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HISTORY.TXT
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1997-03-13
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History of Arachne WWW browser
------------------------------
1.0 beta 7
----------
Release date: 13th March 1997
Bug fixes: Stack overflow. Image loading and JPEG conversin bugs.
Horizontal keyboard scroll bug (Shift+End).
Change: Arachne now requires 460 kB of DOS memory (580 with PPP).
Improvements: New ARACHNE.CFG variables: F3key (you can replace 'file:*.*'
default string), AutoF3key Yes/No ('file:*.*' when offline,
'http://' when online), SearchPage (will appear after pressing
F7). AltNameServer and AltGateway variables now allow to add
add second nameserver and gateway directly to ARACHNE.CFG
1.0 beta 6
----------
Release date: 5th March 1997
Bug fixes: Proxy support was finally implemented !
PPP.LOG file is now being opened by C sopen(), not open()
function, so file sharing errors in Windows DOS box should
disappear (but it was tested only with SHARE.EXE).
Improvements: 4 "Memory modes" implemented: "CRISIS","LOW","NORMAL","COOL".
Arachne now requires only 450 kB offline and 570 kB with PPP,
but users of QEMM, MEMMAKER or DR-DOS who have more
than 600 kB available will see no difference ("COOL" mode).
Palette mixing is now several times faster (better algorithm).
Free utility PKTSTAT can be called from utilities page.
Someone sent me newer version of EtherPPP (PPP.EXE); seems
to work at least not worse than the old one. And the graphical
PPP setup was changed to behave more functional.
Bug reports: JPEGs do not always behave as they should. The bug is not
yet fixed, because the other bug fixes had higher priority.
Message: New Scientist called Arachne "browser for poor". But I don't
think I am poor just because I don't want to buy new computer
ever year! Good news: Arachne will be incorporated as native
browser in Caldera OpenDOS operating system.
1.0 beta 5
----------
Release date: 16th February 1997
Bug fixes: some of image redraw bugs fixed
Improvements: images in 16 color VGA and EGA modes, <Scroll Lock> activates
"Lynx mode" - surfing with cursor keys. <Backspace> = history,
<Shift> + <Home>, <Shift> + <End> = horizontal scroll.
Some HTML/2.0 entities. <A HREF="#..."> ... <A NAME="...">
"Kill hotlist" icon in Utilities page - example of DGI
Message: Number of visitors of Arachne homepage was increased hundered
times after publishing of short article in PointCast.
Many new mirror sites will be announced soon.
Microsoft offered me to move to Redmond and work for them -
really, I am not joking ;)
Possible use of Arachne in a single-chip Net Computer.
Arachne will be used in WebTyme - internet slot machine.
In future, Arachne may be integrated into GEOS and OpenDos
operating systems as native browser, if everything goes well.
To Jan Patera: sorry, to vraceni grafickeho modu jsem zase
nechal ve skole ;-)))
Note: You would expect teen hackers to perfectly manage low level
graphics or so, and senior programmers to be rather system
administrators, etc. Reality: I am 23, my father is 50.
If you like image viewing in 16 color VGA and EGA mode
(as well as very good palette otimization),
send credits to my father ;-)
1.0 beta 4
----------
Release date: 27th January 1997
Bug fixes: tables ("Netscape homepage bug" and others), hotkeys bugs,
"yahoo search bug" (error in form submitting), ">" entity,
Linux POP3 download bug, conversion bugs, many other bugs.
Cache size restricted to 256 files to reduce problems.
Improvements: 16 color VGA and EGA modes, registration key support,
links to <FRAME> sources (!), query strings passed to DGIs,
<Backspace> returns to previous document, <Shift>+<PgUp>,<PgDn>,
Message: There are signals, that in future Arachne may be used in
some slot-machines for public Internet access. This can mean
that more people taking care about optimizing pages for Arachne
and other "Other" browsers, like Lynx, Mosaic, etc.
It can be important step forcing webmasters to keep
high informational value of WWW and stop the latest "putting
TV-shit online" trends. REGISTER NOW to keep Arachne project
alive! Final release of 1.0 will appear until end of February.
Warning: No more changing homepage with <F4> in Volkov commander!
I take no responsibility for possible side effects of cracking
CORE.EXE, remember, I am not so bad programer... <g>
1.0 beta 3
----------
Release date: 6th January 1997
Bug fixes: tables, documentation, miscalaneous bugs
Improvements: background download of HTML documents, slight speed improvement,
1024x768 graphics mode, keyboard select <Tab>.
Message: Author have new e-mail address - xchaos@main.naf.cz
1.0 beta 2
----------
Release date: 22th December 1996
Bug fixes: gopher, finger, jpeg conversion, DGI calls, some HTML entities
Improvements: EscExits and LoadImages variable in ARACHNE.CFG, Load images
icon, Arachne now calls external telnet and ftp, public domain
Clarkson Univesity telnet and ftp binaries added to package
The way to 1.0 beta
-------------------
I first attempted to compile some DOS TCP/IP application at university in 1995.
It was based on NCSA Telnet sources, and for some strange reasons, the
attempt was complete failure. I didn't know much about TCP/IP at that time.
Then I started working as a webmaster for Video On Line, where I had
enought spare time to learn about TCP/IP protocols, to search WWW for
important software.... I started to hate Windows 95 as I was forced to
work with them. I started also with C programming for Unix, etc.
One day I tried to search Altavista for "WWW browser for DOS" - and I was
very surprised, that it found nothing! Well, there were about three or four
pseudo-browsers (Doslynx, Knots, Minuet and Open World Navigator), which
were so useless compared to Netscape, that I decided to try it on my own.
In fact, another DOS browser, SPIN, would probably discourage me from writing
Arachne, because the version I had oportunity to see last month was almost
usable. But it was also extremely unstable, and generaly, it could be compared
to Arachne somewhere in versions 0.91-0.92. And it was also much slower, at
least on my computer.
The reason why Arachne is so good is, that software included in Arachne
package is result of years of work of many good programers. Only few of
them are people I know... that's the cyberspace! My work can be best
described as "source code archeology" :-).
I only came, and linked it all together. Well, I also wrote HTML rendering
engine but compared to TCP/IP kernel, my HTML engine is children's toy.
Arachne is in fact based on "Popdump" aplication distributed
as example for using WatTcp TCP/IP library. I started work in April 1996
and I released several alfaversions (0.7, 0.8, etc...) for testing.
Then, when I made version about 0.9?? and started testing online homepage,
one of testers added my URL to Altavista, and it is the reason why
alfaversions 0.9?? ... 0.99 spreaded among people. When Arachne was once
"released", I simply had to fix the major bugs and publish at least
the most important updates.
In fact, my first official release was version 1.0 beta, and it
is also where the history list will start. I will not mention
any bug fixes form alfaversion, except of one: I succesfuly fixed the packet
driver interrupt crash (it was occuring in the moment when Arachne was
accessing XMS, which happens very often). It was most important event in
the alfaversion history. This bug is fixed cca since version 0.93 or so.
So - please DELETE ANY ARACHNE OLDER THAN VERSION 1.0 beta and upgrade !!!
Michal Polak, xChaos software