Introduction ============ This is an VERY EARLY ***TEST*** release of NUPop v1.1. This release has been compiled with the new Borland Pascal v7.0. NUPop v1.1 includes bug fixes and some major new features. I am making this early release available to generate feedback about the new features as well as to see how stable NUPop is when compiled with the Borland Pascal v7.0 compiler and release 2.0 of the Turbo Vision libraries. I hope that I have eliminated the most serious memory clobber problems present in NUPop v1.0.3. However, I probably introduced some new ones as a result of the changes required to compile NUPop with the new compiler as well as a number of other architectural changes I've made. PLEASE DO NOT DISTRIBUTE THIS TEST RELEASE TO YOUR GENERAL USER COMMUNITY. This is not meant to be a production release. I intend to release a series of test versions of NUPop v1.1 as was done for NUPop v1.0. Contents of the Release ======================= The following files are included in this test release release: AAREADME.1ST --- What you're reading now. NUPOP.BMK --- Sample Gopher bookmark file NUPOP.EXE --- Main NUPop executable NUPOP.HLP --- NUPop help text NUPOP.OVR --- NUPop overlays NUTCP.DVR --- NUPop built-in TCP/IP driver You should save the following files from your current release of NUPop: NUPOP.EXE NUPOP.HLP NUPOP.OVR NUTCP.DVR so that you can back up as necessary. All changes to the configuration files are performed automatically when you run NUPop v1.1. You can back up to v1.0.3 even if you've rewritten your configuration files with NUPop v1.1. (Check your printer setup if you select print to a file with NUPop v1.1 since that option is not available in v1.0.3.) What's New ========== These are the new features in this release: (1) There is a GOPHER client at Utilities/Gopher. Gopher is a protocol developed by the University of Minnesota which uses a distributed file system metaphor to provide access to disparate information sources in a single convenient format. There are Gopher servers which provide interfaces to USENET News, Archie, WAIS, whois, and much more. I've listed some of these in the bookmark file NUPOP.BMK for your convenience. I wrote the NUPop Gopher client from scratch so it does not share some of the limitations of other PC Gopher clients. For example, large text files >64K bytes in length can be retrieved and viewed; the directory cache size is limited only by virtual memory so even large directories can be cached; and all the standard Gopher item types as well as some newer non-standard types are recognized. Some item types cannot be processed directly by NUPop (i.e., GIF, MIME mail). In this case you may ask NUPop to retrieve such items as binary or ascii text files. Support for such items will be improved over time. The Gopher+ extensions are not included and probably will not be for v1.1. GOPHER DOES NOT WORK OVER NORMAL SERIAL LINES UNLESS YOU CAN DEFEAT REMOTE ECHO. I've left the Gopher item enabled in serial access mode in case your terminal server does allows you to disable echo. You specify the initial Gopher server at Options/Network. If you have not specified a Gopher server there, NUPop prompts you for the name of the server. After you successfully contact the Gopher server, you will be presented with a list of "directory items" which correspond to Gopher services available. Double-click or press the key to select a particular item. Press the "Bookmark" button to use/create/delete bookmarks. Bookmarks allow you to access facilities in "Gopher space" directly without having to go through a long series of directory retrievals. Press the "Inspect" button to look at details of the currently highlighted Gopher directory entry. Press the "Previous" button to bring up a list of previous Gopher directories you've visited in the current session. You may double-click to select a directory to backup to. Press the "Cancel" button to close down the Gopher session. (2) There is a primitive FTP client at Utilities/Xfer. This is a stage 1 implementation. A more "friendly" point-and-click implementation will be forthcoming in later test releases. There are known problems with sending files to some FTP servers, among other things. Type "help" to see the currently available commands. You may type "put" without a file name to bring up a menu of files from which you can pick a file to send to the remote system. If you type "get" you will be prompted for the name of a file on the remote system to retrieve. Get and Put know about wildcards (and are therefore essentially equivalent to MGet and MPut which you may also use). "CD" take you to a specified directory. "Quit" ends the FTP session. FTP DOES NOT WORK OVER NORMAL SERIAL LINES AND THEREFORE IT IS DISABLED IN SERIAL ACCESS MODE. (3) You can mark selected messages that include specified strings at MailBox/Select Messages Containing. This facility provides very simple boolean capabilities, i.e., you may search for messages containing "cat and dog" to mark messages containing both the words "cat" and "dog", or you can search for "cat or dog" to mark messages containing either the word "cat" or the word "dog." (4) You can import a file of messages in Unix format (separated by lines starting with "From ") to the currently active mailbox at MailBox/Import. You can export marked messages to a file in this format at MailBox/Export. The export facility is particularly convenient for creating a single file which you can use as a backup of your mail. When you export marked messages, the selection flag is not cleared from the marked messages. This allows you to delete the messages you exported if you desire. This provides a simple way to clean out old messages from your mailbox. (5) A large text file viewer is available at File/View a file. NUPop's Gopher client uses this viewer. You may view text files of indefinite size and you may search them, but you may not use any editing features (including Edit/Copy). (6) You may print to a file as well as LPT1/2/3. NUPop prompts you for the name of the file when you begin printing. What's Coming But Not Here Yet ============================== The following features are expected to appear in subsequent NUPop v1.1 test releases (in no particular order) and therefore in the production release of NUPop v1.1: (1) Improved terminal emulation (e.g., VT100). (2) LPR support for printing on remote printers. (3) Improved PH client that allows for modifying your PH information. Other items are under consideration but the above are the highest priority for Northwestern users and therefore these will be addressed first. What's Not Implemented ====================== These new preferences are not yet implemented: (1) An option to display a "real" cursor (or hourglass, etc.) cursor on EGA/VGA displays. Many people find this type of cursor easier to find and work with than the standard block cursor. (2) An option to extend the heap by adding upper memory blocks to the list of allocatable memory. This may be superfluous if a protected mode version of NUPop becomes available. (Creating a protected mode version will not be easy so don't hold your breath). (3) An option to select verbose acknowledgements. This option currently has no effect. As time goes on, this switch will determine if NUPop should display extra acknowledgement dialogs when it performs various activities successfully instead of reporting only when an error occurs. The new Turbo Vision release makes information on the size of the memory allocated to editor buffers inaccessible, so this information isn't currently displayed. Hence, warnings about too little buffer memory also aren't displayed as in v1.0.3 and previous releases. Where To Send Messages ====================== If you have comments, suggestions, or problem reports concerning this test release of NUPop, please address them to the NUPop mailing list at: nupop@casbah.acns.nwu.edu If you wish to be added to or dropped from the mailing list, please address a message to that effect to either: pib@nwu.edu (Phil Burns) cm@nwu.edu (Chris Michael) The NUPop mailing list is a manual list, not an automated list. If you like what you see in NUPop I'd appreciate your letting the powers-that-be at Northwestern know that. It's sometimes difficult to convince administrators that efforts like NUPop are actually worthwhile. Please send messages of support to Chris Michael at the email address above. Thanks! -- Phil "Pib" Burns pib@nwu.edu