from Thomas Tabler/tomstfor:
> On signing into driversguide.com with Arachne 1.69
from a DOS box in Windows, I acheived 89kb Dos real-mode
memory and then a freeze after downloading over 300,000kb
file at http://driversguide.com/drivers5.html. I will
check it out using read DOS mode {f8} without Windows
drivers loaded in DOS 7.10. before sending this mail.
I was hoping Arachne could do Driversguide, some tech
support pages in a pinch. If not, that says pretty
poor for Arachne users, seeing they need to get better
modems, quite often. I am fortunate to have Windoze.
I feel we should think about ALL Arachne users in
development of the browser. Yes, I know this sounds
trite and overly arrogant to others. I know others
may have contributed far more to Arachne-dev than me.
Just trying to do the best I can with my individual
needs and such. Even L.D. Best has played devil's
advocate sometimes on the List. I agree about web
page design and that should be changed, but I think
a browser that can't do *.WAV files and PDF's with
some functionality is a goner. OOPS! Yes, that's
the name of a new virus going out there in the
Internet world. So many Internet forms and "standards".
If we can come to agree with a "set" of core
values and standards for the browser, we will do
better in the long run. Yes, I want to see it
developed more. Some day, I would also like to
get Linda a better computer, and also to install
Linux Arachne, and get a registration key for her.
I wish my ideal goals were compatible with my
short term needs. God bless Michael for keeping
on trying with his work. Oh, well, when will
I find the time to run the latest version on
a ramdisk?? Happy holidays and Merry Christmas
to the Arachne List and Mr. Polak in Prague.
Now from me:
300,000kb driver files, is that 300 MB?
Actually the browser doesn't do PDFs, it's a separate program, Adobe Acrobat
Reader, configured from within the browser as a plugin. So even Netscape and
MSIE don't render PDFs on their own, do they?
I haven't received any Pentagone/Goner messages, don't know why I haven't
received any Nimda messages. But just two days ago I received another Snowhite
message.
I got Arachne running on the new computer, XCOPYing to a ramdisk before running.
I use LSPPP to dial and make a WATTCP.CFG with IP-UP.BAT and my own MAKEWAT.BAT.
I set Coonnection READY and Hangup NUL in ARACHNE.CFG. But Arachne bugged out
on about.com with a memory allocation error followed by three skulls &
crossbones (FATAL.AH). Next day Arachne, in some cases, couldn't activate
clickable links. I also noticed DPMI Internet programs, such as Lynx386,
couldn't reach the host. Maybe Arachne messed the memory somewhere? But this
is an improvement over a previous instance where DPMI programs (Internet and
non-Internet) wouldn't run at all after Arachne messed up. Only version of
Arachne that I use is 1.70 third release, I don't have any of the older versions
any more.
It looks like Mozilla is way ahead of Arachne and widening the gap, no doubt
helped by low prices for RAM and big hard disks, which would tend to thin out
the Arachne users, not to mention lack of https support in Arachne.
But there is a reason, besides compatibility with non-Javascript browsers, why
webmasters would do good to move away from Javascript in view of the epidemic of
Internet-transmitted viruses. Many Internet users will want to disable
Javascript as a security hazard in view of the harmful effects of rogue
Javascript, VBScript too. A user who enables Javascript for a particular Web
site is likely to forget to turn it off when browsing other Web sites.
