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README.TXT
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1997-07-31
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====================================================================
Lookout for OS/2 - Version 1.00
====================================================================
Table of Contents:
0. What's new in this version?
1. What is Lookout for OS/2?
2. How do I install it?
3. How do I use it?
4. How does it work?
5. Where do I send bug reports & suggestions?
6. Known bugs & what's planned?
7. How do I register?
====================================================================
0. What's new in this version?
Version 1.00 - First GA release. Everything's new!
====================================================================
1. What is Lookout for OS/2?
Lookout for OS/2 is a internet notifier. It will watch Web, FTP and
Gopher sites, and tell you if they have changed. A "Lookout" is
also known as a "bot", an "agent" or an "informant". In this
document, we refer to them as "Lookout"s.
====================================================================
2. How do I install it?
The file lko*.zip should unzip into 2 files, this read.me, and
lookout.zip. Unzip lookout.zip with the -d option into the
directory where you want it to stay. The -d option is needed to
create the "cache" directory.
====================================================================
3. How do I use it?
Start by running lookout.exe. Program settings are saved in lookout.ini,
and information about the various sites is stored in lookout.dat. There
should be a lookout.dat included with this distribution. It will start
you off watching one site, the "Lookout for OS/2 Home Page".
The main window of Lookout contains a list box, where information
about each Lookout is displayed and updated. You can right-click
on a Lookout's line to display a popup menu, with choices of actions
to perform on that Lookout. Here's a list of what you can do:
Create - create a new Web, FTP or Gopher Lookout
Edit - change the settings and parameters for a Lookout
Delete - self-explanatory
Check - have the Lookout check right now if the site has been changed
Reset - change the Lookout's status to "Idle"
Start watching - if the selected Lookout is suspended, start watching it
Stop watching - stop checking the selected Lookout
If the selected Lookout watches an FTP site, you also get the choice:
Details - if an FTP site has changed, this will display a
dialog that lists what files have been added, removed or changed.
To create a new Lookout, select "Lookout|New|Web", or "FTP" or "Gopher".
Most of the fields on the Create & Edit dialogs are obvious. Here are
the not-so-obvious ones:
Gopher:
Selection string - the selection string of the Gopher item
you want to watch. If left blank, will default to a new-line,
which is the Gopher default.
Web:
URL - the "Universal Resource Locator(?)". Basically,
this is what you see in the URL field on a browser.
More... - displays another dialog, where you can enter words
and strings that the program will ignore when comparing two HTML
files to see if a site has changed.
FTP:
Directory - defaults to "/".
More... - displays another dialog, where you can enter file names
and parts of file names that the program will ignore when checking
if an FTP site has changed. "index" is a good one to add here.
Select "Settings|Program settings..." to bring up the settings notebook. Web, FTP
and Gopher each have a notebook page where you can select and enter the client program
used to "view" a Lookout. Also, there is a field to format the command line of the
client program.
For FTP Lookouts, place the following in the "FTP Client Parameters"
field in the order your FTP client needs them: %host %user %password %port %dir
Web Lookouts only recognize one parameter: %URL
Gopher Lookouts recognize %host, %port and %selector
For example, if you want to use the IBM WebExplorer as your Web client, and you normally
start it from the command line with the "-q -t 6" options, in the "Web Client Parameters"
field, you would enter "%URI -q -t 6".
For another example, if you use VXFTP for your FTP client, you could enter the following
command line in "FTP Client Parameters": "%host %user %password %dir".
If a client program that you select is not in your PATH, you must enter the full path to
the program in the "Client" entry field.
====================================================================
4. How does it work?
Each Lookout has a thread that does the checking. Every 30 seconds, the main thread goes
through the list of Lookouts, and sees if it's time for any of them to be checked. If it
is, that Lookout's thread is started, and it does the checking.
====================================================================
5. Where do I send bug reports & suggestions?
Obviously, I need bug reports. But, I am very interested in any ideas you have for improving
the performance and usability of this program. If you have any problems, suggestions or
enhancements, please send them to:
ckennedy@primenet.com
Also, use Lookout to watch the Lookout for OS/2 home page, at
http://www.primenet.com/~ckennedy/software/lookout
This distribution contains a lookout.dat file with the information for this site.
====================================================================
6. Known bugs & what's planned?
If the program is interrupted/exitted while one of the Lookouts is in the "Checking"
state, the next time you run the program, it may crash. If you suffer a crash,
delete the contents of the "cache" directory, then start the program again.
What's not implemented yet?
*POSTPONED - Applying temporary overrides permanently, on the "Global Overrides" page of the settings notebook.
What's planned?
Near-term ( before general availability )
*SORTA DONE - fix the interrupt/cache bug
*UNDOCUMENTED FEATURE! - add intelligence about the command line formats of different clients
*OOPS, PROBLEM, POSTPONED NOT DONE - add a toolbar
*POSTPONED - applying the overrides
*POSTPONED - Re-package Visual Age C++ dll's to reduce size.
Mid-term ( version 1.1? )
- ability to kill off a "hung" socket
- modularize the code
- allow adding files to ignore list from the "Details" dialog
- allow FTP'ing of files from the "Details" dialog
- applying temporary overrides.
Long-term ( version 2.0 )
- bring down entire web pages, for offline browsing
- ability to watch more than one page/directory/selection at a site
- use notebook as main user interface, with Lookout as one page
- add pages for mail checker, ping, finger, webster
====================================================================
7. How do I register?
Please see the file "register.txt" included with this distribution.
====================================================================
Chris Kennedy
July 31, 1997
Frugal Software
ckennedy@primenet.com
http://www.primenet.com/~ckennedy/software/lookout