arachne-digest Thursday, March 16 2000 Volume 01 : Number 1043
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 16:36:29 +0200
From: "Or Botton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Possible Expanded Usage For Arachne
Here are bits of my experience, in response to the suggestions:
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 09:17:06 +0100, Michael Polak wrote:
> 1) Users don't like overlapping windows: it is good to have all
> productive content on the screen all the time.
I like multitasking enviroments. But I dont like overlapping windows.
Fact: when i'm in a GUI, I always use have all the windows expanded
to their maximum size, usually leaving only the task manager (if its
in a taskbar form) visible on the top or buttom for a quick "so what
is running?" and window selection menu. On Windows 3.11, where there
is no taskbar (unless you use Calmira, which I am now using there),
I used to pop-up the task manager quite recently. Was more comfortable
then having to search the desktop for that minimized icon.
> 2) There is urgent need for integration of file manager, e-mail reader
> and web browser. The way Windows and other desktops are doing it weird,
> and it don't really enable full potential of computer, which is to be
> MORE than your desktop, not just immitation of desktop
I've seen Windows 98. Its awful. The browser is EVERYWHERE, including
in places where its obviously not needed. As far as I see it:
File manager should be the primary utility, with it and and a program
menu being the main programs that will be availble on start.
Browser and E-Mail are essential, but secondry to the manager.
You have to think of the internet as a "resource". Yet its not
a resource that is availble to everyone, and always on demand.
Dial-up prices + limited ISP account, anyone?
One thing not to do: HTML in the file managment. A total no-no.
MS crossed the line in that one. Same goes to KDE.
> let's make also
> e-mail messages equivalent to files, not only mail folders to
> directories. This means that display method for left column must be
> really radically different from traditional "one-item-per-line" scheme
Intresting. But what is the "one-item-per-line" scheme?
> 4) Clicking anything in "tree window" would always cause target to be
> "wide window", while clicking in wide window will keep objects opening in
> the same window.
There's a war going on as far as "file managment concepts" goes. :)
Some people like the 'tree on one side, files on the other" view.
I like the "double windows with files in each side" view, like in NC.
Maybe making it costumable like in NC would be the best idea.
> 5) There would be easy, Norton-commander-compilant way to copy between
> two windows: eg. if you open FTP site, either as tree expansion in
> narrow column, or fullscreen in wide column, you would be able to to
> select multiple local or FTP files and copy or move them to opposite
> window using F5 or F6 key and delete then with F8. But same will be
Since there is no good fully featured not-CLI FTP client for DOS, I
usually end up staring at NC5, wishing for it to be able to access FTP
sites like Midnight commander for Linux and FAR for Win9x can do.
Michael, how about making a small graphical illustration of your idea? :)
Such "screen-shots" always help to understand what you mean.
Or Botton
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- - "Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense."
- -----------------------------
http://members.xoom.com/dsdp/
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 07:07:06 -0800 (PST)
From: "Jorge Alex Ortega O." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: mime.cfg AGAIN!!!
Hi...
Thanx for your help Bernie... now i can download
images to my 386 pc, without any problem...
But i just downloaded the utility to 'get and put'
files in the Download subdirectory (acopy??) without
user itervention and all appears to work... exept for
one
detail... Simply i can't modify the mime.cfg file,.
maybe it's just a mistake, but every time that i try
to modify the file and run arachne again, arachne
doesn't recognize anything more (txt, htm, jpg,
gif,etc) and i just want know why... or better yet,
How i can modify mime.cfg and what i can use to do
this (actually i triy to modify it with text editors
like qedit,and the standard microsoft editor without
results...
HELP!!!
bye...
J.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 07:10:44 -0800 (PST)
From: "Jorge Alex Ortega O." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: mime.cfg AGAIN!!!
Hi...
Thanx for your help Bernie... now i can download
images to my 386 pc, without any problem...
But i just downloaded the utility to 'get and put'
files in the Download subdirectory without user
itervention and all appears to work... exept for one
detail... Simply i can't modify the mime.cfg file,.
maybe it's just a mistake, but every time that i try
to modify the file and run arachne again, arachne
doesn't recognize anything more (txt, htm, jpg,
gif,etc) and i just want know why... or better yet,
How i can modify mime.cfg and what i can use to do
this (actually i triy to modify it with text editors
like qedit,and the standard microsoft editor without
results...
HELP!!!
bye...
J.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 07:10:44 -0800 (PST)
From: "Jorge Alex Ortega O." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: mime.cfg AGAIN!!!
Hi...
Thanx for your help Bernie... now i can download
images to my 386 pc, without any problem...
But i just downloaded the utility to 'get and put'
files in the Download subdirectory without user
itervention and all appears to work... exept for one
detail... Simply i can't modify the mime.cfg file,.
maybe it's just a mistake, but every time that i try
to modify the file and run arachne again, arachne
doesn't recognize anything more (txt, htm, jpg,
gif,etc) and i just want know why... or better yet,
How i can modify mime.cfg and what i can use to do
this (actually i triy to modify it with text editors
like qedit,and the standard microsoft editor without
results...
HELP!!!
bye...
J.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 07:07:06 -0800 (PST)
From: "Jorge Alex Ortega O." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: mime.cfg AGAIN!!!
Hi...
Thanx for your help Bernie... now i can download
images to my 386 pc, without any problem...
But i just downloaded the utility to 'get and put'
files in the Download subdirectory (acopy??) without
user itervention and all appears to work... exept for
one
detail... Simply i can't modify the mime.cfg file,.
maybe it's just a mistake, but every time that i try
to modify the file and run arachne again, arachne
doesn't recognize anything more (txt, htm, jpg,
gif,etc) and i just want know why... or better yet,
How i can modify mime.cfg and what i can use to do
this (actually i triy to modify it with text editors
like qedit,and the standard microsoft editor without
results...
HELP!!!
bye...
J.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 15:8:43 +0800
From: J J Young <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: MS-Word to text conversion?
>Anyone who uses a DOS email program should have this program [View].
>It's shareware.
For anyone who saves webpages, add to that ViewHTML, a freeware offline
text browser (I wish it would work online). It's great for speedily going through
the cache or any other heap-o'-HTML.
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~kevsol/sware.html#viewhtml
Links to both View and ViewHTML are at http://switch.to/arachne
Jake
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 13:21:49 -0500
From: Clarence Verge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: mime.cfg AGAIN!!!
Jorge Alex Ortega O. wrote:
>
> Simply i can't modify the mime.cfg file,.
> maybe it's just a mistake, but every time that i try
> to modify the file and run arachne again, arachne
> doesn't recognize anything more (txt, htm, jpg,
> gif,etc) and i just want know why... or better yet,
> How i can modify mime.cfg and what i can use to do
> this (actually i triy to modify it with text editors
> like qedit,and the standard microsoft editor without
Hi Jorge;
I couldn't think of anything last time you posted - I edit mime.cfg
with ARACHNE. It works fine (F4). I ALSO edit mime.cfg with Sidekick.
Never any problems.
But here is an idea: maybe your editor is saving the new version somewhere
else - like a different directory - and the old version either doesn't exist
or has been renamed.
So. Before AND after editing, check the main Arachne directory to make sure
the file is there. Do Dir MIME*.*. Check the dates and times. If you DO have
a new version of mime.cfg in the right place, and it doesn't work, let us know
and we will guess some more. <G>
- - Clarence Verge
- --
- - Help stamp out FATWARE. As a start visit: http://home.arachne.cz/
- --
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 22:09:16 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: DJPEG 32-bit
Oops! I never intented for the mail with this in it to go to the list:
(I wrote, and was supposed to change it but forgot):
>echo.|time
>for %%d in (*.jpg) do djpeg.exe -bmp %%d
>echo.|time
>
>I haven't done any testing like that myself yet (I'm not even certain
about the bat >file <g>).
Of course this BAT file will fail - djpeg.exe wants both input and output -
and we can't specify both file.jpg and file.bmp from having file.jpg.
We need to test by having a bigger BATch file that has both input file and
output file for each file. (I think there are complicated BATch files that
will strip the extension - but that sounds really useless IMHO).
This will work:
echo.|time
call convert.bat file001
...
call convert.bat filexxx
echo.|time
And convert.bat has this:
djpeg.exe -bmp %1.jpg %1.bmp
And perhaps this line (if we want to test djpeg with many files (ca 32MB
for instance)):
del %1.bmp
I tested with 265 JPG files (totaly 12,422,354 bytes - all color photos) on
a RAMDrive to get as big diffrences in time as possible.
The base (100) for these are
fastimage/jpeg JPG>BMP|$edjpeg.exe -bmp $1 $2
(My computer is still a AMD K6-2 400 in case someone has forgotten - or has
joined the list recently)
16-bit (version 6a)
100
- -dct fast 76
- -dct float 132
- -color 256 153
- -color 256 -dct fast 132
- -color 256 -dct float 186
- -grayscale 46
- -grayscale -dct fast 33
- -grayscale -dct float 55
32-bit (version 6b)
45
- -dct fast 41
- -dct float 77
- -color 256 96
- -color 256 -dct fast 93
- -color 256 -dct float 120
- -grayscale 46
- -grayscale -dct fast 20
- -grayscale -dct float 31
There are more options to choose from but it takes a while to test them all
- - I don't think mant of the others will make any big diffrences, but I
don't know (nor do I intend to test).
The switches mean:
- default (-dct int)
dct fast - not as good looking
dct float - uses floating point (will probably be much better on ex. an
Athlon)
grayscale - I think you can guess this one
grayscale is probably only usefull for those that have a b/w monitor and/or
uses Arachne in b/w mode.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 15:08:22 -0500
From: Clarence Verge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: DJPEG 32-bit
Glenn McCorkle wrote:
>
> 3.5 sec just to "paint the screen"???
> Something is very wrong here. (as if you didn't already know that)<g>
Oh, that's true on so MANY levels.
> On my system... 0.25 sec or less.
Now I think you're just being silly.<g> There is NOTHING that Arachne can
do that fast even on my P90 ! D --> F10 --> O --> altE --> EXit --> D --> F4
- --> ESC ESC. Every one of those takes a little less than a second on the P90.
I've posted that 3.5 sec many times before when I compared it to the 0.3 sec
that Win3.1/NS takes on the same hardware and got no comment before. <g>
I just checked this: Screensaver --> Options screen. About a second.
Those tests were using a Trident card in 640x480x256.
Back in a minute.
Hmmmm. Well, I guess I was wrong.
If I use a Matrox graphics accelerator in VESA 640x480 hicolor I CAN get
things happening around 1/4 second.
I'd guess that the above tests take around 1/3 of a second each and if you
flip between home and end on the preferences page, that's definitely fast
enough to be 1/4 second.
But I think that's fairly good hardware. Your system is obviously better
than most.
And that last test - Home to End ? Arachne on a P90 with a graphics
accelerator is about the same as Win3.1/NS on a 33Mhz '486 using
640x480x256shades. 0.23 sec Home to End. !.
> I can't seem to remember.(there's _my_ memory leak)<g>
> Which video driver are you using?
> And what is your video card?
On the '486 I use the generic VGA 640x480x256 driver and the
card is an ATI VGAwonder.
- - Clarence Verge
- --
- - Help stamp out FATWARE. As a start visit: http://home.arachne.cz/
- --
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 22:09:13 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: mime.cfg AGAIN!!!
Jorge Alex Ortega O. wrote:
>Thanx for your help Bernie... now i can download
>images to my 386 pc, without any problem...
No problems :)
>But i just downloaded the utility to 'get and put'
>files in the Download subdirectory without user
>itervention and all appears to work...
Of course, nothing has changed (you have two new files on your drive - but
neither is used).
>exept for one
>detail... Simply i can't modify the mime.cfg file,.
>maybe it's just a mistake, but every time that i try
>to modify the file and run arachne again, arachne
>doesn't recognize anything more (txt, htm, jpg,
>gif,etc) and i just want know why... or better yet,
>How i can modify mime.cfg and what i can use to do
>this (actually i triy to modify it with text editors
>like qedit,and the standard microsoft editor without
>results...
Sorry, still no ideas from me. Exactly what do you do when you change?
When I change I do like this:
type "edit mime.cfg" (from M$-DOS 6.x)
Go to the correct line in the file (for instance I find application/zip)
Change the line to:
application/zip ZIP|acopy $d $w $1
and exit (and saves as I exit).
I think the installation says
application/zip |acopy $d $w $1
but that's incorrect (you'll not get .zip as extension IIRC)
I was thinking that perhaps an amove.exe (moves the file - supprise,
supprise <g>) and some sort of cfgmime.exe utility to let the user easier
choose what to do with the diffrent files (launch program, present dialog,
save and move) would be good. Of course the interface would be in Arachne
for this setup.
BTW: Michael, please remove the second application/zip from mime.cfg in b2
- - it only confuses things.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 22:09:13 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: mime.cfg AGAIN!!!
Jorge Alex Ortega O. wrote:
>Thanx for your help Bernie... now i can download
>images to my 386 pc, without any problem...
No problems :)
>But i just downloaded the utility to 'get and put'
>files in the Download subdirectory without user
>itervention and all appears to work...
Of course, nothing has changed (you have two new files on your drive - but
neither is used).
>exept for one
>detail... Simply i can't modify the mime.cfg file,.
>maybe it's just a mistake, but every time that i try
>to modify the file and run arachne again, arachne
>doesn't recognize anything more (txt, htm, jpg,
>gif,etc) and i just want know why... or better yet,
>How i can modify mime.cfg and what i can use to do
>this (actually i triy to modify it with text editors
>like qedit,and the standard microsoft editor without
>results...
Sorry, still no ideas from me. Exactly what do you do when you change?
When I change I do like this:
type "edit mime.cfg" (from M$-DOS 6.x)
Go to the correct line in the file (for instance I find application/zip)
Change the line to:
application/zip ZIP|acopy $d $w $1
and exit (and saves as I exit).
I think the installation says
application/zip |acopy $d $w $1
but that's incorrect (you'll not get .zip as extension IIRC)
I was thinking that perhaps an amove.exe (moves the file - supprise,
supprise <g>) and some sort of cfgmime.exe utility to let the user easier
choose what to do with the diffrent files (launch program, present dialog,
save and move) would be good. Of course the interface would be in Arachne
for this setup.
BTW: Michael, please remove the second application/zip from mime.cfg in b2
- - it only confuses things.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 18:03:22 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Where o Where Is DOS
Willy J. Hoogstraten wrote:
>I don't know much about himem.sys. Only that the Win98 himem.sys is very
>small in memory (20 kb less than the one from Win95) and it has a higher
>limit than _all_ others (maybe Win2000 is better, but I never used it yet).
20K less? I would suspect I would notice such heavy use on memmory (I use
the 95 version on the schools DOS computers (96MB)).
Could you perhaps send me win98's himem.sys (and smartdrv.exe)?
>But emm386.exe from DR-DOS (7.03) is very good and doesn't require himem.sys.
>DR-DOS is also good with it's DPMI-support.
No it isn't (7.01). It kept crashing Heroes of Might and Magic II over and
over again.
The freeware cwsdpmi.exe is much better.
>I know that people who use
>DJGPP 2.xx don't like it, but DJGPP has no support for DR-DOS at all.
>(programs compiled with it often flush the nwcache!).
Oh. I'll need to look into that (it would be very bad if djpeg.exe did that).
>DR-DOS's fdisk is much better than MS-DOS's fdisk.
This one I'll completly agree on. An (assumed) broken 250MB HD didn't work
in MS-DOS but works with DR-DOS and Linux.
>The weakest points of DR-DOS (7.03) are:
>1) it doen't support FAT32.
I'll quote Matthias Paul on this (recently on the opendos list (at
delorie.com))
>BTW. There have been many queries about Caldera s/Lineo s FAT32
>support. In the current issue of the German computer magazine c t
>(06/2000), they compare variour Crash Recovery Tools developed
>by Ontrack, Powerquest, and others. What they all have in common,
>is that they use DR-DOS to boot their stuff. At least the Ontrack
>product (free evaluation download at www.ontrack.com) includes
>the DRFAT32.SYS/.EXE drivers to access FAT32 partitions via the
>redirector interface. So, if you want to have a look, this is
>where to go to... ;-)
>For an overview of all the available options of the DRFAT32.SYS driver
>(to be loaded in CONFIG.SYS) just give it an invalid parameter line so
>that the driver shows its internal help screen, or have a look
>at the end of the binary in the file viewer like inside the NC.
>DRFAT32.SYS supports CHS and LBA access, however, the DRFAT32.EXE
>redirector (to be loaded in AUTOEXEC.BAT similar to NWCDEX) has some
>limitations with partitions beyond 8 GB, and unfortunately DPMS and
>EMS support are disabled in this release...
>The advantages of the redirector approach are, that people without
>FAT32 drives are happily off with a small unbloated kernel, that
>virus contamination etc. of the FAT32 partition is much more
>difficult as the partition can be write-protected, that this solution
>works with *any* DOS 3.3+ (and DR DOS 5.0+), as long as run on a 386+.
>And it is compatible with all old DOS disk tools not knowing of
>MS-DOS 7.10+ FAT32 changes in the kernel. Of course, this also has
>disadvantages: You cannot boot DR-DOS off a FAT32 drive, if loaded
>it consumes more memory than a native solution, and it s slower...
I've downloaded, but not tried it yet (need to get hold of a FAT32 drive as
well <g>).
BTW: Does anyone have the NTFSDOS version that could *write* to an NTFS
partition?
>2) there's no compiler, assembler or image-viewer part of the distribution.
>3) there's bad support from software developers. (eg, most cdplay programs
> detect MSCDEX and won't work with NWCDEX).
Perhaps because they look for a "filename" mscdex$$ (or whatever it is)
instead of doing an interupt check?
>The weakest points of stand-alone MS-DOS are:
>5) it has no commandline-editing (as far as I know).
Do you mean editing the command line or editing on the command line?
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:02:11 +0100
From: "Willy J. Hoogstraten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Where o Where Is DOS
Hi,
On Thu, 16 Mar 2000 08:50:17 +0100 (CET), [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Richard Menedetter) wrote:
> "Willy J. Hoogstraten" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> WH> DR-DOS is also good with it's DPMI-support.
> Are you joking :)))
> _ALL_ DPMI programs I tried with it immediately crashed !!
> (same applies to the multitasker !)
I always had troubles /w using ISDN software and Protected Mode
programs. After I used the ISDN, I couldn't use PM-programs in the
Volkov or Norton Commander. They couldn't find cwsdpmi anymore and
I had to reboot to correct the problem. With PM-programs on a 386,
I had the same problem even w/o the ISDN-software, but couldn't
correct it /w a reboot.
With DR-DOS DPMI, I really have no trouble!
If the DPMI is not working fine, one can turn it off (in a
BATch-file or on the commandline). I use only one program which
requires this. (TASM 5, which I don't use often anyway). All
others (/w or w/o DPMI-needs) run great.
> DJGPP strictly follows the DPMI specification !!!!
Where can I find these specs ?
> WH> Most of the times if emm386.exe causes a system-hang, it's because of
> WH> badly written software.
> Definitely NOT !
It doesn't happen with _all_ programs, it happens always with the
_same_ programs. That's why I think that it's in the programs, not
in emm386.
> Programs hang under drdos emm, which run great with msdos emm and QEMM.
> (And qemm is very conservative ... if there is a memory exception, it
> immediately pops up)
Is QEMM free available ? And if it is, where can I get it ?
> CU, Ricsi
- - Best regards,
- - Willy J. Hoogstraten.
- - End of message -
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 20:11:58 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Possible Expanded Usage For Arachne
Michael wrote:
>I am thinking about using Arachne in devices like cell phones or MP3
>walkmans (in fact, I would like to combine both of them to one device;-)
The combination has already been done by Ericsson (as an add-on).
//Bernie
http://bernie.arachne.cz/ DOS programs, Star Wars ...
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 20:12:09 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Freewwweb in DOS
Or wrote:
>This gave me an idea: how about making an international howto list?
Wouldn't that be a very large file?
If you insist on it most of the people in the tech-support department will
in time give you the settings.
>Its quite simple: if you have managed to use Arachne with an ISP,
>you can write how you did it in the howto file, by this allowing other
>Arachne users in your country to be able to connect more easily.
>
>How about that? :)
Ok, I'm game. Waiting for tech-support to understand that you want to know
the settings not to click on some icon in Windows 9x that you don't have is
really annoying. Who will be responsible for adding the data together?
Luckily I don't need to do anything since Lars Wigrell already have created
an APM for our ISP ;-)
//Bernie
http://bernie.arachne.cz/ DOS programs, Star Wars ...
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 20:12:08 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: FreeCDP and custom MIDI Patches
>> The best I've found was simply called patch.dat (download name was
>> patch.zip) - especially made for DOOM ;-)
>
> Where would one find that ? Any file called PATCH.DAT can be used
>directly as-is by invoking the DIGIMID driver from SETUP.EXE.
I don't think it's good for anything but DOOMs MIDIs (of course a port
that's made in DJGPP is needed - like DOOM Legacy, the standard DOOM can't
take advantage of it).
BTW: if you download DOOM Legacy you should probably get an older version
first and then the new one since the new one doesn't have the docs nor all
configuration files.
//Bernie
http://bernie.arachne.cz/ DOS programs, Star Wars ...
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 20:12:03 +0100 (MET)
From: Bernie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Just me?
Is it just me (or probably my mail server) or have both these lists (survpc
and arachne) been resending messages the last day?
//Bernie
http://bernie.arachne.cz/ DOS programs, Star Wars ...
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 20:30:43 +0100 (CET)
From: Michael Polak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: 1.60 beta 2 is out
Now it is online.
I will tell you more later. Please let me know if I should _rename_ it to
1.60 stable. I really don't want to add more features. It is code freeze
version.
BTW, I already know about one bug - mailto: URLs can't be added from
clipboard to Hotlist. Of course I will fix it, but I would like to call
fixed version 1.60 stable !!!!! (it is caused by auto-stripping mailto:
prefix when copying links to clipboard - this how "easy" new features
always end like :-| It is on my TO-DO list , of course...)
There is also experimental VFAT support in CORE.EXE (sent by Bernie)
In Windows 9x DOS box, you should be able to view pages with images
and links uing long filenames, BUT YOU HAVE TO ADD LIKE "VFAT Yes" to
ARACHNE.CFG !!! It is completely undocumented. It doesn't crash in DR-DOS,
but I think it slows down Arachne under normal DOS a lot,when enabled.
BTW, I finaly got to 0 messages in my INBOX! But this doesn't meant that
you all should start complaining about bugs again !!!! ;-))))
- --
http://arachne.cz/ (Arachne Labs: internet - software - linux - mp3)
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Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 19:37:12 +0800
From: J J Young <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Possible Expanded Usage For Arachne
>But there is one problem: I don't think DOS users need desktop -
>every DOS user will anyway always use Norton, Volkov, FAR or Dos
>Navigator instead. Simillary, in Linux you have Midnight, GNOME and KDE.
- -- New DOS users without the right contacts or Net access know nothing
of these desktops. That's one reason why they don't explore outside Windows.
>I am thinking about using Arachne in devices like cell phones or MP3
>walkmans (in fact, I would like to combine both of them to one device;-)
- -- Are you in contact with developers for Palm-Pilot and the Symbian Alliance
for Psion/Epoch?
>Such devices need completely different desktop from normal PCs - so I
>don't want to waste time by re-inventing wheel, and I am rather thinking
>about very minimal Arachne running in 640x200xmono mode.
- -- Much smaller screen for mobile phones. Color screens will be available
very soon, with streaming video (Emblaze).
>This is where Netscape or MISE has no chance to compete.
- -- Operasoftware are there with a trial browser for Psion.
>But of course, I would like to add more desktop-like elements in future
>versions of DOS/Linux Arachne, but I don't believe that Arachne users
>are type of people which would really like to use drag-and-drop
>style desktop.....
- -- It's a big world out there, full of differing user-preferences. Using a
touch-screen
mobile sounds very intuitive. Point at an item with a finger and send it wherever
with another finger-touch. Nokkia have a phone using a roller set into the casing,
used to scroll down menus. Pressing it click-selects the menu-item.
>Let me suggest something:
>
>< > H + ? ...
>+--------+-------------------+
>| | |
>| narrow | wide window |
>| window | at least 640 pxl. |
- -- Don't forget 640x480 screens!
>1) Users don't like overlapping windows: it is good to have all
>productive content on the screen all the time.
- -- I agree with Or. I like several open applications running fullscreen with
a shortcut key or taskbar to swap between them. And I don't want to
have to wait for the screen to be re-drawn when I change to another
window.
>2) There is urgent need for integration of file manager, e-mail reader
>and web browser. The way Windows and other desktops are doing it weird,
>and it don't really enable full potential of computer, which is to be
>MORE than your desktop, not just immitation of desktop
- -- Look at the ACDSee File Manager/Viewer for Windows. I associate any
webpages with ViewHTML and have a very productive combination, with
well thought out keyboard shortcuts (able to use with _one_ hand). BTW,
I can no longer delete files using Arachne.
>3) I am thinking about starting with extending hierarchical view of
>your computer the same way as Windows do - eg. hotlist items are
>equivalent to files.
- -- I usually like to restart where I left, not from C:\
>4) Clicking anything in "tree window" would always cause target to be
>"wide window", while clicking in wide window will keep objects opening in
>the same window.
- -- Can we have more than one not-so-wide or not-so-deep window, when required?
>Of course, more intensive caching of downloaded pages should be possible
>(maybe full caching of screen images and caching of pre-processed HTML atoms),
>so switching of pages is as fluent as minimizing and maximizing of traditional
>windows.
- -- Woohoo! I love (some of) those old traditions.
>Additionaly, it would be nice to combine command line and URL prompt.
>It would somewhat append your input to existing URL, so eg. if prompt
>will be "file:C:\images\" and you type "someimage.gif", the GIF will
>appear on screen, and same would work for online files, with logical
>warnings like "cannot execute command on remote filesystem", or so.
- -- And we need drop-down file lists to remember the names of our files.
>!!! Don't expect these features before version Arachne 2.0 !!! ;-)
>It would be nice if you can send me some comments to this scheme, or
>maybe better ideas.
So we don't get to play with Arachne 2.0 next week? More sleepless nights!
Jake
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End of arachne-digest V1 #1043
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