I use an older Duo 230, and I would like to ad to the Best browser thread
going on here.

I have been a long time user of Apple's Cyberdog internet suit, and find it
a delight to use. It has a very intelligent interface, and provided an
excellent suite of tools for handling differing protocals on the internet. 
It has Telnet, FTP, browser as well as email and newgroup features all
warped in very simple and powerful interface.

The biggest draw backs in its use are its age prevents it from correctlly
displaying some new HTML tags, and it does come inside the OpenDoc
environment which is necessary for it to function. It is a real stickler
for proper HTML tags and does lack the forgiveness that Explorer and
Navigator have for less than properlly formatted tags. It does not do a
final page format until the entire page is loaded so  there can be a delay
before a readable window is rendered. Images are always loaded. Progressive
Jpegs are not displayed and JavaScript is not supported. The email/new
component of Cyberdog uses mime and uses it well. In the race of
technologies mime incoded mail has sort of fallen by the wayside as HTML
mail has moved to the front and in honesty Cyberdog does not handle HTML
mail very well.

Some of its more powerful features include excellent  integration into the
current operating system (8.6) and excellent use of Apple's current
technologies. QuickTime works very well, and Java is fully supported. It
works well the Apple's Data detectors and the new Sherlock as well. While
the intitial proper display of a page can seem slow the back and forward
navigation button move from visited page to visited page almost
instantally. The button on the address pane will also produce a list of
places visited since the browser window was opened.

It creates a log that can be organized either chronologically,
hierarchically, or alphabetically that not only keeps track of web sites,
but also keeps track of email, ftp, telnet and newgroup activity as well.
Items within the log can be drug to a notebook, or desktop for late reuse
or directly drug to the address line of the open window. Cyberdog also
provides navigation on local networks and this function is logged as well.
This log feature is so powerful and useful. When viewed hierarchically a
virtual information map is created for everyting that has been done
allowing for easy return to any place within the map. It is really a
feature that needs to be implemented on other browsers/internet suites.


Since its incarnation it has always supported dragging and dropping of URLs
to the desktop to create double-clickable links back to the site. It uses
notebooks to manage bookmarks and while this does seem a little odd at
first I think it is very easy to get use to and is very powerful when
compared to the mechinishms provided with Navigator and Explorer. Element
of web pages can also be selected and drug to the desktop creating picture
or text files.

The preformance of any browser is limited by the speed of the computer and
the speed of the connection. Cyberdog's preformance on a 68030 machine with
a 14.4 modem is very nicely balanced and rendering of a page takes place at
about the same speed as the download. As the modem gets faster Cyberdog
will take much longer to render a page than it does to collect the
information contained on a page. This is perhaps just a convoluted way of
saying that on 68030 hardware Cyberdog's browser preformance is not
enhanced with a faster modem. Of course ftp and sending of email
attachments will show increased preformance with a faster modem.

An excellent place to find links to all things Cyberdog is
<www.cyberdog.org>, not only is Cyberdog available at this site, but
information on usage and helper items can be found there as well. Not
everyone will like this program, but if you are indeed just poking around
because you need a browser or are not happy with your current browser
Cyberdog is worth looking at.

William Ove


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