client
software last week. The new version fixes a number of outstanding
bugs and offers an improved Web browser, although Web performance
through AOL's network still seems quite slow (although that's not
the browser's fault). [GD]
<ftp://ftp.aol.com/aol_mac/>
French Internet Providers Arrested
----------------------------------
by Richard Erickson <erickso@worldnet.fr>
On 06-May-96, under orders of a judge investigating pedophile
circles in France, French police seized computer equipment and
arrested the heads of two Internet service providers for allegedly
allowing their services to propagate Usenet newsgroups that the
judge considered to contain elements such as "pornographic
photographs of minors." The distribution of such material is
illegal in France. [And in many other countries, including the
U.S. -Tonya]
Two days later, during a professional Internet exposition held at
La Defense [near Paris], the French Association of Internet
Providers (AFPI) held a news conference to denounce the judicial
act. Francois Benveniste, director of major Internet provider
Calvacom and spokesman for the group - one of whose founding
members was jailed - said, "We are all guilty."
Benveniste was referring to Usenet; a portion of the online world
that contains as many as sixteen thousand discussion groups that
carry information on a wide variety of topics. Mr. Benveniste said
that, under current law, there was no way for a French operator to
provide access to these groups, because the law assumed the
provider was responsible for the content. However, given the
volume of Usenet, no operator could possibly monitor the contents
of more than 100,000 electronic documents daily. Benveniste called
upon authorities to sit down with operators to formulate an legal
statue that would permit them to operate legally - without fear of
being jailed.
Together with two other heads of the AFPI - Patrick Robin of
Imaginet and Jerome Lecat of Iway - Benveniste announced the
immediate closure of all newsgroups until 15-May-96 as a symbolic
gesture. National operator France Telecom, which provides the
backbone service "Transpac" and has recently started its own
"Wannadoo" service, is moving in concert with the private
operators, since the same laws apply to all.
For this week, there will be only one newsgroup,
<fr.netware.internet>, generally available to the estimated 80,000
to 100,000 private Internet subscribers in France.
What remains unanswered is why these two particular operators were
chosen out of about 48 in all, when practically all of them
(including state-owned France Telecom) carry the same newsgroups.
These two providers are among the larger providers in France:
Francenet was one of the first, and Worldnet was one of the first
to have "popular" prices.
Another unanswered question is why this action has come at this
time, when the operators' association has been holding talks with
the Minister of Telecoms Francois Fillon for some time, and was
recently assured no access provider would be held responsible for
content.
Meanwhile, after considerable confiscation of equipment, the two
men jailed have been released, but remain under judicial
authority.
[This ends the news portion of Richard's report, which was
originally published in "Metropole, Paris Online." Below, I've
included some of Richard's informal comments which further
illustrate what's happening in France. -Tonya]
Although the majority of subscribers are aware that Internet
providers are not responsible for content, the same cannot be said
of TV news. The 08-May-96 main 20:00 CET edition of state
television France 2 news gave the distinct impression that
Worldnet originated the illegal content. Statements made by a
Francenet spokesman were largely buried under a cascade of images,
from Playboy's home page to outright porn (though no kiddie porn).
I saw more flesh in news reports about the arrests than I have
seen in 18 months of Internet use.
As a content provider myself, I have to think about covering a
subject such as Paris, where much public art and many billboards
include representations of the unclothed human body. My site could
end up with an X rating even though it is part and parcel of the
public (and even state-sponsored) atmosphere here.
Both at the press conference and in some TV news reports, there
were mentions of software that users can use to filter suspect
content. I think it is in our interest to promote such "monkey"
software: hear no porn, see no porn, speak no porn. Well, maybe
not the last one - pornography is a legitimate form of expression
and has been since people were drawing in caves. Such "monkey"
software would leave a virtual warning sign at the cave's
entrance.
Additional reports on this topic may be found at the Metropole Web
site.
<http://www.groundwork.com/metropole/>
WWDC Ware
---------
by Geoff Duncan <geoff@tidbits.com>
Each year, Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference in San Jose
spawns a host of product releases and announcement and, as usual
with any trade show or conference these days, the emphasis is on
the Internet. This article highlights a few products that shipped
"just in time" for WWDC.
**Cyberdog 1.0** -- Apple has released version 1.0 of Cyberdog,
its currently free, integrated Internet client software based on
OpenDoc. Interestingly, it appears Apple plans to continue calling
the product Cyberdog - although having a product name with the
word "dog" in it will no doubt ignite a flurry of quips from Apple
nay-sayers, the name "Cyberdog" has been publicly associated with
this product for a year and changing it now might lose points in
the Macintosh community. (I wonder what this might bode for
Copland.) Cyberdog requires a Power Mac, QuickTime, and OpenDoc.
<http://cyberdog.apple.com/>
<http://opendoc.apple.com/dload/OD-install.html>
**Marionet 1.1** -- Allegiant Technologies has announced version
1.1 of Marionet, its faceless background Internet protocol server
for authoring environments including SuperCard, HyperCard,
Director, and AppleScript. Version 1.1 includes a number of
enhancements (especially to HTTP, email, and AppleScript support).
Owners of Marionet 1.0 can get a free updater to 1.1 from
Allegiant, and a trial version of Marionet 1.1 should appear on
Allegiant's sites shortly, along with revised demos and examples
that highlight new features.
<ftp://ftp.allegiant.com/Marionet/>
**BBEdit 4.0** -- Bare Bones Software announced BBEdit 4.0, which
adds syntax coloring to its bag of tricks. BBEdit now
automatically colors keywords for easier reading in any of its
supported languages, including HTML, C, C++, Pascal, and even 68K
assembler; BBEdit 4.0 also offers Java support and deeper Web
serving and authoring integration with UserLand Frontier (see
below). Existing users may update for $39 after 01-Jun-96, or for
free if they purchased BBEdit 3.5 after 31-Mar-96. BBEdit's
suggested retail price is $119.
<http://www.barebones.com/>
**Frontier 4.0** -- Almost a year ago, Dave Winer turned the
high-end Macintosh scripting system UserLand Frontier loose on the
net in the form of "Aretha," a codename for a net-savvy version of
Frontier. (See TidBITS-279_.) Last week, Dave did it again, with
the "official" release of Frontier 4.0.
<http://www.scripting.com/frontier/>
It's not much of an exaggeration to say Dave lives for scripting,
and once again Dave has re-purposed and re-targeted Frontier, this
time squarely at Web publishers and service providers. Frontier
4.0 provides extensive hooks into WebSTAR, FileMaker, Netscape,
Internet Explorer, and other applications to facilitate creation
of custom content and Web publishing solutions. Moreover, Frontier
4.0 now offers Web site management capabilities - the basic idea
is that your "source" files for a Web site reside within Frontier.
When you want to change your site, Frontier "renders" and exports
the HTML for you, even to the extent of uploading the files to
your Web server. Frontier can make it easy to create and manage
vast, consistent Web sites, and Frontier extensively ties in with
BBEdit 4.0 for HTML processing and authoring. Moreover, for CGI
developers, Frontier offers native, multi-threaded performance,
and Frontier's UserTalk is still an OSA language, so AppleScript
developers could even think of Frontier as a giant set of OSAXen.
Frontier still isn't for the faint of heart: Frontier scripts can
be indecipherable to non-programmers, and even experienced
developers have historically had problems diving into Frontier,
even with the free Aretha releases. Frontier 4.0 goes some
distance toward addressing these concerns, with an entire Frontier
Users Guide now available online, along with various Frontier
tutorials and walk-throughs contributed by users, covering CGI
scripting and other topics. Also, the Frontier user community can
be extremely helpful - check out the Frontier-Talk mailing list if
you're interested in learning what Frontier can do.
<http://www.scripting.com/frontier/docs.html>
<http://www.scripting.com/frontier/mailinglists.html>
Mail Drop, the Eudora Alternative
---------------------------------
by Peter Hinely <phinely@hawaii.edu>
Few people know about Mail Drop, a great freeware mail client for
the Mac. Mail Drop is an IMAP email client being developed by Carl
W. Bell as a Baylor University project. IMAP is a protocol for
remote mailbox access, along the lines of the POP3 protocol used
by Eudora. The IMAP protocol is different from POP3 though, and
offers a significantly extended paradigm for remote mail
retrieval. The POP3 protocol is a simple protocol with very
limited options for managing mail on the server. When a POP3
client connects to a mail server, it can basically say two things:
"give me all my mail" or "give me all my mail and then delete your
copy". If you always read your mail using the same POP3 mail
client on the same computer, this is fine, but if you have ever
tried to access your mailbox from different client machines, you
will be familiar with the synchronization problem that occurs.
An IMAP client, however, can request specific information about
messages. With IMAP, mail is always stored on the server until you
command the server to delete it. For people who check their mail
from multiple computers or for access to a shared mailbox, IMAP is
ideal. IMAP also enables you to transfer messages between mail
boxes on the server, and save sent mail on the server. For more
information about the IMAP protocol, please see:
<ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/imap/imap.vs.pop.brief>
Mail Drop, which enables you to access an email account on an IMAP
server, is intuitive and easy to use. When you use Mail Drop to
connect to your mail server, instead of retrieving messages in
their entirety, Mail Drop downloads selected information about
each mail message (the message's date, subject, sender, size, and
whether the message has attachments) and displays it in a list. To
read a particular message, double-click the message's listing, and
then (and only then) will Mail Drop download the message's body to
your Macintosh. If the message has an attachment, it will be
indicated in the message's window. You can direct Mail Drop to
download the attachment, or tell Mail Drop to delete the
attachment from the server. (This feature is especially handy if
you receive email via a modem connection.)
Mail Drop has been steadily gaining features, and the latest beta
version supports such niceties as drag & drop from an address book
to recipient fields, drag & drop of files from the Finder into the
attachments list, and drag & drop files between folders on the
mail server. Mail Drop supports AppleDouble, AppleSingle, BinHex,
and true MIME. If you receive a particularly long message, Mail
Drop can only show you the first 32K of the message, but you can
immediately save the entire message for reading in another
program. Mail Drop is also URL-aware: if you command-click on a
URL in the message's body, Mail Drop opens the URL with the
appropriate helper application.
If you are interested in Mail Drop, you can download the latest
beta version from the following URL. Please note that you _must_
have access to an IMAP mail server to use Mail Drop; though many
Internet providers only provide POP3 service, some sites support
both POP3 and IMAP. If you aren't sure about your situation, check
with your Internet provider or system administrator.
<http://ackmo.baylor.edu/files/Mail_Drop/info.html>
Waiting with Beta'd Breath
--------------------------
by Geoff Duncan <geoff@tidbits.com>
It's funny, but at TidBITS hardly a day goes by that we don't hear
about some new piece of "beta" software. Maybe it's a utility
program, a Web browser, a plug-in, or a major commercial
application. Whatever the product, it's in "beta" and someone
wants us to write about it - as a service to our readers, of
course.
Before the widespread popularity of the Internet, "beta" software
was a mysterious and fabled thing. If you knew the right people,
got on the right lists, and went to the right trade shows, someone
_might_ quietly ask you to test some forthcoming software. More
often than not, you had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and
you certainly weren't allowed to talk about the software until it
was officially released. "Public betas" were virtually unheard of,
and even long-standing power users had never head the term.
"Beta?" they'd ask. "What's that mean?"
With the advent of the Internet, however, the "beta" stage of
software development is being redefined, and frankly, I'm not
happy about it. What does "beta" mean, and why are so many
software developers racing to distribute software they admit isn't
finished, and may be unstable and dangerous to use? What's going
on here?
**What Beta (Really) Means** -- Although there's no universal
methodology for software development, serious software products
generally go through a series of development phases. As you might
expect, there are as many variations on these stages and terms as
there are software development efforts. However, an average
application goes through these basic stages:
* Design and prototyping: In this stage, the program's designers
decide upon the purpose, specification, functionality, and
interface of a product, along with its basic feature set,
interface, and technology. Will the product use Apple Guide? What
Macs will it run on? Questions like these are addressed, and some
"proof of concept" programming usually begins. This phrase can go
on for months, or be essentially indistinguishable from the next
stage.
* Development releases (or builds): In this, usually the longest
portion of a product's development, the major features are coded,
assembled, tested, and fixed. Usually, these releases are numbered
and may be referred to as development releases ("d7" or "dr7"),
test releases ("tr7"), or simply builds ("build 7"). The numbers
assist in tracking which release contains a particular problem,
fix, or feature. Products usually have several - even hundreds- of
development releases, depending on the product's complexity.
* Code complete (or alpha): Definitions vary, but the "alpha"
phase of software development usually indicates that _all_ a
program's features have been coded and are testable. Although a
button or menu item might move, appear, or disappear, no major
features remain to be implemented. During alpha, developers focus
on fixing bugs and making the product as stable as possible. A
product may go through dozens of alpha releases, depending on its
complexity and the nature of problems found.
* Beta: When a program reaches the beta stage, its developers have
found and eliminated all known, severe bugs (note that it may well
be impossible to fix - or even find - all severe bugs). Remaining
bugs might be isolated - for instance, only occurring under System
7.0.1 on a PowerBook 100 running an ancient version of
CopyDoubler. Remaining bugs may also be out of the developer's
control, possibly because they are caused by another program or
the operating system. The goal of the beta phase is to see if the
product runs in a stable and reliable fashion on a wide range of
machines; to achieve this, the release is distributed to a wider
audience than development or alpha releases. During beta, bug
fixes or code changes should be carefully considered before being
implemented in order to avoid accidently de-stabilizing the
program. Theoretically, programmers should mostly sit on their
hands during beta, while the software testers do everything
conceivable to break the product. Also in theory, a product should
have few beta releases.
* Release: The final phase of the development process varies
widely. Some products enter a Final Candidate ("fc") phase after
beta, where the product is frozen for a pre-determined period of
time and continues to undergo rigorous testing. If any problems
are found that must be fixed, the Final Candidate process begins
all over again. Some products ship once a sufficiently stable beta
has been achieved, and that beta becomes the shipping product.
Some development teams use a combination, where the final beta
becomes the "golden master," which is sent for manufacturing, but
may be withdrawn if any must-fix problems turn up prior to actual
distribution.
From this, it follows that a beta release theoretically has the
following three properties:
1) The product's technology requirements (both hardware and
software) are fixed, and have been for some time.
2) The product is code and feature complete. No features remain to
be implemented, and all features are present and testable.
3) The product has no known severe outstanding bugs the developers
plan to fix or work around.
Take a moment to think about beta releases of products you may
have used recently, and compare them to the three points above.
Notice anything different?
**What Beta Means Now** -- I'll be the first to admit the
development cycle outline above is idyllic, and doesn't account
for many complicated forces affecting software development.
Competing products often force changes in feature sets, and
marketing or distribution deadlines may cut short any of the
phases above. Similarly, there are inherently unknowable factors:
I once worked on a product whose lead programmer wasn't able to
work for nearly three months due to a case of pneumonia.
Nonetheless, in many cases - particularly with Mac Internet
software - "beta" doesn't mean anything close to what it used to.
We've seen programs in public beta that not only contain
innumerable known bugs the developers are aware of and plan to
fix, but also accumulate major new features through subsequent
releases. Similarly, we've seen products that change fundamental
system and technology requirements during beta - details which
should have been etched in stone long before. Beta often means
what "alpha" or even "development build" used to mean.
**The Race to Beta** -- The emergence of an Internet software
industry (and the Internet itself) are changing the beta process
in two fundamental ways First, Internet betas are fast,
widespread, and (often) cheap. Conducting a beta using traditional
media - floppy disks or CD-ROM - is comparatively expensive and
(more importantly) time consuming. Master disks must be duplicated
and physically delivered to a list of testers, who may not even be
representative of the product's potential users. In contrast,
conducting a beta test via the Internet eliminates time delays as
well as duplication and delivery costs, but more importantly
reaches a wide range of users. In many cases, it also simplifies
communication with beta testers (who all presumably can use
email). Handled properly, a public Internet beta _can_
significantly contribute to the quality of a product, even though
it requires more person-hours to process the higher volume of bug
reports and feedback. Done well, I think a public Internet beta is
in the best interest of both software developers and end users who
feel the need to explore the bleeding edge.
However, there's a flip side. Public betas usually receive a lot
of attention, particularly on mailing lists and newsgroups, as
well as computer industry publications including Macworld,
MacWEEK, Wired, and, yes, TidBITS (we often feel pressure to
report on beta releases being talked about online before we
consider the products worthy of real consideration). What's more,
beta releases are usually subject to less scrutiny than a shipping
product: severe bugs in a beta are often played down or set aside,
while new features and capabilities are hyped. Bugs - even
flagrant, long-standing bugs - are excused because the product is
"just a beta - what did you expect?"
This situation is a marketer's dream come true. Marketers used to
approach the Internet community with "I don't care what you say
about me, just get my URL right." Now, it's "Here's my URL, and it
doesn't matter what you say about me - it's just a beta!" Not only
do the products get publicity, but the company doesn't have to
take as much heat about bugs and incompatibilities.
**Beta Backlash** -- The problem with using public beta testing
for promotional and visibility purposes is that _quality_ of the
product is compromised. Many products labelled "beta" today are
still in active, even furious development, with their programmers
adding and removing features, changing the interface, and doing
serious work to underlying, fundamental code.
I hate to say it, but that's _not_ beta. It's not even alpha.
Careful readers will note this article hasn't used the names of
_any_ specific products or companies. It certainly could have. The
point here isn't to criticize particular companies or products, or
to praise others. The goal is to point out that the process of
software development is undergoing a fundamental change, and users
affected by this shift should be aware of the competing (and often
conflicting) dynamics behind that change. In the next year, I
expect the term "beta" will fade from usage, to be replaced by
various phrases using the word "preview." My advice is to think
seriously before using pre-release software for which developers
and companies assume no responsibility, and to back up your data
early and often.
And the next time someone says "It's a beta, what did you
expect?", tell them: "software that's feature-complete and has no
known serious bugs." That's what beta means.
$$
Non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles if
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