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.
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To activate one of these links, click on it with a mouse or press TAB
to select one and ENTER to activate it:
Recommended System Setting up IntraDOS on a network Launching IntraDOS Navigating the Intranet Included Files Known Limitations How to Register Redistribution Limitations
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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.
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 |
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(Program startup time included) |
2,191 | 4.5 - 3 | 2 - 2 | 11 - 5(cached) |
5,995 | 7 - 1 | 2 - 1 | 1.5 - 1 | |
12,935 | 13 - 1 | 3 - 1 | 2 - 1 | |
17,093 | 15.5 - 1 | 4 - 1 | 2.5 - 1 | |
31,199 | 30 - 2 | 6 - 1 | 3 - 1 | |
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.
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.
Thus, you can launch IntraDOS by a batch file with lines such as the following:
Batch file lines | Comments | ||||||
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Set USER=ABC | Where "ABC" is the user's unique initials
x:
| Change to the public drive, if necessary.
| cd\public\html
| Change to the starting directory, if necessary.
| intrados begfile.htm
| Launch IntraDOS and open begfile.htm as the start-up file.
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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.
Here are some of the more important known limitations:
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.
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 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%>.
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.
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.