Change History of Line Mode Browser
Improvements made to the Line Mode Browser are
listed in reverse chronological order. (See also the
bug list and the separate documentation for
the VMS version).
Many changes
to this product stem directly from changes to libwww, and are
documented in the W3C Reference
Library.
Line Mode Browser 3.1, November 14 1995
Official release.
Line Mode Browser 3.1 Prerelease 3, November 13
The browser has been adapted to support the new Event
Interface
Line Mode Browser 3.1 Prerelease 2, November 1
New Features and Interfaces
- Introduction of the commands "PUT" and "POST" for sending data
from either the local file system of a remote HTTP server to a remote
wHTTP server - try it, it's fun :-)
Line Mode Browser 3.1 Prerelease 1, May 20
As usual most of the functionality in the Line Mode Browser comes
from the Library, but there are some things that deserve to be
mentioned:
New Features and Interfaces
- Added the -single flag so that it can run in singlethreaded mode
- refresh screen is now improved
- Introduced `-cacheroot' as command line option
- Added STREAM_TRACE to command line option
- Changed SGML trace to `g' instead of `s'
Bug Fixes
- No more coredump if HTMainText=NULL!
- command line option -listrefs now works again
Line Mode Browser 3.1 Prerelease, November 1
New Features and Interfaces
- Introduction of the commands "PUT" and "POST" for sending data
from either the local file system of a remote HTTP server to a remote
wHTTP server - try it, it's fun :-)
CERN terminated
its direct engagement in the World-Wide Web with the release of
Library version 3.0 and Line Mode Browser 3.0. The code is now
developed and maintained at W3C.
3.0 Prerelease 2, Dec 2 1994
- The browser is now much more stable and has the same amount of
functionality as the previous version 2.15
3.0 Prerelease 1, Nov 26 1994
- Interruptible I/O - hit 'z RETURN' and the current load terminates
- You can at any time initiate a new load or any other command by
simply start typing.
2.15 on November 25 1994
As always, most of the added features in the Line Mode Browser are a
result of changes to the W3C Reference Library. However, the following
new features deserve to be mentioned:
- Introduced a more sophisticated verbose mode that takes parameter
after the -v option. This feature is implemented due to an excessive
amount of verbose output from the Library and the Browser. The -v
option can now be followed by none, one, or more of the following
characters:
- a
- Anchor relevant information
- p
- Protocol Modules
- s
- SGML/HTML information
- u
- URI management
The -v
flag alone turns on all trace messages. This
feature is a result of a more advanced TRACE management in the W3C
Reference Library
- LineMode Browser now supports direct WAIS access. If it is
compiled with the same WAIS flags in the Makefile as the CERN server
then it can access a WAIS server directly.
- New command line feature: -m where is one of
This will later get extended to also include other HTTP methods
- Cyrillic support added for Line Mode Browser. This is a patch from
Anton Tropashko, agl@glas2.glas.apc.org
- Bug where the Browser prompted the user a UserID and Password in
non-interactive mode fixed. Now non-interactive really means
non-interactive.
- The common BUILD for the Line Mode Browser, the CERN Server and
the Library of common code now accepts a command line option:
BUILD linemode | daemon | library
to build a specific component. The default action is to build all
three parts. BUILD is now also provided in a Bourne Shell version
2.14 on November 1994
- Added -reformat
option to allow www to be used for generating HTML in cannonical form
for running diffs, putting into code managemenst systems, etc.
- The Browser now understands the "ALT" tag in HTML Inlined Images
- Loads the Command Line Help if
called with the parameter "-?" or "-help".
- Bug in understanding "-p" and "-w" with and without spaces
between the number fixed.
2.13
- This release of the Line Mode Browser is mainly a debugged
version that is brought up to date with the WWW library version 2.15.
For the changes in the Client side of the Library, see Changes to
W3 Common Library . See also existing commands and command line syntax .
- Using the save function ">"
now checks if file exists. Use "!>" to overwrite it. All save
functions now put up an output stream instead of making a system call.
- The -from command line option can be used in filter mode (using a
"-") in order to specify the input format.
- In Non-interactive
mode, no third party programs are called through "save & execute".
If the Browser finds gets an unknown format, the result is put onto
standard output.
2.10
- Millions of things which
seem to have slipped past this list in versions 2.x to s.09, inclduing
the rule file, firing off X applications for graphics files, etc etc.
See the library change list.
1.4a
- REFRESH command
refreshes current document
11 Dec 92: 1.4
Dec 92 1.3c
- Makefile for rs6000
fixed. (rs6000 cc does not have good -o flag). Binary available for
rs6000 again.
- -version option on command line for quick version
check
16 Oct 92: Version 1.3a
- SOURCE command prefix allows
printing, pipiping etc postscript source without formatting. SOURCE
PRINT prints a postscript file. SOURCE > allows the original source
to be saved.
- -listrefs
option allow noninteractive output to be followed by lists of
addresses of documents referred to.
- MANUAL command takes a
hypertext jump straight to the latest version of the online
manual. (HELP is still local slightly context-sensitive help).
Oct 92 version 1.2l
- Bug in Gopher access removed.
- Now uses common code library
version 1.2k
- Default port number changed to 80 ****.
18 May 92 version
1.2h
- PS command added to print document on local printer
attached to a terminal. Special compilation flag SLAVE_PRINTER.
- BUG FIX: Crashes on some machines only fixed (malloc length error
on HTTP.c.)
version 1.2f
- Bug fix: telnet under
unix: -l option was put AFTER the host name. Fixed
27-Mar-92.
Version 1.2e
- New command: 'Verbose'
toggles verbose mode on/off as per '-v' command switch.
- New
command: for Unix, 'cd' or 'lcd' changes the local working directory
(as in FTP clients).
- Command input handled more efficiently.
Should use readline() in the future, with completion on anchor names..
- Some minor bug fixes.
Version 1.2d
- COMMENT
tag introduced for future use only.
- Speed improvement: Use of a
hash table for document names improves load time especially of
documents with many links.
Version 1.2c
- Bug fix:
unknown tags without attributes caused text to be skipped until the
end of the next tag. This lead to missing information (like phone
numbers! ) in CERN yellow pages listing and a strange format for the
xfind server.
Version 1.2b
Release includes a few strict
C bug fixes for the Mac, and adds makefile for pc-nfs. Version
1.2a
- Feature: the -source option makes www load the
unparsed source from HTML servers. See details ...
- Tags MENU and DIR introduced for future
use.
- Bug fix: The style was not set until a style change occured:
therefore, formatting of any text before a heading etc was wrong (no
paragraph spacing, indents, etc).
- Bug fix: Newlines in HTML
source are not taken as blanks if they follow other white space. This
caused initial blanks on some paragraphs when a newline followed a
tag.
Feb 12 1992: Version 1.2
- Binaries
generated for unix and vms hosts, for general announcement. Code
fixes for compilation on the various platforms.
Version 1.1c
- www can be used as a filter: The - option (a dash by
itself) makes it take HTML data from stdin. Seedetails
- FTP directories
contain pointers back to their parent directory.
- Bug fix: News
access didn't work on little-endian machines (VAX etc).
- Bug fix:
VMS descrip.mms file was not complete.
Version 1.1b
- Bug fix: when using the ">" and "|" commands in www on a
document whose name contained shell metacharacters, it failed.
- Bug fix: HTBrowse.h missing from source release.
Version
1.1a
- Bug fix: news server address always taken as
"cernvax" : see documentation
January 1992 Version 1.1
- "Gopher" protocol added to allow access to those campus-wide
systems using that protocol.
- "Telnet:" access added for
information system which don't have a server at all;
- Allows
gateways to be defined for arbitrary new (or old) naming schemes, eg
setenv WWW_wais_GATEWAY //node:port/
- Bug fixes: the -n option
didn't work properly in v1.0
Version 1.0 (released as alpha
test only)
- New archiecture, more modularity.
- "News"
access added: picks up news using NNTP as the NeXT W3 browser does.
- Forward and reverse scrolling.
- "Next" and "Previous" commands
added to allow to move to next article in a list.
- Bug fix:
Searches are now only allowed on indexes.
Version
14a
- Logfile option -l, and -h allows remote usage to be
logged. (Existed in version 14, but bug in that log file was all one
line!)
- If telnet used, default logfile /usr/adm/www-log- is used
even though no -l logfileroot is specified.
November 1991
version 0.14
- The `Recall' command now displays references
as `R 1', `R 2', etc. instead of just `1', `2', etc. so the user is
reminded to type `R <number>'.
- An out-of-range reference
number will launch a keyword search if applicable. For instance, in
the phone book, you can now type directly `3755' instead of `K 3755'.
- New command : `(G)OTO <address>' jumps to the document
specified by its hypertext address. The address may be absolute or
relative to the current node.
- Clear screen after user input for
NEWLIB and VM. NEWLIB-special source put in. VM version defaults to
home page on //w3.org.
- Entity handling ., . and . put in
for text and TITLE fields.
- Bug fix: CR now ignored in remote FTP
files which used to be displayed double-spaced.
- Bug fix: tabs in
plain text were displayed as newlines! Now to next multiple of 8
columns.
version 0.12
- -a xxx option now allows the anchor
format to be specified. The old -a option for anchor supression is
renamed -na.
- Bug fix: occasional crash when going "back".
- Bug fix with the -n command line option. In non interactive mode
the prompt was still produced.
- Now treats '\r' characters as '\n'
characters.
- Reproduces last line of page at the top of the next
page if a paragraph is split between them.
- Bug fix in FTP handling as for
NeXTStep editor. (Could not access some sites).
- HTTP host
addresses may now contain a port number after a colon to override the
default.
15 November 1991 version 0.11
- You can read
the address of the current document in the HELP information.
- MVS
and VM only: Line width reduced to 78 characters.
November 91
version 0.10
- Bug fix for TOP commmand. Now functions
correctly, and data is only buffered and formatted when the user
requires more text, hence saving time.
- Can pick up on the users
home environment, to display a certain intial page. Set variable (on
VMS, logical name) WWW_HOME to the full hypertext of the file or index
you want to start with.
- Keyword search accepts longer strings.
- On VMS, VMS files may be accessed. The WWW address is still
unix-like, with slashes, and is converted into VMS syntax by the
browser. VMS users can now write their own hypertext and keep it on
VMS, though it will only be readable (at the moment) from VMS
machines.
November 91 version 0.9
- Bug fix in
anonymous FTP. The first version with a-ftp access.
24 May 91
version 0.8
- Page size selection now works with -p (bug in
version 0.7)
- Styles have been made more compact, plain text uses
all 80 columns.
- Bug fix: Missing loop end condidtion caused crash
when listing some documents
- Files with suffixes other than .HTML
are treated as plain text.
21 May 91 version 0.7
- Parameters avaliable on the command line :-
- -v
- Shows trace comments, including the pathways taken to locate a
file.
- -n
- Makes the program non interactive with the user. No
prompts are shown, and after the node is displayed it exits the
program
- -p
- Turns off the paging. The page size can be
selected by adding the value immediately after the 'p'.
- -a
- Stops positions of anchors being shown in the text.
- These options are particulary useful when redirecting the input
into either a file or to the printer. They can also be used in any
order on the command line, as long as 'WWW' is the first arguement.
- When the recall command is used to view what files have been
visited, the titles of the files are used, rather than the file name.
If there is no title then the file name is used.
14 May
91
- The function HTOpen() called from HTAccess has been
changed so that it takes two parameters instead of one. This extra
one being a pointer to an address where the format style is stored as
an integer. The translations of the integers to the formats can be
seen in WWW.h. At the momment this extra parameter is not used but
will be in the near future so that more files can be
accessed.
10 May 91
- WWW now reads the formatted
text into a double linked buffer one screen full at a time and then
produces it on the screen. This enables checking of documents so that
splitting of small paragraphs or titles does not occur at the bottom
of the screen.
- An option is offered to return to the top of the
present document being viewed.
- Tim added the necessary code so
that WWW can now access remote files using anonymous FTP.
17
April 91
- Modified WWW so that it is also executable on
the SUN machines., i.e. using ordinary C.
- First version
realeased on PRIAM, for testing by a few users, to gain
feedback.
- Accepts keywords with the execute command.
8
April 91
- Keywords can be entered on the command line.
- The input file is copied into a buffer as soon as it is opened, so
that the input channel is closed as soon as possible and the server
freed. The first 23 lines of the document are read into the buffer
and produced onto the screen. As soon as this is done, the remaining
file is read into the buffer so the input channel is
closed.
7 March 91
- Created an array called
'string_space' which is filled with blank spaces to be used for
printing out margins etc. This method of printing a string was found
to be faster than individually printing spaces.
- A history
mechanism has been included so that a list of all the documents viewed
are stored so that the user can refer back to them using the BACK,
HOME and RECALL commands.
- Changed code so that the browser can
handle text which contains long words which exceed the allowed line
length on their own. This is just done by continuing the word on the
following line.
- Read titles and headings into a buffer before
outputting so that in cases where the title has a word longer than the
allowed line length can be dealt with (for example above).This could
also be useful in helping to solve the above problem. Maybe extend the
length of headings.
5 March 91
- Handles a
"LISTING" tag by treating it in the same way as an "XMP" tag. This is
because, in the case of the line mode browser, the screen is limited
to 80 columns and so the browser is unable to work with the 132
columns which the "LISTING" tag normally expects.
- Handles an
"ADDRESS" tag, which left justifies the text.
27 Feb 91
- Lists and the help menu are not so spread out, as before.
- The browser works with file numbers rather than the file pointers.
- Tidied up paging, with the last line of a page repeated at top of
next.
- Deals with tags within anchors.
11 Feb 91
- HTTP access to cernvm server, including FIND and NEWS tested.
- Browser can be executed by 'WWW' , 'YP' (yellow pages), 'XNEWS',
or 'FIND'.
- "PLAINTEXT" tag added. Prints out the node exactly as
it finds it in the file.
- Prompt only contains appropriate
options, as does the help message.
- Keyword search option
added.
Before Feb 91
- Text formatting and line
wrapping completed to a reasonable standard.
- Removed section of
program where 'r' has to be entered in order to select a reference.
- When no hypertext references have been found, the browser informs the
user, and doesn't offer the list option in the help menu.
- Produces an error message if the user tries to select a reference or menu,
when no references have been found.
- Records whether an anchor is a NAME or an HREF.
- Stop **** END **** (now [End]) appearing in the wrong places.
This problem appears due to the lines in the html file being too long,
so this causes an error in the 'C' run time.
- Handles a glossary.
Tim BL, and Henrik Frystyk,
www-bug@w3.org, November 1995