IntraDOS 1.1
Intranet HTML Browser for DOS

(c) 1997 Charles M. Cork, III
IntraDOS is an HTML browser for DOS-based PCs, primarily for office intranets and other hypertext needs. It is not a web browser, but it attempts to duplicate many of the features of popular web browsers for documents that are written in HTML and available on a machine's hard drive or network server. I developed it for my office so that the DOS 386 machines could share the same intranet resources with the Windows Pentiums quickly and easily and so that I did not need to implement two sets of hypertext documents.

To activate one of these links, click on it with a mouse or press TAB to select one and ENTER to activate it:

Key Features of IntraDOS
Recommended System
Setting up IntraDOS on a network
Launching IntraDOS
Navigating the Intranet
Included Files
Known Limitations
How to Register
Redistribution Limitations

KEY FEATURES:

DOS-file system support.
Unlike other DOS-based HTML browsers, IntraDOS recognizes the DOS file structure (e.g., c:\htm\file.htm) as well as the internet standard (e.g., file:///c:\htm\file.htm). This will be easier for intranet administrators to code.
Imitation of Leading Windows Browers.
IntraDOS attempts to mimic the operations of leading Windows web browsers to the extent that a text-based program can do so. Back, Ahead, and Home menu options function like the buttons on popular browsers. Standard Windows keystrokes apply (Home, End, Ctrl+Home, Ctrl+End), and scrollbars can be used as in Windows. Search for text with Ctrl+F, and repeat the search with F3.
Keystroke support.
IntraDOS allows the mouseless user (and those of us who continue to think that the keyboard is faster) to select links without a mouse by using the TAB key (or Shift+TAB to go in the reverse direction). Menu items (e.g., the Back button) are activated by pressing Alt+ an accelerator key (e.g., Alt+B to go back).
Tables support.
Unlike any other DOS browser I've seen, IntraDOS supports basic tables (but not tables within tables).
Jumping to Name Anchors.
Unlike other DOS browsers, IntraDOS fully supports jumping to name anchors (e.g, c:\htm\index.htm#nameanchor), even if the anchor is in a file other than the current one.
Registry of Pre-parsed Files.
Because IntraDOS attempts to implement many formatting codes, parsing large HTML files can be slow on a 386 machine. Therefore, IntraDOS gives the user an option to save the parsed file in a registry so that it does not need to be parsed again (unless it is updated, which IntraDOS checks automatically). A 386 machine reading a long pre-parsed file from the registry can display it about as quickly as a Windows browser on a Pentium can parse it and display it. (See statistics below.)
By default, IntraDOS asks users whether newly parsed files should be saved to the registry. This can be made automatic, or turned off entirely, by seleting the appropriate menu item under File, Pre-Parsed Registry.

My philosophy: The DOS machines may be dinosaurs, but they should still not die prematurely. Don't junk them just to give all your users access to an Intranet.

Recommended System:

IntraDOS has been extensively tested on my office's 386 machines running MS-DOS 5.0 with VGA monitors. Anything better is great. I haven't tested the program on other monitors, on slower processors, or earlier versions of DOS. If you experience problems with those systems, please feel free to let me know, though I cannot guarantee that I can help.

Here are some performance statistics for our office intranet. Your mileage may vary. Times are in seconds. Using IntraDOS, the first number is the time it took to parse and show the file; the second is the time it took to read a pre-parsed file from the registry. Using MSIE, the first number is the time it took to link to the file; the second is the time it took using the back/forward buttons.

Files Bytes IntraDOS
386 16MHz
IntraDOS
Pentium 75MHz
MSIE
Pentium 75 MHz
Startup File
(Program
startup time
included)
2,191 4.5 - 3 2 - 2 11 - 5(cached)
File 1
5,995 7 - 1 2 - 1 1.5 - 1
File 2
12,935 13 - 1 3 - 1 2 - 1
File 3
17,093 15.5 - 1 4 - 1 2.5 - 1
File 4
31,199 30 - 2 6 - 1 3 - 1
File 5
50,276 44 - 2.5 8 - 1.5 3 - 1

These statistics show the improvement that pre-parsing files can make. I do not recommend having 386 users wait to parse a file requiring more than a few seconds to parse.

Recommended preliminaries on a network:

  1. Place your startup HTML file in a public directory. This directory will store the list of pre-parsed files and the pre-parsed files themselves. For example, create the public directory x:\public\html. The startup file might be x:\public\html\home.htm. The list file x:\public\html\IntraDOS.lst will be generated. Parsed files of the form x:\public\html\idpf.1 (2,3,4, etc.)

    Because IntraDOS places temporary files in this directory, users need to have read, write, create, and delete rights in this directory. If the network administrator wishes to give read-only access to certain files, those should be placed in a separate directory where users have limited rights.

    Place the program file IntraDOS.EXE in a directory on your network server accessible to those with DOS machines who will use it. It need not be in the same public directory in which the startup HTML file is located.

  2. If not already done, each user should have his/her environmental variable USER set to three letters (initials). To avoid conflicts, the initials should be unique. Most machines on a network have this variable set at the time of logging in to the network.

  3. Prepare one or more appropriate start-up files (home pages) for network users. Since this program allows the network administrator to call any file as a start-up file, he/she can set the browser to start with a file that may be appropriate to different contexts in the office setting.

  4. Pre-parse long (if not all) HTML files on a fast machine (usually the network administrator's machine).

Launching the program:

If you start IntraDOS by adding to the command line a particular file, IntraDOS will use that file as the start-up file. If you do not add a start-up file to the command line, IntraDOS will look for the file "HOME.HTM" in the current directory. If it finds Home.HTM, it will open it as the start-up file; otherwise, it will display a dialog box for the user to identify the correct start-up file.

Thus, you can launch IntraDOS by a batch file with lines such as the following:

Batch file lines Comments
Set USER=ABC Where "ABC" is the user's unique initials
  • Probably unnecessary if the network software has already done it.
  • x: Change to the public drive, if necessary.
    cd\public\html Change to the starting directory, if necessary.
  • Not necessary if "begfile.htm" in the next line includes the full path.
  • intrados begfile.htm Launch IntraDOS and open begfile.htm as the start-up file.
  • If IntraDOS is not in the starting directory, it needs to be in the user's MS-DOS path.
  • If begfile.htm is not in the current directory, the full path needs to be specified.
  • Navigating/Exploring via Hypertext Links:

    As with other browsers, a user can move through the information system by activating links. In IntraDOS, the links appear in yellow. A link does not change color after a user has activated a link.

    Like popular Windows-based browsers, a user may follow hypertext links by clicking on them with a mouse or (more laboriously) typing the target file name.

    Unlike the Windows-based browsers, IntraDOS allows a user to follow a link without a mouse by means of the TAB key. To select a link, press TAB until the desired link is highlighted (or Shift+TAB to cycle through the links in the reverse direction). Then, the user presses ENTER to activate the link. If you scroll so that the active link is out of view, IntraDOS interprets a TAB as calling for the first link on the screen rather than the next link in order.

    Included Files:

    Known Limitations:

    As with any other browser, with sufficient ingenuity (or sufficient sloppiness) one can write a page in HTML that will confound IntraDOS. In testing this on many, many files drawn from the internet, I've found huge numbers of badly written HTML files. I have attempted to do a lot of error trapping in IntraDOS, but it is impossible to catch them all. This browser should be able to represent any moderately well-formulated ordinary page of HTML, but I cannot guarantee that all pages can be parsed or that, if parsed, all original data appears on them. Again, this is true for any browser.

    Here are some of the more important known limitations:

    Not a Web Browser
    You cannot use IntraDOS to access the internet, and it does not work with a modem. The HTML files must be available on the user's hard drive or network. Within IntraDOS's other limitations, HTML files on the internet can be saved in the office network.

    Look/Feel
    IntraDOS does not support images (which are marked by è).

    Colors are limited to 16 and cannot be changed by coding the HTML page. Thus links have one color (yellow) whether one has used them or not. Bold is always white, and italics are always purple.

    Only one font and font size are available. Emphasis can be accomplished only by codes such as <B>, <I>, <H1>, etc. Codes such as <Font +1> will do nothing.

    Frames are not supported. Network administrators should have IntraDOS users link to the most informative frame page.

    Size of Files
    IntraDOS will not handle a file that generates a screen length longer than 32,000 lines or wider than 32,000 characters. I have loaded pages with over 200 links and had no memory problems, but there is some ultimate limit on the number of links that a page can have.

    Lists
    Bullet-like characters in all lists are standardized by the program, not established by the HTML author.

    Nesting of lists (<UL> and <OL>) is supported up to 3 levels. Deeper levels of nesting will yield unpredictable results.

    Due to formatting limitations, numeric ordered lists may be appear disordered if there are more than 99 list items, and alphabetical ordered lists greater than 26 (a-z or A-Z) will repeat.

    For the same reason, Roman numerals are not supported in ordered lists.

    Tables
    Nesting of tables, i.e., one table within another, is not supported and will yield unpredictable results.

    Tables wider than the screen are not supported, and will yield unpredictable results. Therefore, tables with many columns are also problematic, since space must be allowed for the cell walls and text in each.
    One less than ideal solution is the use <PRE> and </PRE> tags and place a preformatted table between them.

    Tables narrower than the screen are expanded to fill the screen. Thus, text set to appear on either side of a table, but not within it, will appear elsewhere.

    Tables with about 32,000 characters may cause unpredictable results. Tables whose cells exceed 16,000 characters may cause unpredicable results.
    Solution: Break up your tables/cells into smaller tables/cells.

    In tables with different numbers of cells per row, cells are filled with data from left to right. Thus some unusual configurations of tables are not supported.

    Special formatting of tables, such as combining cells and cellpadding, is unsupported. Borders are either off (invisible) or on (single line around each cell).

    Because of line width limitations, column widths are calculated without regard to command arguments such as <TD width=60%>.

    -------------------------
    REGISTRATION
    -------------------------

    This program is shareware. If you wish to use it beyond a 30 day trial period, please register your version.

    The normal registration fee is $35 for a stand-alone computer, $15 per additional computer on a local network, with a maximum fee for an entire local area network of $80. Certain discounts also apply:

    Register by sending a check or money order to:

    Charles M. Cork, III
    P. O. Box 6897
    Macon, Georgia 31208-6897

    Please include your name, your business's name (if applicable), your mailing address, and your e-mail address. By return e-mail or mail, you will get registration information.

    Beyond the satisfaction of doing the right thing and making the registration request at the end of the program disappear, registration will entitle you to notifications of upgrades (free to registered users, unless the upgrade is really colossal) and to such support as I may be able to give via e-mail to ccork000@counsel.com.

    Redistribution Limitations:

    The unregistered version of IntraDOS may be freely distributed by any means so long as no included files are altered, added or deleted.

    A registered user of IntraDOS at the $80 level may freely distribute the program without alteration or deletion of files, except that the Home.HTM file may be altered and other files may be added. This will allow a registered user to provide an off-line reader of the user's HTML materials.

    IntraDOS

    I hope that you find IntraDOS useful and worth the cost.
    Charles Cork, ccork000@counsel.com