On Tue, 06 Mar 2001 16:10:32 -0500, L.D. Best wrote: > 2net was kind enough to ship me a version of Alice the other day. First > application attempts have all resulted in system lockups & keyboard > lockout. I have found that I could always exit Alice simply by pressing the Esc key, even if no other keyboard input would do anything. If you have a dialup connection, exiting from the program will not knock you offline. You just exit and then restart the program. You won't have to redial first. > However, it does have the equivalent of a wattcp.cfg ... it's just named > differently. I think it's gbrowse.cfg where I had to put in all my info > for my LAN connection and where other info would be required for > dial-in. If you run Alice on a LAN connection then you have to write the equivalent of a WATTCP.CFG, but having a different file name. If you run her on a dialup connection you have to write a PPPD.CFG, which has no resemblance to a WATTCP.CFG. The dialer program provided with Alice does not produce a file output on disk. I just used the default GBROWSE.CFG. This file does not require any data on your dialup and login stuff. Here is all that I had to write to call up Alice: ----- begin PPPD.CFG ----- base 0x3F8 irq 4 57600 -crtscts xonxoff ---- end PPPD.CFG -------- Alice is very persnickity about case sensitivity of everything in the PPPD.CFG file. The documentation doesn't tell you about this and I had to find out by trial and error. > Alice2 is not certain whether it *is* a web browser or if it's a utility > for OEM installations. It claims to be able to exist as a "standalone" > program in the purest sense ... i.e. they claim it can be run without > *ANY* OS. If such is the case that would imply it operates at the > machine code level, and that could make it very machine specific ... > i.e. might not run on everything. I think she was designed to be burned into a ROM and used as an "embedded system" on very small portable devices without "operating systems". The documentation for the evaluation copy we have says that she will run in 400KB of memory on any machine running DOS 3.1 or above and having a CGA monitor or above. > If I can get it to run, I'm looking at Alice as a GUI on DOS > manufacturing computers, not as a webrowser ... another use [possibly > primary use] Alice2 was designed for. Alice could be well adapted for running graphical training tutorials and shop manuals and specifications lookups and document finders at factories and plants and in other businesses. Employees could keep her on a floppy containing all the files needed for looking up information relevant to their jobs. The machines would not need hard drives and all the employees could have access to the same computers and the managers wouldn't have to worry about the likelihood of some employees screwing up the system if everyone is told to use only his own floppy and to keep a backup copy. As for use as a primary graphical internet browser, Alice might be the best choice for anyone having a 286 or below, or for anyone having a 386 with less than 2MB of RAM, and for people who have only a CGA monitor. Regards, Sam -- See our Big Gizmotimetemp at -- http://banners.wunderground.com/banner/gizmotimetempbig/US/VA/Mt_Jackson.gif
