home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
Text File | 1995-08-23 | 29.2 KB | 603 lines | [TEXT/ttxt] |
- TidBITS#290/14-Aug-95
- =====================
-
- This week we bring you news from last week's MacWorld Expo in
- Boston, with info on exciting and noteworthy products like the
- show-stealing WYSIWYG HTML tools PageMill and SiteMill, plus
- Nisus MailKeeper and SoftWindows 2.0. If you don't have real
- Internet access, check out an overview of FTP via AOL and
- CompuServe, plus get the real info on the SLIP patch for
- Netscape 1.1 and the rumors of Microsoft buying a stake in
- Turner Broadcasting.
-
- 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>
- * Hayden Books, an imprint of Macmillan Computer Publishing
- Free shipping on orders via the Web -- http://www.mcp.com/
- Mac Tip of the Day & free books! -- http://www.mcp.com/hayden/
- * Power Computing -- 800/375-7693 -- <info@powercc.com>
- Now shipping... The Award-Winning First MacOS Compatible!
- See what the press says! http://www.powercc.com/News/quotes.html
-
- Copyright 1990-1995 Adam & Tonya Engst. Details at end of issue.
- Information: <info@tidbits.com> Comments: <editors@tidbits.com>
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Topics:
- MailBITS/14-Aug-95
- MacWorld Expo Notes
- PageMill and SiteMill: HTML Tools for the Rest of Us
- Commercial FTP: AOL and CIS
- Reviews/14-Aug-95
-
- ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/1995/TidBITS#290_14-Aug-95.etx
-
-
- MailBITS/14-Aug-95
- ------------------
-
- **More Netscape SLIP Patch Info** -- We have more information
- about the recently released update to Netscape 1.1N (see
- TidBITS-289_). First, the patch is intended for SLIP users, and
- shouldn't make any difference for users with PPP connections or
- direct Internet access. Second, the patch only applies to Netscape
- 1.1N; users who purchased Netscape 1.1 and want the patch should
- download a copy of 1.1N and patch that version. So, if you use a
- SLIP connection and experience problems with Netscape 1.1, you
- might want to try the update. Be sure to keep an unpatched version
- of Netscape around in case the fix doesn't help. [GD]
-
- ftp://ftp.netscape.com//netscape/mac/slip_patch/
-
-
- **Bill and Ted's Excellent Network?** The Los Angeles Times
- reported last week that Bill Gates and Ted Turner recently met in
- Seattle to discuss Microsoft buying a $1 to $2 billion stake in
- Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Microsoft is said to be
- interested in both the CNN brand name and in Turner's video
- library for use on the Microsoft Network; Turner is probably
- interested in an infusion of cash either to buy back Time Warner's
- 18 percent share of his company or to make a bid for CBS, the
- broadcast network currently being purchased by Westinghouse. If
- this goes through, perhaps we can look forward to the release of
- "Casablanca 96." [GD]
-
-
- **MSN to Offer TCP Services, Mac Client?** Bill Miller, director
- of marketing and business development for Microsoft Network (MSN),
- said Thursday that MSN will offer direct TCP/IP connections in the
- first half of 1996 on a city-by-city basis for a fixed
- subscription rate. Miller also said that MSN will be available to
- Macintosh users a year after MSN's introduction on 24-Aug-95. Time
- will tell, but I wouldn't be surprised if these statements were
- only half true. [GD]
-
-
- **Third Party and Vendor Directories** -- Apple Developer Services
- recently released the Third Party Products Web Database, a series
- of Web pages that contain short descriptions of products, along
- with live links and/or email addresses for vendors. The listing
- can be viewed either by category or alphabetically, and though it
- isn't yet comprehensive, it seems off to a good start. Of course,
- the ultimate vendor listing has been and remains at Elliotte
- Harold's Well-Connected Mac, which now lists over 1,300 Mac-
- related vendors. [GD]
-
- http://www.info.apple.com/dev/thirdparty/third_party.html
- http://www.macfaq.com/vendor.html
-
-
- MacWorld Expo Notes
- -------------------
- by Adam C. Engst <ace@tidbits.com>
-
- Another MacWorld Expo has come and gone, and I was heartened by
- some changes from previous years. First, and pleasant for those
- attendees who don't hail from the tropics, both the temperature
- and humidity were reasonable for most of the week. More important
- was the fact that the show had more energy to it than previous
- years, and it had more products that might interest a large
- proportion of Macintosh users.
-
-
- **PageMill and SiteMill** -- The software product names on
- everyone's lips were PageMill and SiteMill from Ceneca Software
- (see Tonya's article in this issue for more information). The $195
- PageMill is a WYSIWYG HTML editor that works as it should, without
- relying on any codes or much knowledge of HTML itself. The more
- expensive SiteMill, although priced out of the range of the
- individual at about $795, enables you to easily manage an entire
- Web site.
-
-
- **SpeedDoubler** from Connectix also garnered some attention with
- its claim to significantly improve the performance of emulated
- applications on Power Macs. It includes some features for 68K
- Macs, intelligent disk caching and faster copying and trashing
- code, but the impressive feat is speeding up performance of
- emulated applications. Connectix claims that the $99 SpeedDoubler
- (street price of about $60) outperforms even the new 68K emulator
- included in the Power Mac 9500 and its more recent brethren.
- Connectix also showed a tape loop of the movies that won their
- QuickCam contest - some of them are hilarious and may show up on
- the Web soon. Connectix -- 800/950-5880 -- 415/571-5100 --
- 415/571-5195 (fax) -- <connectix@aol.com>
-
-
- **Digital cameras** have become increasingly popular, and we give
- the $750 Casio QV-10 digital camera (available soon at major
- electronics stores) honors for coolest hardware toy at the show,
- thanks to its active-matrix, full-motion display and other
- innovative features. Electronic images are great, but sometimes
- you just have to print them for the set of grandparents you
- haven't yet turned on to the Internet, and for that Fargo's $500
- ($400 at the show) FotoFun printer would be perfect, since it's a
- 4" by 6" dye-sublimation color printer. Several companies were
- shipping lenses and accessories for the QuickTake, including a
- tripod accessory that simplifies the process of taking pictures at
- the set angles necessary for creating QuickTime VR movies.
- Fargo -- 800/327-4694 -- 612/941-9470
-
- http://www.fargo.com/
-
-
- **I.R.I.S DataPen** -- A close second to the Casio camera for
- neatest hardware device of the show was the I.R.I.S. DataPen,
- which scans and performs OCR on single lines of text. It's shaped
- like a bulky pen, and you have to be careful to move the pen over
- the line of text without varying too much and at a constant speed,
- but it enters the text into any Mac application where you'd
- normally type. The recognition isn't perfect, especially on
- strange fonts or small text (and the DataPen can't do text larger
- than its scanning head), but for certain data entry operations
- (say, stock quotes or census figures), the DataPen could be your
- friend. IRIS -- 408/255-7190
-
-
- **MailKeeper** -- Along with the native version of Nisus Writer
- 4.1, Nisus Software shipped a neat little utility called
- MailKeeper. Although aimed at email, MailKeeper looks as though it
- will be the "textbase" program that I've wanted for so long now.
- You can easily capture any text selection and send it to
- MailKeeper, where MailKeeper automatically categorizes the
- information, recognizing special elements like email addresses and
- URLs. You can drag URLs from MailKeeper into Netscape, and it's
- extremely easy to narrow the set of items stored in MailKeeper in
- order to find what you want. A full review of MailKeeper is
- definitely forthcoming. Nisus Software -- 800/890-3030 --
- 619/481-1477 -- 619/481-6154 (fax) -- <info@nisus-soft.com>
-
- http://www.nisus-soft.com/~nisus/
-
-
- **You've Heard It A Thousand Times** -- If in future issues you
- notice the titles and jokes in TidBITS becoming more of a
- punishing experience, it will be because we plan to test drive
- Eccentric Software's A Zillion Kajillion Rhymes and Cliches. A
- Zillion Kajillion Rhymes has been around for a while, but it now
- has 20 percent more rhymes, a new interface, and comes with a new
- Cliches feature. Type in most any word, and the program offers a
- list of cliches and catch phrases that include the word. The
- program lists for $49.95, and Eccentric Software sells it for
- $39.95. Eccentric Software -- 800/436-6758 -- 206/628-2687 --
- 206/628-2681 (fax) -- <xcentric@aol.com>
-
-
- **Retrospect 3.0** -- Dantz Development showed pre-release
- versions of their new Retrospect and Retrospect Remote 3.0 backup
- software. New features stem from a rethinking of how users
- actually back up information, resulting in EasyScript, which asks
- users a few questions and then creates a custom backup script for
- them; Backup Server, which uses guidelines established by a
- network administrator to adapt to changing network configurations
- (such as PowerBooks appearing and disappearing); and finally, the
- concept of Groups, which enables easy backup of certain sets of
- machines on the network. Dantz -- 510/253-3000 -- 510/253-9099
- (fax) -- <info@dantz.com>
-
-
- **SoftWindows 2.0** -- Insignia Solutions released SoftWindows
- 2.0, the much-awaited Power Mac-only upgrade to its PC emulator.
- Speed is still the main limitation, with performance claims of
- 486SX speeds, but SoftWindows 2.0 now emulates a 486 CPU rather
- than the 286 chip emulated in 1.0. This change allows programs
- which require Windows Enhanced mode to run under SoftWindows,
- something not previously possible. Insignia -- 415/335-7100 --
- 415/335-7105 (fax) -- <mactech@isinc.insignia.com>
-
- http://www.insignia.com/
-
-
- **Windows 95 Absent** -- Windows 95 demos were conspicuously
- absent from Microsoft's spacious booth, although Windows 95 was
- reportedly running on Orange Micro DOS cards. A friend who was
- working at the Microsoft booth said that a number of people had
- come up and asked to see it but that (a) the people working at the
- Microsoft booth were Mac folks and (b) they didn't want to be
- tarred and feathered, an activity of some historical note in
- Boston.
-
-
- **MacWEEK Every Day** -- MacWEEK editors were in short supply on
- the show floor, since they were holed up at the Four Seasons Hotel
- putting out eight-page, daily versions of the industry weekly. We
- heard that even with an impromptu Ethernet network of rented Macs
- and various cool hardware on loan for the show (such as a pricey
- Nikon digital camera), the task of meeting daily deadlines on top
- of the usual weekly deadline was a major challenge. MacWEEK takes
- a good bit of flak (with nicknames like "MacLeak"), but it's one
- of our favorite publications and we enjoyed the daily versions.
- [I'd like to say it's one of my favorite publications too;
- unfortunately, Ziff-Davis has spent the last ten months messing up
- my subscription. -Geoff]
-
-
- **Netscape and Apple** -- Flush with money from its record-
- breaking IPO (initial public offering), the new billion dollar
- baby Netscape Communications and Apple announced plans for a
- future version of Netscape Navigator to support Apple's QuickTime
- VR. What with support for Adobe's Acrobat PDF format, Macromedia's
- Shockwave technology, and the Java programming language from Sun,
- it's going to take Netscape a while to incorporate code from all
- these strategic alliances. Apple also announced the Apple Internet
- Connection Kit, a $59 package reminiscent of my
- _Internet_Starter_Kit_for_Macintosh_ disk, although Apple includes
- Netscape and an Internet-only version of Emailer instead of MacWeb
- and Eudora. More important differences include Apple Guide
- information, a dialer application that uses Netscape's Internet
- registration service with only a few national providers, and a lot
- less Internet documentation.
-
-
- PageMill and SiteMill: HTML Tools for the Rest of Us
- ----------------------------------------------------
- by Tonya Engst <tonya@tidbits.com>
-
- Boston MacWorld had more of a buzz than the last few major
- MacWorld Expos, and that buzz came in no small part from the
- steady hum of Internet talk, with an emphasis on HTML and the Web.
- (This was the first MacWorld Expo where many of the booths had T-1
- connections.) I spent a few hours in the booth of my book
- publisher, Hayden, and watched a steady stream of people walk over
- to the Internet section, pick up a few books with "HTML" or "Web"
- in their titles, and then walk over to the cash register without
- even looking through the books.
-
- In terms of HTML products, several word processors sported HTML
- features, including the currently shipping ClarisWorks 4.0 with
- its HTML export capability, the currently shipping NisusWriter 4.1
- with an improved set of Sandra Silcot's excellent HTML macros, and
- the soon-to-be-released WordPerfect 3.5 with its HTML features.
- WordPerfect 3.5 will export to HTML and has some WYSIWYG-like HTML
- editing features (plus table-creation and link resolution), but
- it's not a complete solution except for simple HTML documents.
- WordPerfect takes many of the ideas in today's crop of shareware
- HTML tools, cleans them up a bit, and pushes them a little
- further. Finally, although it's not a sure thing, Microsoft
- continues to consider the possibility of releasing a Macintosh
- version of its Internet Assistant for Word 6.
-
- Evolutionary add-ons to word processors get a smattering of
- applause, but the HTML tools I've been waiting for appeared at the
- show, in the form of two programs - PageMill and SiteMill.
- Developed by a new company, Ceneca Communications, the programs
- offer outstanding tools for making Web pages and managing Web
- sites.
-
-
- **PageMill** -- Simply put, PageMill is the PageMaker of the Web.
- Previous attempts at a WYSIWYG approach have had edges rough
- enough to give splinters; PageMill is polished, professional, and
- utterly Mac-like (not surprising given the Apple and Taligent
- backgrounds of the people who started Ceneca Software). PageMill
- users need not know any HTML whatsoever - creating Web documents
- in any other program is like writing Word documents in RTF,
- Microsoft's human-unreadable Rich Text Format. Mac users almost
- never do anything in straight RTF, and they overwhelmingly
- rejected the idea of WordPerfect's codes, so I expect that given
- an option like PageMill, many Mac users will reject the idea of
- using (or even knowing) HTML tags.
-
- Working with PageMill is much like working in a simple page layout
- program - you can type text or use drag and drop to add text from
- pre-existing files. You can use drag and drop to add graphics
- (PICTs are automatically converted to GIFs), and a built-in
- graphics tool can do interlacing, transparent backgrounds, and
- image maps. PageMill can import existing HTML documents and
- correct errors in those documents. PageMill demos extremely well,
- and I'll save more specific comments for when I review the program
- later this year.
-
- PageMill supports HTML 2.0 (which includes forms) and some
- Netscape extensions (but not tables in this version). If Ceneca
- priced PageMill for $50 or less, I think they could sell the
- program to virtually every Web-savvy Macintosh user on the planet.
- Instead, Ceneca plans to sell the program for around $200,
- restricting its use to Web professionals and businesses. Although
- I think the price is steep, perhaps the high price will keep the
- number of customers to a manageable level. Ceneca's greatest
- challenge may be in growing fast enough to keep up with interest
- in their product - PageMill was easily the most-talked-about
- product at the show. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the
- program acquired or at least marketed by a larger organization
- like Apple or Claris; rumor has it that Guy Kawasaki is trumpeting
- the importance of PageMill and SiteMill within Apple, and from
- what I've seen, PageMill is the best HTML editor available on any
- platform.
-
-
- **SiteMill** -- PageMill's companion program, SiteMill, helps you
- manage a Web site, and each main feature happens in a different
- view:
-
- * Site View offers a hierarchical Finder-like overview of what
- resources are on your site, including pages, graphics, scripts,
- and so on. In this view, you can rename or move any item, and all
- links to that item will automatically change as well. The view
- also helps you identify errors relating to links.
-
- * External References View shows all external links from your
- site. If an external link's URL changes, you can update all
- external links to that URL in one easy step.
-
- * Error View helps you fix up links in sites created without the
- help of SiteMill. You'd probably only use this view to fix up an
- existing site that you've decided to manage with SiteMill, since
- making errors in SiteMill itself is difficult.
-
- * Finally, Page View is essentially the same as the full PageMill
- application, so if you buy SiteMill, you need not also buy a copy
- of PageMill.
-
- SiteMill also demos extremely well, and I'll save a more detailed
- look for when I review SiteMill later this year. SiteMill will
- list for $795.
-
- Both programs require a 3 MB memory allocation, a color-capable
- Macintosh, and run on any version of System 7. Ceneca plans to
- ship them in the "third calendar quarter" of 1995. At a later
- date, Ceneca also plans to release Windows and Unix versions of
- both products.
-
- http://www.ceneca.com/
-
- Ceneca Communications -- 415/842-6810 -- 415/842-6818 (fax)
- <info@ceneca.com>
- Claris Corporation -- 800/544-8554 -- 408/727-9054 (support)
- <info@claris.com>
- Nisus Software -- 800/890-3030 -- 619/481-1477
- 619/481-6154 (fax) -- <info@nisus-soft.com>
- Novell Applications Group -- 800/451-5151 -- 801/225-5000
- 801/228-5077 (fax) -- <wpsupport@aol.com> (support)
-
-
- Commercial FTP: AOL and CIS
- ---------------------------
- by Travis Butler <tbutler@fileshop.com>
-
- For people without access to a direct Internet connection, both
- the CompuServe Information Service (CIS) and America Online (AOL)
- have added graphical FTP capabilities through their client
- software. (For those unfamiliar with FTP, it stands for File
- Transfer Protocol and is the major way of transferring files on
- the Internet.) Unfortunately, although they are a godsend for
- those who don't have direct access and can't use MacTCP-based
- programs like Anarchie or Fetch, both CompuServe's and AOL's FTP
- services leave much to be desired. Of course, CompuServe now has
- PPP dialup access for its customers (see TidBITS-274_), so
- CompuServe users with MacTCP and MacPPP can use the excellent
- Anarchie or Fetch programs for FTP. Rumor has it AOL may add some
- sort of direct Internet connection in the future as well.
-
-
- **FTP on America Online** -- AOL was the first commercial service
- to offer FTP through a graphical client, and although the client
- is graphical and functional, it's not great. In a nutshell, AOL's
- FTP makes me feel like I'm wading through treacle; it's none too
- speedy, and using it requires a multitude of mouse clicks,
- windows, and dialogs, interspersed with seemingly interminable
- periods staring at a spinning beachball cursor. The actual file
- retrieval goes relatively quickly, but getting to that point takes
- too much effort. For instance, although AOL's FTP can handle most
- directories, dealing with a large directory requires clicking a
- More button one or more times in order to view the entire
- directory listing.
-
- Another disadvantage of AOL's FTP system is its excessively
- hierarchical organization. When you go to keyword "FTP" you get a
- dialog allowing you to search for FTP sites (limited and almost
- useless in my experience), a list of help information, and a Go to
- FTP button. New users may want to see this dialog; unfortunately,
- experienced users are unable to skip it. Clicking on the Go to FTP
- button brings up a short list of Favorite Sites like
- <ftp.info.apple.com>, <ftp.borland.com> (for Windows users), and
- <ftp.microsoft.com>. If you don't want to access one of these, you
- must click an Other Site button in order to use a dialog that
- permits you enter the name of the FTP site you want. Ideally, AOL
- should provide a keyword that takes you directly to this dialog.
-
- Although the Other Site dialog does not allow you to specify a
- directory to display, a useful shortcut lets you paste an FTP URL
- (such as you might copy out of TidBITS) that points at a
- directory, not a file (just lop off the filename if present), to
- go to a particular directory on a remote site. Once you find the
- desired file, you double-click it and get another dialog with
- information about the file, and another button to click before you
- actually start downloading. Chugging through these steps every
- time, even if you know exactly what you want, makes AOL's FTP feel
- sluggish.
-
- AOL's FTP does have a couple of points in its favor. Although it
- overloads you with windows early on, it does open non-modal
- windows that you can leave open and switch between once you
- connect to a site, or you can switch to another application to do
- something else or check information. Even though you can only work
- in one window at a time, it's handy to be able to switch back to a
- different one easily. In contrast, CompuServe's single modal
- dialog complicates the process of moving back and forth in an FTP
- site.
-
- If you retrieve a GIF file, AOL's FTP displays the file as you
- retrieve it, just as AOL does with its own files. AOL tries to
- keep original file names within the Mac's 31 characters - a
- refreshing feature after dealing with CIS's butchery of file
- names. And although AOL's option to search for file sites is
- limited, it's better than nothing (which is what CIS provides).
-
- Perhaps most interesting is that AOL retrieves files to the AOL
- host from the remote FTP site before downloading them to your Mac.
- Thus, once a file starts downloading to your machine, you can
- abort the transfer and make it finish later during a FlashSession.
- This is a unique feature, and makes up in large part for AOL's
- somewhat clumsy interface. Of course, the seriously paranoid will
- note that such a technique could constitute more of a security
- breach than a straight FTP connection if you're transferring
- sensitive information.
-
-
- **FTP on CompuServe** -- CIS's FTP client has an unusual modal
- interface (which requires CompuServe Information Manager) and has
- its own frustrating problems.
-
- When you GO FTP, you see a single window that lists help files and
- offers access to CompuServe's internal File Finders (they search
- inside CIS, not the contents of FTP sites). This window also
- provides a button for Selected Popular Sites, a button for an
- almost identical List of Sites, and a button for accessing any
- specific site you wish. The huge and badly-designed modal dialog
- for selecting a particular site does allow you to explicitly
- specify a directory on the remote site. Although you will have to
- reconnect if you don't give a valid directory path, the ability to
- pick a specific directory can be a big timesaver, although it's
- clumsier than pasting in an FTP URL.
-
- Once you sign on to a site, you're shown a modal dialog with any
- messages from the site (just like AOL), and clicking OK displays a
- single modal dialog that lists the available subdirectories of the
- current directory in the left pane, and the files in the current
- directory in the right pane. To move into a subdirectory, double-
- click it; to move out, click the Back button. Either way, both
- lists update to show the information for the current directory.
- Unlike most list dialogs on the Mac, each entry (a filename,
- frustratingly truncated if it's too long since the dialog is not
- resizable) has a checkbox next to it; to retrieve a file, select
- the checkbox and click Retrieve. A useful Filter button lets you
- use wildcards to view only certain files in a directory; all files
- ending in ".txt", for example.
-
- Unlike AOL, you do all your work in this single modal dialog. Some
- (like me) may prefer the limited window clutter this technique
- results in, others may prefer the more confusing (if more
- flexible) set of multiple windows available via AOL's FTP client.
-
- Unfortunately, the basic simplicity of the interface is marred by
- several major design flaws. For example, the way CIS FTP uses
- checkboxes to select the files to retrieve makes it look easy to
- retrieve a batch of files at once, but in practice it's not. If
- you select several files to download and click Retrieve, CIS FTP
- will ask you to save each file just before it downloads it, so you
- can't select a group of files and leave the computer unattended.
- In fact, because of its problem with file names, I find it _less_
- convenient to select a group of files than to download them one by
- one. The use of checkboxes may also erroneously imply to some that
- you can mark multiple files for downloading in different
- directories and then get them all at once.
-
- Speaking of file names, CIS FTP handles file names with the elan
- of a lumberjack dancing "Swan Lake." First, it truncates all file
- names to the DOS standard of eight characters with a three
- character extension. Although this is understandable for DOS
- users, it is highly annoying for Mac users. When you consider that
- OS/2, Windows NT, and Windows 95 break the DOS straitjacket on
- file names, I call it unacceptable.
-
- Even worse, if the file name has multiple periods, CIS FTP ignores
- everything between the first and last period. Therefore, a name
- like "ford.engine.gear.eps" would be truncated to "ford.eps" when
- downloaded. Multiple words separated by periods are a common
- convention in Internet file names. The way CIS FTP truncates file
- names will at best confuse; at worst, if you are retrieving two
- files with similar names, you could easily overwrite the first
- file with the second. Luckily, CIS FTP uses a Standard File dialog
- to save, so if you remember the name you can retype it correctly
- before saving.
-
- CIS FTP also has some bugs with displaying files and
- subdirectories. If a directory list contains a number of
- subdirectories, CIS FTP will sometimes display some of the
- subdirectories in the list of files, where you cannot access them.
- Far worse, if you enter a directory that has no subdirectories,
- the subdirectory list will incorrectly retain the names from the
- previous directory. Similarly, if you enter a directory that has
- no files, the file list will incorrectly retain the file names
- from the previous directory.
-
- Unlike AOL, CIS FTP does enable you to upload to FTP sites that
- allow you to do so; however, this feature is extremely error-
- prone, and worked rather sporadically in testing.
-
-
- **What About Searching?** Neither AOL nor CIS provide an interface
- for doing Archie searches. Archie is a method of searching FTP
- sites for file names that match certain criteria; while far from
- perfect, it's one of the few games in town if you don't know where
- a particular file might live. The lack of an Archie client makes
- it difficult to use either AOL or CIS FTP unless you already have
- some idea where to look. Since both services are aimed at more
- novice users, it's surprising neither has set up an Archie server
- for internal use (much like AOL has done with a Veronica server
- for searching for Gopher sites).
-
-
- **And The Winner Is...** Well, it's a bit of a toss-up. Both are
- better than nothing if you don't have a MacTCP connection to use
- Anarchie or Fetch, but both have flaws that hurt their usability.
- I can't recommend either as a preferred way to retrieve files but
- either will work in a pinch or if you have no other choices.
-
-
- Reviews/14-Aug-95
- -----------------
-
- * MacWEEK -- 07-Aug-95, Vol. 9, #31
- FrameMaker 5.0 -- pg. 71
- Kodak Digital Camera 40 -- pg. 71
- Apple QuickTake 150 -- pg. 73
- Network Fax Servers -- pg. 78
- Faxcom for Macintosh 2.0
- FirstClass Fax Gateway 2.0
- 4-Sight Fax 3.0
-
- * InfoWorld -- 07-Aug-95, Vol. 17, #32
- Apple PCI Power Macs -- pg. 1
- Now Up-to-Date & Contact 3.5
- ClarisImpact 2.0 -- pg. 80
- Vellum 3D -- pg. 81
-
-
- $$
-
- Non-profit, non-commercial publications may reprint articles if
- full credit is given. Others please contact us. We don't guarantee
- accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication, product, and
- company names may be registered trademarks of their companies.
-
- This file is formatted as setext. For more information send email
- to <setext@tidbits.com>. A file will be returned shortly.
-
- For information on TidBITS: how to subscribe, where to find back
- issues, and other useful stuff, send email to: <info@tidbits.com>
- Send comments and editorial submissions to: <editors@tidbits.com>
- Issues available at: ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/pub/tidbits/issues/
- And: http://www.dartmouth.edu/pages/TidBITS/TidBITS.html
- To search back issues with WAIS, use this URL via a Web browser:
- http://www.wais.com/wais-dbs/macintosh-tidbits.html
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
-
-