Review - Voyager-NG (v2.10)
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Author: E-mail: URL: |
Oliver Wagner owagner@vapor.com http://www.vapor.com/voyager/ |
Available from various authorised distributers:
In the UK contact:
Tel: 0132 535 2260
E-mail (1): Reg-UK@vapor.com
E-mail (2): active@enterprise.net
| Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|
| 2MB of free memory | 4MB of free memory |
| 5MB hard drive space | 10MB hard drive space |
| 68000 processor | 68020 processor |
| ECS chipset | AGA chipset |
| Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|
| Workbench 2.0 | Workbench 3.0 |
| MUI v3.6 | MUI v3.7 |
In effect then, Oliver will probably receive a considerable amount of money for his efforts (and rightly so)!
For the small price of this program, you will receive a "key-file" which de-activates the time-limit and thus renders the program far more usable. :-)
I did manage to get Voyager-NG running successfully though, with no modifications at all, I simply ran it straight from the directory I'd un-packed it to. So, while the problems with the Installer-script did not bode well, the program itself was up and running in no time.
Then the World-Wide Web's popularity and presence increased dramatically and suddenly AMosiac was unable to cope with all the new "features" which were being added to the HTML specification. Niceties like forms, tables, animated GIF's and, later, frames began to proliferate across the web and AMosiac could hack it no longer!
Suddenly there were a handful of competent browsers with the likes of AMosiac (still in use), AWeb, even a version of the text-browser Lynx appeared (ALynx). Next came Voyager, a reliable, stable and capable browser, yet undistinguished and unable to cope with tables or animated GIF's, not to mention frames. Voyager did have many redeeming features though: "mailto" support (although this was hit and miss with most mailers) and news-reading/posting facilities were among its highlights. But Amiga Web-surfers still wanted more ...
The King of Amiga Web-browsers was crowned, in the shape of IBrowse! This program had been promised for a long time and when it finally appeared it received acclaim and was heralded as being "The Browser" for the Amiga. IBrowse wasn't without its flaws though and, as such, it failed to satisfy everybody.
AWeb II was released and attracted its share of devotees, but IBrowse dominated the scene. There were even rumours of Netscape porting Navigator across to our platform and Microsoft doing the same with their Internet Explorer but, as yet, these have amounted to nothing - Rumours, as they say, are just rumours!
There was yet another on the horizon. Almost from the moment of Voyager's release, there had been promises of a second version, Voyager-NG (Next Generation [sic])
NG promised much. It was to be the first to support frames and it would offer many improvements over the original Voyager, and every other browser if it came to it!
Immediately upon booting then, there are no significant changes with the user-interface. The transfer-animation is slightly different (and in my opinion, tacky compared to IBrowse's excellent spinning-globe!) A minor addition to Voyager's armoury here is that the transfer-animation can be changed, so you could use IBrowse's planet Earth here if you wanted to (confusing everyone around you). I chose to install one I got off the 'net though - it's a great animation of interlocking cogs, which features a little tick (check-mark) to indicate a completed transfer.
I decided to take a look around the menus first, primarily to note any differences over the original, but also to configure the program for my set-up and tastes!
There are only two changes to the menus (that I found anyway)... The first is a new addition to the "Voyager" menu which allows you to run the Cache-Browser directly (in Voyager v1.0 the cache couldn't be accessed from within the main program, although it could be run seperately). The second can be found under the "Settings" menu where the "GUI" and "Network" options of old have now been integrated into a new preferences task called "Settings". Selecting this brings up a rather neat new interface from which the program can be very comprehensively configured.
Along with all the expected options are new ones for graphics support and the integral mailer (more on this later). You can configure the appearance of the GUI, various proxies and network details all from this one editor.
All the traditional proxies are here: Gopher, WAIS, FTP, Telnet, Mailto and News. All bar the Telnet facility are integral to the main program. I would have liked to have seen Telnet built-in along with the others, but it won't be used by everyone, so it's not a serious oversight.
This being a beta version, a couple of the "Settings" options are unfortunately disabled. The one I missed most is the "In Memory Cache", this speeds up browsing a lot, when you use the "Back" button for example. I hope Oliver can implement this as soon as possible. The next restriction is the "Security" section, which is disabled in its entirety. This is not too much of problem unless, like me, you visit a lot of sites where you have previously had to set up password and user strings.
Rather depressingly, Voyager-NG (in its current version) only supports two multi-media MIME-types - GIF and JPEG. This is okay for most sites, but forget about playing "x-wav" and "x-midi" files unless you're prepared to hunt down the utilities required for these data types and configure them for use with V-NG. This isn't too difficult though, so don't be put off.
Voyager-NG does have an awful lot to offer though. It copes with forms and tables with ease and now supports frames (the first Amiga browser to do so)! Frame support isn't perfect though, but with all but the most complicated pages, it works very well and is a welcome addition.
Other new features include context-sensitive pop-up menus. For example, supposing you have a page displayed which has an image and a link on it. Moving the pointer over the image and pressing the RMB results in a menu full of options which you can apply to that image, save to disk for example. If you then move the pointer over the link and RMB-click again, you are given a menu with operations which can be performed with that link, like the extremely useful open-link-in-new-window facility.
Voyager now has an integral mailer. This is an absolute God-send to those of us who tried to use "mailto:" in the original program. Voyager v1 could be made to work with an external mailer (YAM for example), but it was hesitant at the best of times and downright clumsy. V-NG's mailer, on the other hand, is superb and works wonderfully. Enter your mailhost details into the settings editor, click on a "mailto:" link and up pops a neat MUI-driven window where mail can be written and then sent. I like this!
Also new, is the discreet "Find" button on the control strip. This launches V-NG's new "Search" plug-in which fires off your search string to four major search engines! I found this to be extremely useful and very well implemented. Each engine responds in a portion of the (frame-driven) screen the search facility produces and you can then, after opting to view the frames full-screen, select from the links resulting from the search. Oliver has really increased my browsing productivity with this option!
In use V-NG is an absolute dream! I felt comfortable with it immediately. The true strength of software such as Web-browsers becomes noticeable when the program is not, that is - if the software "gets in the way" then it's not very well implemented. With V-NG, you can forget about the browser itself while you are using it and focus all of your attention on the content of the site you are accessing. There can be no higher recommendation than this!
Realistically, this "feeling" could be attributed to my already being familiar and comfortable with the original, but even so V-NG just seems to "sit" in the background unobtrusively. I haven't used any other browser (including Navigator!) which hasn't interfered with my surfing in some way, so I can't praise Oliver enough for this.
Fortunately V-NG's documentation is absolutely excellent! It is supplied in HTML format itself, so you simply load it into the browser and begin your explorations.
It is extremely well written and includes many illustrations to indicate pertinent points. I found it extremely easy to get along with and found it presented just the right balance of detail, not too complicated for the novice, yet unpatronising to the more experienced user. Superb!
The "Back" button is poorly implemented on frame-driven sites, it moves back to the previous http, not the previous element of the frame as you might expect.
You must bare in mind though, that I am reviewing a pre-release version of this otherwise superior browser and Oliver is working furiously to improve V-NG and correct any problems with the feedback of the mass of users who have already adopted it.
The king is dead, long live the king!