In message <009f01c1de51$006f5ca0$20065cc3@default>, Dilwyn Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes >>Tarquin has already started to write a browser in beta form for the >QL - >>he is also a RISC OS user - I have forgotten what he calls it. > >Hyperbrowser
Ah ... yes, that's the one :-) >>I have a copy, yet it doesn't work for me :-( >>... anyone got it working ? > >Yes, all but one version I could only get to work with text. He has >(or was plannign to?) use Photon to display JPEGs but I don't think I >got hold of this version. I seem to remember it relied on a version of >Photon which was able to have filenames for display passed as a >parameter and I'm not sure that existed then (i.e. did Tarquin get it >working or was it just a feature he'd put in ready for when Dave >Westbury got that to work in Photon). > >>It is only text at present. > >That's a start at least. Text browsers are a bit useless in the modern >graphics-driven internet but at least Lynx and HyperBrowser form >something from which to start from once soql becomes reality (if ever >Jon Dent sorts his Linux systems out - I think he was having problems >with a Linux system he was setting up to test and debug soql). There >was another QL text-only browser called QMosaic too. If you could find >a version which worked on your system, it worked rather well as a >text-only browser. Trouble was, of all the versions I came across (and >I have 2 or 3) they were a bit fussy as to which QL system they'd run >on. Yes, that seems to be the core of it, at present ... exactly which system it will run on. However, it is still early days ... >Any graphical QL browser would need to be able to handle much of what >the internet currently thrusts upon us - reasonably fast display of >various graphics format like PNG, JPEG, and GIF. Or at the very least >be sufficiently capable of putting a square in the display where the >graphic is to go and a 'Click On This To View This Graphic' as the >next step up from text browsers. One way would be for this 'Click To >View' thingy to call up a graphics viewer like PhotoQL or Photon via >FileInfo 2 and over time a library of file viewers would be available, >so that even if browser development stopped external viewers etc >(plug-ins???) allowed some advancement. Download speed needs to be good, for graphics. Although many are not a problem to display if the site authors have taken the trouble to correspond the file size to the graphic display size. Unfortuneatley many sites have graphics that have been 'slung up'. >We also need a first GD2 graphics program. No need to be PaintSlap Pro >or whatever, just a little something along the lines of earlier QL >graphics programs which allow you to draw some simple graphics. The parts for this seem to be coming together now that graphics can be done well on a QDOS / SMSQ base. I know that Chris Cave is working on an excellent technical drawing program - called 'Drawing', as I am working on writing the manual for it :-) So, the QL can do graphics, and and it very well ! >It does go to show that although up until now we have had adequate >software development tools to produce reasonable software, GD2 has not >had the support tools necessary to plough ahead with good software. >Yes, the Q40 has brought some good programs, but to some extent they >are specific to Q40, or are only at their best on a Q40/Q60. How I >look forward to QPTR and EasyPtr being GD2-aware for example. I have not seen what has been done for the Q40/Q60. >Wolfgang Uhlig recently sent me a cute little GD2 program called >QcoLour which helps with the development of hues and shades on high >colour systems, and I think is the first or one of the first QL >program to use 'skins' or user definable backgrounds (nice colour >ripples and textures). A neat little splash of colour. Yes, I have downloaded that ... the examples are impressive. Although it does now show up the poor quality of the fonts. >Simon Goodwin, for example, has been doing some good work with his >Digicam software, so people with some Kodak cameras can download and >handle camera graphics on a QDOS system. > >The capability is there, but we have to remember it's talented >individuals working in their spare time and mostly for free. That is it ... yet it is fun :-) -- Malcolm Cadman
