IBrowse Demo Release 8a

This is the eighth official demo release of IBrowse (96-07-17)

I had to change the cache format so the cached files will be lost. If you configure IBrowse to use your old cache dir, flush the cache (Cache->Disk cache->Clean)

Note about proxy servers: Enter your proxy host as http://host:port in the preferences. If you proxy supports ftp and gopher you can enter http://host:port in the http and gopher strings too. (Note: http://)

To install and run Ibrowse do the following

Delete all old IBrowse related files. (You may save your hotlist) Dearchive it where you want it. (A dir will be created) Start it and start prefs to configure where you want to have the cache dir. (If you are afraid of hd crashes, you can have the cache in ram: until you believe that IBrowse is stable!)

Since this is a demo release, some functions are removed:

It can only open 2 network connections. You may only have 1 window open. Mailto interface is disabled. telnet interface is disabled. ftp and gopher are disabled. gifanims only loop 5 times + a couple of more that you'll like when you see the final release...

Miscellaneous information

The last demo release created lots of problems to some people and most of them was their own faults. You should _not_ copy any libs out of the IBrowse dir. And you _must_ remove all old files, libraries etc from the last demo. Failure to do so will most likely result in the 'Cannot open url message'

The progressive image decoders should now be stable on OCS/ECS/AGA/CYBERGFX systems. It should work on any screen depth in CyberGfx.

Many people have contributed to this release with many useful bugreports. Thank you very much!

I have put together a sample prefs file with the most common mime types configured. I have used multiview as the main viewer, but you can change it to whatever you like. Please note that the 'External w. Pipe' mode isn't implemented yet.

If you don't like the spinning anim or if you thinks it takes too much time, you can use the other one supplied in '/Images' rename the old and copy def_TransferAnimationNM#? to def_TransferAnimation. It is a static picture. If you thinks it uses too much colors, you can replace it with a custom picture. (Check the files and you'll understand. Do also check the .info files because they contain size info)

IBrowse should now be stable when you abort loading in all cases. If you still have problems, please let me know asap.

Please not that you do not have to copy any libraries from the IBrowse dir. If you do so, you'll most likely see problems in the future (like you did with the v0.67 release)

The most important changes from R3a

The most important changes from R4a

The most important changes from R5

The most important change from R6a

The most important change from R7

The most important change from R7a are

The most important change from R8 are

Note: Some people have reported problems with IBrowse and the new 24bit datatypes. I have found that the problem is in many cases a bug in the KS3.1 rom. If IBrowse fails with a guru 8000000B this is most likely caused by this. In that case, please try to show the picture with multiview. If that fails too, it is not IBrowse fault. Afaik this only occurs on 040 based machines running KS3.1 To correct this, there is a patch on Aminet: 'util/boot/MathPatch.lha' (Which fixes crashes from other programs aswell that uses math functions) Happy browsing!

Stefan Burstroem for Omnipresence Intl.

ps. Every time you find a page that is not visible, try 'Show source' In most cases it is a badly formated comment that eats the rest of the page. If you find any pages with this, please email me the url.

Known Bugs

Bugs marked with * will be fixed asap and put into a R8b release

This is a small list of implemented things / fixed bugs

Old changes: -s- <Img width=x height=y> partially works now. The image size is used, but the image is not scaled if that is needed. Anyway, this reduces lots of flicker on some pages. -s- Fixed Transparent gifs problems on native AGA/ECS screens -s- Fixed problems with <center> and Images. -s- Implemented history check for visited pages. -s- Made all asl windows open on the same screen as their parent window. -s- IBrowse now uses the fonts configured in the preferences. -s- Added support for <hn align="left|center|right"> -s- Added a simple Arexx port. Currently the only supported command is: GotoUrl Url -s- Added a border around delayed images that has a predefined size in the html source. -s- Fixed problems with urls that doesn't end with a '/' (eg. http://www.omnipresence.com') -s- Fixed long standing refresh bug if you went from a page with backgroud to a page without. -s- Now Ibrowse doesn't leave any files in t: -s- Made all form elements user their font's baseline when aligning objects on a line. -s- Implemented forms support. I have not had possibility to test it on the net, but I will as soon as I get online again. -s- Added Delay image loading,Ignore background tags and Ignore link colors. -s- Started on a builtin inline gif decoder. The only thing left is the color mapping. -s- Iproved the parser. Tables are layouted ~3 times faster now. -s- Added an ip address cache to http.library. It caches the last 16 used hosts. -s- Added a small netscapism: typing 'host.domain[:port]/dir/file.html' in the url gadget defaults to: 'http://host.domain[:port]/dir/file.html' -r- Added more nice url parsing. ftp.host will become ftp://ftp.host. (note: http://ftp.host is unaffected. -s- Added support for <img alt="text"> -s- Added possibility to run IBrowse when the network is down. If socket.library couldn't be opened or if the network was unreachable, the cache (if any) is used instead. 20-Jan-96 -s- Made it possible to cancel in the download file selector. -s- The transfer animation class now checks the icon associated with the anim to get the size of the anim. Supported tooltypes are: WIDTH=<nr>,HEIGHT=<nr>,FRAMES=<nr> This allows users to create own animations eg. to get a nice animation on a 640x256 screen. If no icon exists, it guesses the values from the bitmap size. 21-Jan-96 -s- Cached images are now decoded with the builtin (incremental) decoder -s- Changed the source window font to a fixed width font to increase readability. 25-Jan-96 -r- Added TempDir in prefs structure. Defaults to "T:". 27-Jan-96 -s- Reload now doesn't add an entry in the history. -s- Added font fallback. topaz/8 is opened if the font was unavailable. 28-Jan-96 -s- Added authentication support. -s- Added proxy authentication support. 30-Jan-96 -s- Made sure that IBrowse work with MUI3.2. (Changed 1 refresh method) 31-Jan-96 -s- Added support for Rüdigers NoCache list. 1-Feb-96 -s- Removed _all_ references to 'IBrowse:' 2-Feb-96 -s- Fixed so external viewers delete their files when they quit. -s- The Delayed look for a presized image is now always exactly as big as it should. Text and icon is chopped of if necesary. -s- Added support for <a name= > 3-Feb-96 -s- Added support for transparent gifs on native screens. CyberGfx still needs some work. NOTE: TGifs looks ugly on background. I have not found a suitable solution to this yet. -s- Found a suitable solutions to tgifs on backgrounds. It is slow as hell though. -s- Improved handling of alt text and def images in pre sized images. -s- Changed behaviour for <a> to decrease the number of pages that causes problems -s- Added tgif support for cgfx, I hope this works. 5-Feb-96 -s- Bumped http.library to v2 to avoid confusion in demo releases. -s- Fixed a bug that caused images not to be freed. -s- Fixed odd memory access on 68000's in ibconfig.c -s- Made sure that the prefs window fits on a 640x256 screen w topaz/8 6-Feb-96 -s- Removed stupid bug that made datatypes decoders crash. -s- Removed stupid bug that caused datatypes not being able to decode images. -s- Sgnorkfx. Fell asleep over my compuer. 7-Feb-96 -s- Setting frames to 1 in the animation makes the anim stand still (and use no cpu power) -s- Removed a bug that caused the default homepage not to be used. -s- Added error message when ibprefs.library couldn't be opened. 8-Feb-96 -s- Improved the color remapping alot. Now Ibrowse uses a calculated palette. Before it used the (not so good) palette from Brilliance. As a side effect, there are now 69 free pens on a 256 color screen. 11-Feb-96 -s- Added scaling support for nointerlaced gif pictures 12-Feb-96 -s- Added scaling support for interlaced gif pictures -s- Implemented Flush Image Cache -s- Fixed sizes in strings in forms. -s- Fixed a bug that caused string buffers in forms to be 1 char too short. 14-Feb-96 -s- Added support for <base href= > -s- Added the 'SPEED' tooltype to the animation icon. 17-Feb-96 -s- Added an 'Ask user' option as a download method. -s- Hopefully found the free mem twice on exit bug. 18-Feb-96 -s- The 'Underline links' prefs option is now used. -s- Added possibility to configure the task priority of the various threads. -s- Shift click on a link will download the link to disk. 19-Feb-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused IBrowse to crash if a specified path didn't exist. 21-Feb-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused IBrowse to crash when aborting save to disk -s- Fixed a bug that caused IBrowse to crash when flushing the image cache sometimes. -s- Added an error code instead of a crash if the dest file for save to disk couldn't be opened -s- Links are now visible on aminet again! 23-Feb-96 -s- Removed a stupid bug that caused IBrowse to crash when aborting page download 24-Feb-96 -s- Fixed a wrong asl type in askuser window. -s- Fixed a bug that caused enforcerhits if add to hotlist was selected from the menu -s- Fixed some nasty bugs in the imagedecoder that could make it crash etc. on interlaced pics. 25-Feb-96 -s- Merged def_<navigation> images into def_Navigation Remapping is now 4 times faster. -r- Removed the "Save Hotlist" Menu again. Hotlist Class will handle this automatically now and saves the hotlist when it has been changed. (when adding an entry, when closing the window, and when disposing the class) -r- Minor layout changes in downloadinfo and prefs classes. -r- Prefs class is now split into two windows: General and NetWork. You can edit one window at a time only. The menuitems get disabled when a prefs window is open. -r- The hotlist is saved as a html file now. 26-Feb-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused crashes if the def_images were not found. 28-Feb-96 -r- Hotlist gets closed after selecting a link with doubleclick. 3-Mar-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused gifs not to be downloaded completely -s- Improved the cache system alot. If IBrowse crashes or if you reset without exiting, IBrowse will rebuild the cache list next time you run it. -s- Added the tags <strong> (as bold) and <em> (as italic) 12-Mar-96 -r- D&D in window groups works now. 13-Mar-96 -r- Added possibiliy to drop URLs into the HTML display. 15-Mar-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused <select> without size to crash. 17-Mar-96 -s- Added support for <caption> in tables. 23-Mar-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused cycle gadgets in forms to give wrong results -s- Removed the 'not freeing chipmem' bug again. -s- Moving back and forth on pages now remembers the last position. 24-Mar-96 -r- Cursor scolling of the html display is possible again. -r- Disabled nhtml checkmarks since they are not used at the moment. -s- Rewrote the Datestring handling to work even if the system is localized. 29-Mar-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused the text to be invisible if the first 2k of a page didn't generate any html elements. (eg. pages with java scripts) -s- Now sending Referer: header when accessing pics. Fixes problems with some counters. 30-Mar-96 -s- Reworked the link selection functions. They are faster and more reliable now. -s- Form contents is saved now. 3-Apr-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused old hotlists to be read wrong. 8-Mar-96 -s- Implemented dynamic font handling. Fonts are only opened when they are needed. 15-Mar-96 -s- Fixed a bug that caused METHOD_POST to malfunction sometimes. -s- Fixed access to www.VIScorp.com. Stupid www server they have! 16-Mar-06 -s- Added popup menus to save images, load links, load images etc. -s- The file HOME:.signature is now imported (if it exists) in the mailto window. 24-Apr-96 -r- Added Wait... vars to HTML Data. -r- Updated ARexx port: GOTOURL loads the URL current window -r- Added NEWWINDOW arexx command. 26-Apr-96 -r- Added shortcut handling in hotlist class. -r- Length of titles in the history is limit to 50 characters now. -r- Added possibility to hide groups/entries in the hotlist menu. -r- When IBrowse finds a hotlist in a format that it cannot read, it will not save the hotlist to preserve the data in that file. -r- Added mime types image/gif and image/jpeg as defaults for the prefs. 30-Apr-96 -r- Exchanged the pens of imageframes. -r- When turning off delay imgeloading, all images are loaded automatically now. 03-May-96 -r- Changed default for H4 font, so that it is smaller than H3. 11-May-96 -s- Rewrite the url parser again. I hope this conforms better to the standard than the old. -s- Improved handling of masked bitmap on native screens. 14-May-96 -s- String gadgets are now not wider than the window. -s- Uses optimized cache file now. Old cache files are still read ok. (I hope ;) 19-May-96 -s- Enhanced the table parser so that <form> may exist inside the <table> but outside the <td> 25-May-96 -s- Fixed alot of problems with <a> and white spaces. Altavista looks ok now. 29-May-96 -s- Transparent backgrounds are displayed correcly on bgcolors -s- Transparent gif anims are displayed correcly on backgrounds -s- frame 2+ are displayed when they are decoded in gif anims now. -s- Added a lowmemory handler that flushes all unused modules. (eg. after avail flush) 30-May-96 -s- Added support for named xcolors -r- Added text/plain to ibconfig defaults -r- Selecting "internal" as viewer is now possible at those types only that are supported by html class -r- By default, new links are not shown in the hotlist. 31-May-96 -r- Unknown mime types are no longer displayed in the window automatically. The askuser window is opened instead. -r- Moved mccs to MUI subdir. According to Stuntzi, they will get loaded from there, even when PROGDIR!=current dir. However, it doesn't seem to work with the current mui beta :-( 01-Jun-96 -r- Only types, that can be displayed in the html object can be selected to be displayed there. 03-Jun-96 -s- Spent a couple of hours to convince Laire to debug picture.datatype. Finally he found the bug that caused crashes with PNG images. 04-Jun-96 -s- Tables don't add extra space anymore. Hi stuntzi :-) 06-Jun-96 -s- Added Reply-To header to internal mailto handling. -s- Added support for external mailto script -s- Parser now fully supports text/plain -s- Parser now ignores invalid <html><body> etc. 08-Jun-96 -r- Updated texteditfield class, so that it has a StringFrame and uses the pens that are selected in muiprefs for stringgadgets. 12-Jun-96 -s- Fixed find in document. Now all options works (Search,FromTop,Backwards) 13-Jun-96 -s- Added support for <PlainText> and <XMP> -s- Partially fixed refresh problems in tables 17-Jun-96 -r- Reload button and menu are now enabled when a html page is parsed. -r- "about:" loads a local html information page now. 21-Jun-96 -r- Added IBCacheBrowser.mcc. 22-Jun-96 -s- Fixed layout of radio buttons in forms -s- IBrowse now displays unknown http responses in the browse window 23-Jun-96 -r- Moved TextEditField into its own mcc. -r- CacheDir is no longer changed while the programm is running to ensure, that the GlobalCache file is written back to the right directory. 24-Jun-96 -r- Updated and extended CacheBrowser. 02-Jul-96 -r- Changed default fastlink prefs. 04-Jul-96 -r- Demo version can now handle http and file only. 05-Jul-96 -r- When the DiskCacheSize is 0 (=off), the CacheDir is not checked if it exists. -r- Windows menu shows all open browsewindows now. Selecting an entry will bring the window to front. -r- Settings requester has pattern-matching now. 07-Jul-96 -s- The hotlist isn't saved upon exit any longer. It isn't needed since the hotlist is always saved when the window is closed -r- Fixed a bug in the URL parser (http://foo bar wasn't completed to http://foor.bar/). -r- Added some info text in the CacheBrowser. -r- CacheBrowser now displays the date of every entry. 08-Jul-96 -s- Using AsyncIO while reading/writing the global history. IBrowse exists 100% faster now. (Startup showed minor speedimprovements) -r- GlobalHistory is now saved using AsyncIO, which results in a massive speed improvement (20 times faster). For my current configuration, this saved 3.5 of 5.2 seconds! -r- <cite> is rendered in italics now. -r- <code> wasn't displayed as fixed-width font. 11-Jul-96 -s- Fixed problems with servers that return too small data chunks at the beginning of the HTTP request. And lots of more...

These were just some of the changes made. If you still find bugs, please send them to ibrowse-bugs@omnipresence.com Suggestions can be sent to: ibrowse-comments@omnipresence.com