Waffle irons at the ready, good people...
Clarence inquired (about Sideshow Bob Enterprises):
>Specific questions, asked without examining the HTML or
>trying to grok the idea:
>1) MUST the link to the search engine exist on the left page,
>or can one use the manual entry method (which I tried) ?
Quick answer: links to search engines, other Web locations,
and local pages may be in either frame, but cannot be entered
using F3. A personal observation is that backtracking thru
the history of the left frame seems more reliable (the right
frame will often produce an extra frame or full-window display)
and that may have a bearing on where you decide to load the
pages.
More detail: It's a frameset, so it masks the location of the
the URL and causes other usability hassles. Enter a URL and
you lose the frames -- but you could manually edit a framed
page (right click to maximize, F4 etc) to add a link.
JavaScript will (annoyingly) allow Windows to be created, and
framed pages can squirt their link targets into other frames
(see below) but I don't think a framed page can inherit a target
associated with the frame without somehow rewriting the page...
so the problem was to use an intermediary for harvested and
other links.
Step forward the Hotlist. For my own use on a 640x480 I wanted
a narrow Hotlist frame targetted at the main frame, but the
Hotlist Manager overwrites the target tag so I removed it
(the Manager). In any case, I wouldn't want to use the Q hotkey
with more than a dozen links with my limited HDD space, so the
Hotlist Manager isn't required.
Targetting the other frame has its uses, but recent Arachnes
can't (in all instances?) load a BMP from a JPEG into the target
at the first attempt, so it's safest to start out with
<base target=_self> -- which is the default. It doesn't have to
be included, but I find it quicker to have the basic pages set up
with this tag and then edit them on the fly if I decide I want a
different target, rather than maintain Hotlists with targets of
Self, Left and Right frames.
To the frameset (Sideshow.htm, eh?) add target names to the
frame tags e.g. <frame src=ppp_init.htm name=left> and
<frame src=hotlist.htm name=right>. I'd usually use quotes
round the values, but we can save a few bytes by omitting them.
Now you have the option of editing Hotlist.htm and other
pages and setting <base target=left> or <base target=right>.
It's best to amend the <title> for pages saved to Hotlist
to show their target, (the title becomes the link text) and
similarly for the headings of Hotlists with non-default targets
-- so you can see the target declared on the page and get fewer
unwelcome surprises!
>2) How the heck do you add the harvested links to the right
>page ? I understand that "A" will add ONE link to the hot-
>list (invisibly-that's what the refresh is for), but ALL
>the links from a "Q" run ?
No, one link at a time is OK for me. The Q run is for fetching
the pages you've carefully selected links for. Opera can
harvest all links from a page, but that's a different story.
"Fravia" is an Opera advocate, but I wonder if Gem got him to
put in the mention for DOS apps on his search-lore pages?
>3) How the heck do you stop Arachne from VISITING all the
>links when you hit "Q" ?
I hope not to get in the situation of a runaway Q session
covering more than a handful of links. I'm currently writing
on a borrowed Amstrad 386 portable, but IIRC Esc stopped Q
in its tracks. There's always the power switch (modem).
>4) Do you care that the act of "Qing" around kills the
>history list ?
Desparately, but I'm having too much fun.
>5) Now that I think of it, why don't you put the History
>..Lst in the right side as the harvested links?
Too much of a muddle, compared with my self-selected Hotlist.
>6) Why am I asking all these questions ?
Maybe cos you hoped for an answer quicker than you could find
for yourself? I'm sure you've found out plenty in the past 24hrs.
>SH*T! Why have you been hiding this from us Jake ?!
>That's a farkling good idea - especially in widescreen mode.
It's newer than you realize. I'd assumed horizontal frames
would work better on a VGA, but was surprised how usable
even the 50/50 vertical split is. Opera works better on my
gear, but the Arachne Surf Tabs I made recently are great
for visiting my regular locations, and give a toehold when
running fullscreen. I'd used the Hotlist as a temporary
location for copy-&-pasting addresses e.g. of the current
page, but realizing that I could/should use it as a short
duration tool was the next step. On the wishlist: choice of
full page width link presentation as a Hotlist option: then
I can use horizontal frames better suited to VGA and my Surf
Tabs could be more easily altered on the fly.
>It needs a little work - probably by someone like you - but I was
>able to get some downright AMAZING displays. Like:
>Hotlist oneside, Arachne chat other side.
>Inbox oneside, next message other side.
>Compose oneside, incoming mail other side.
>And you can use Arachne DGIs as framesources:
>A minute ago I had inbox.dgi left + outbox.dgi right.
Compose wants fullscreen for my machine, and InSight is
already too slow, but you could have Inbox on the left,
with <base target=right> squirting messages into the right
frame. Substitute rows for cols in Sideside.htm (a.k.a.
Sideshow.htm) and you get horizontal (full-width) frames.
>By a marvel of chance with some editing of sideshow.htm, I had
>previous screen on one side, previous-1 screen on other side with
>ESC taking me back in pairs. I admit it was unstable, but NEAT
>while it lasted.
>This used "arachne:history" as the source for the second frameset.
>It oscillates at startup while history keeps updating, but if you
>hit ESC (ESC=Back), it quits and settles into some pretty strange
>sequences.
>
>WARNING !! Do not try this without a net unles your mother is watching !!
I tried when the cats were away and arachne.tmp nearly burst a valve
with an accumulation of junk. I've learnt my lesson and don't want my
arse whacked for trying again.
>BTW, it is neat entertainment and looks 1x10^6 % better than randomly
>placed random sized windows, but I STILL don't like multiple windoze.<G>
D'you use rear-view mirrors? Have you served in a tank or submarine?<G>
Are you completeley focussed in all areas of life? Is multi-tasking an
advantage or a distraction?
History.lst is akin to the Window list in a Doze browser (dunno if
Win9x taskbar is similar to TabSurf in revealing the titles of hidden
browser windows). In both cases we're somewhat in the dark over what
is in the Cache, until we check. But TabSurf and now Arachne can tell
us at a glance how to get to the pages we're currently interested in.
Even without a vlink color change in Arachne, I find the Cache in gray
matter quite good at remembering the route thru visited links, so I
only want some starting points and waymarks.
>Of course, I could have imagined it all, I guess. :-*
Sometimes it's good to have unlimited resources, and the imagination
to use them, especially if it drags paying customers along for the
ride. Maybe as a group we're too hidebound by questions of efficiency
and not wanting to ape the output from Redmond. I'm glad L.D. asked
for something along these lines and the need+possibilities overcame
the scepticism+inertia. Like most sideshows, look closely and there's
very little there, but it could help draw folks towards the main event.
>Check out this screenshot of Multiwindow Arachne:
>http://www.hwcn.org/~ao773/myfiles/images/1024x768/multiwin.gif
That's not fair! You've got so much wide open space!
>Thanks for the wake-up call Jake. <G>
>Now we need a "Back-in-Frame" function !
Clicking a non-active region within the frame, to regain
focus, _should_ allow the Back button/keys to function
for _that_ frame.
Regards,
Jake
-- Written by a user of Arachne: the Internet Survival Kit
-- Arachne V1.70;rev.3, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
