Turnbull China Bikeride/Turnbull China Bikeride - Disc 1.iso/HENSA/INTERNET/ARCWEB/ARCWEB_191.ARC/ReadMe1st!

Text File | 1997-09-02 | 16KB | 402 lines

ArcWeb 1.91 Release Notes
=========================

Read this file very carefully - ArcWeb MAY NOT WORK unless you do.
I know it seems like a lot of instructions, but the length is mostly
due to me going into as much detail as I can to try to pre-empt any
problems.  You should find that you can skim through most sections.

If you are reading this from a CD, then it is almost certainly out of
date, and you should check the primary sources to see what the latest
version is.

Contents items marked '!!' indicate that this item was changed recently
and should be re-read.

Changes in this version are documented in the ChangeLog file.

*** READ THE INSTALLATION SECTION BELOW FOR DETAILS ********

Contents:
     Installation            Usage with Acorn TCP/IP
    Usage with ANT !InetSuite    Usage with ImageFS 2
    Usage with Virtualise        Usage with RISC OS 3.7
    'Viewing' audio files        Viewing video files
    Installing new sprite sets    Installing new template sets
    YOUR Personal Privacy        ArcWeb Mailing Lists
    Where to get it all        Bugs in this version
    Support                Miscellaneous Information



*** Almost certainly will not work over KA9Q (although it might)
*** Use FreeNet or Acorn TCP/IP (version 2.11 or version 4.06 or later)

All documents referenced in all the files here which say that the file
is in the archive root, should be taken as meaning "either in the archive
root, or inside ReadmeDocs directory in the archive root".

ArcWeb requires several Acorn modules to be present in order to run. All
will be found inside the toolbox.arc archive to be found in the same
location as the ArcWeb archive.  This is contrary to the comments in some
files that refer to the modules being included "with this archive".
Further details below.

ArcWeb is fully StrongARM compatible.


Copyrights
==========

The !Scrap, !System & !SysMerge directories & Toolbox modules contained
within that !System are copyright (C) Acorn Computers Ltd.

!FilerURLs is copyright (C) 1995, Acorn Computers Ltd. All rights reserved.

This program contains code derived from the RSA Data Security, Inc.
MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm.

This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
The JPEG library code is Copyright (C) 1991-1996, Thomas G. Lane
and the Independent JPEG Group

The PNG support library (libpng) is copyright (c) 1995, 1996
   Guy Eric Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
   Contributing Authors:
      Andreas Dilger
      Dave Martindale
      Guy Eric Schalnat
      Paul Schmidt
      Tim Wegner

The GIF support library (gifstream) and gif2spr are copyright (C) 1995,
Simon Truss.


Installation
============

*** You must not install this version over versions prior to 1.13 <------

Updating the modules in !System
-------------------------------

Several Acorn modules are required to be present in !System in order for all
the parts of ArcWeb to run.  All required modules are supplied in the now
SEPARATE toolbox.arc archive.  You need to ensure that your !System directory
is up to date, and once you have finished reading the whole of this section,
you should REBOOT in order to kill any old versions which may be in memory.
Failure to do so may cause things not to work as expected.  The modules
to be found in toolbox.arc are those distributed with Acorn C/C++ update 1.

RISC OS 3.1x users should use !SysMerge (!SysMerge.!Help contains more
details).  RISC OS 3.50 and later should run the !Boot application on the
primary hard disc, and click on the System folder in the Configuration
window.  Drag the toolbox.arc !System onto the window as prompted. (NOTE:
Several people have reported that the RISC OS 3.50 and later upgrade facility
does NOT work reliably.  So you may have to use !SysMerge instead)

The toolbox.arc !System also contains some toolbox support modules, which are
used by the colour editor and the DNS tester.  ArcWeb is not itself a
Toolbox application, just these utilities.

Unpacking the software
----------------------

The !WebHelper directory from versions 1.13 and before MUST be
deleted, since it contains a lot things which are no longer required (in
particular: !ArcWebTCP) If you do not do this, then you will be wasting 160K
of memory which ArcWebTCP takes up, as that program is now integrated in
ArcWeb itself.  (However, ArcWeb will send ArcWebTCP quit messages if it
sees it loaded)

You should copy out the complete contents of the archive to a directory
*close to the root directory* of a drive, and then reboot in order that
the path variables point to the extracted versions rather than the
copies in the archive.  (For reasons why it has to be close to the root,
see 'Problems' Q18).

You may wish to edit your boot sequence to force FilterMgr 0.09 or later to
be loaded at boot time, as sometimes it causes problems when you load it in
the middle of a session, typically causing "Bad vector release" errors.  At
this point, reboot - this is to ensure that the new versions of the modules
are loaded from !System, and that the Filer sees the extracted version of
!WebCache before any version inside an archive.

When you run it for the first time, you should click MENU over ArcWeb's icon
bar icon and look at the "Configure" submenu.  You should go through each
entry on this menu in turn checking the configuration.  For more information
on most of these windows, you can use Acorn's !Help for more information. The
ChangeFSI submenu is something you probably don't want to fiddle with unless
you know exactly what you are doing.  Then Save Options and quit and reload
ArcWeb.

Fixing ChangeFSI
----------------

There are two alterations that you can make to ChangeFSI in order
to allow it to handle some foreign graphics file formats better.  You
need only do this if you are confident editing the ChangeFSI main
program (it's written in BASIC) with the help of the detailed
instructions, **BUT** if you do not, then you will find that most of
the JPEG images on the web will not be handled.


You should ensure that you have fixed ChangeFSI appropriately.  See
the file ChgFSI_fix for complete details on how to install the fix
which will prevent "GIF file with , in the wrong place" errors.  If
you have ChangeFSI 1.15 or later, you should not need to fix this.

You should also ensure that you have applied the changes to ChangeFSI
as documented in ReadMeDocs.JPEG_Fix in order to enable it to handle
progressive JPEG images.  The fix documents the changes to ChangeFSI
version 1.15 only, but should be similar for earlier versions.


Finally
-------

Now read the 'Instruct' file - particular about Installation. Read the file
called "Problems" if you still have trouble. For conditions of use, please
read Terms.


Usage with Acorn TCP/IP
=======================

RISC OS 3.70 users have the necessary Acorn TCP/IP modules in ROM.  For
earlier versions, if you want to use the Acorn TCP/IP software, then you
can get this from: ftp://ftp.acorn.co.uk/pub/riscos/releases/networking/DCI4/
or http://www.acorn.co.uk/ftp/riscos/releases/networking/DCI4/

There is a free DCI4 SLIP driver available at:
http://ftp.dsse.ecs.soton.ac.uk:8080/ftp/freenet/
in the Tom Hughes section.

The is also a shareware DCI4 PPP driver available at:
http://ftp.dsse.ecs.soton.ac.uk:8080/ftp/freenet/
in the Sergio Monesi section.


Usage with ANT !InetSuite
=========================

If you are using RISC OS based web browsers for HTML authoring, it is
a good idea to check your HTML with as many browsers as possible.  Since
ANT have used a compatible TCP/IP stack for their Internet Suite, ArcWeb
will run on top of it too.  You should not need to make any changes.


Usage with ImageFS 2
====================

This version of ArcWeb can co-operate with ImageFS 2 in order to provide fast
foreign image conversions.   Simply load ImageFS and ensure that it is setup
to handle the various foreign file types automatically.  (This only works for
bitmap conversions - not vector conversions)

ImageFS 2 is a product of Alternative Publishing Ltd., who may be contacted
by sending e-mail to [e-mail].  From reports I have
had from my beta testers, it would seem to be a good product.  I have no
connection with that company.  All trademarks acknowledged.


Usage with Virtualise
=====================

ArcWeb will look for the presence of RISC OS 3.50 or later, and use a
dynamic area for its page store automatically.  You can control the
maximum size of this dynamic area by changing the size in the Memory
configuration window.  The size takes effect when ArcWeb is next
restarted (if you Save Options!).

The dynamic area can be made virtual by changing the option in the
bottom part of this window.  This takes effect when you press 'Set',
and is handled automatically for you.  If you use the Virtualise front
end to virtualise ArcWeb's DA, then you may run into problems with this
switch, so don't do it - you don't need to fiddle with it there!

Virtualise was written by Alexander Thoukydides ([e-mail]).
The marketing rights belong to Clares Micro Supplies.   For more details on
Virtualise, you should send e-mail [e-mail].  I have no
connection with the author or that company, except as a satisfied customer.
All trademarks acknowledged.

!! If you are using Virtualise on RISC OS 3.7, then read the next section
carefully if you have trouble with the font blending:

Usage with RISC OS 3.70
=======================

ArcWeb supports the font blending which is new in RISC OS 3.70.  This
facility can be controlled from the Browser configuration window. You will
need a suitable Font Manager to this to work.  The setting will be ignored if
your Font Manager can't handle it.

!! If you find that all the text comes out black and unreadable (and it
affects other applications too) then the chances are that you have tried
to virtualise the InverseTable dynamic area.  You must not make this D.A.
virtual otherwise it causes the problem described.


"Viewing" Audio files
=====================

If you want to hear audio, then you will require SoundCon by Rick Hudson.
Version 1.51 and later of SoundCon include support for the ArcWeb protocols
and can be found at ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/acorn/sound/   or at
ftp://micros.hensa.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/d/d044/

At the time of writing, SoundCon is at version 1.61

"RealAudio" (a trademark of Progressive Networks Inc.) is not supported.  It
uses a proprietary algorithm to encode the audio transmission, details of
which are not available freely at the time of writing.


Viewing Video files
===================

If you want to see MPEGs then you need something like !MPEGPlay.  Lots of
movie formats can be played by MovieFS.  Support is built in for
MovieFS, and downloaded movies will be automatically played (by Replay).

MPEGplay is at ftp://micros.hensa.ac.uk/micros/arch/riscos/a/a258/

A *restricted playback* version of MovieFS is available freely from:
ftp://ftp.comlab.ox.ac.uk/tmp/Robin.Watts/


Installing new sprite sets
==========================

See the ReadMe1st inside thr AltToolbar directory in the main distribution
archive.


Installing new template sets
============================

Don't.  Otherwise you may fail to upgrade properly when a new modified
Template file is supplied and that will cause weird and wonderful
crashes for no apparent reason.


YOUR Personal Privacy
=====================

Whilst the vast majority of public services provided on the Internet are
provided for your benefit, there are sites cropping up that are working
directly against your benefit.  These sites use various techniques to
obtain information about you by tracking the sites that you visit.
These people actually sell their service to junk mail generators and
other advertisers so that they can profile YOU.  It is hard to prevent
this, although knowing the sites that are engaged in this activity can
help.  You can stop access to these sites by entering the domain name
concerned in the !ArcWeb.Block file.

!!! NOTE: the Allow file contents OVERRIDE the Block file, so you must
          not have an Allow file containing "*" if you want to block
          any sites at all.


ArcWeb Mailing Lists
====================

As of April 1997, a mailing list is available to which you can subscribe
and automatically receive announcements of new versions.  This is a low
volume mailing list which is *moderated*.  Attempts to post to it will
fail, although subscription is open to anybody (all subscriptions are
vetted though to prevent spamming companies subscribing to the list and
retrieving the membership lists).

To subscribe, send an e-mail to [e-mail]
(the Subject is ignored) containing:

subscribe

To unsubscribe from the mailing list, use "unsubscribe" instead.  If you
send the message via ArcWeb, please ensure that you have set up your
e-mail address correctly first.



Where to get the latest ArcWeb
==============================

The very latest version is always available from ftp.dsse.ecs.soton.ac.uk
in directory /pub/Acorn/ArcWeb/   This archive can also be reached (and
preferably so) at http://ftp.dsse.ecs.soton.ac.uk:8080/ftp/ArcWeb/

The latest stable official release is also available for FTP from:

micros.hensa.ac.uk in /micros/arch/riscos/c/c135/
ftp.demon.co.uk in /pub/archimedes/www/ArcWeb/

The Acorn section of the HENSA/micros archive is now mirrored in the Demon
/pub/mirrors/hensa directory.  It is also mirrored at ftp.uni-stuttgart.de.
See the fortnightly posting by Gerben Vos on comp.sys.acorn.announce for more
details on archive sites and mirroring arrangements.

I highly recommend that you look at the ArcWeb home page (go to my home page
[shown below] and follow the link to it) if you have already have http:
capability, and that if you DON'T, get it running on local files first before
attempting network access.  The supplied HTML files contain descriptions of
how to configure the software.  You DO NOT NEED network access in order to
read the local files.


Known Bugs
==========

TEXTAREA elements are not handled properly, because the size is limited to
that given in the HTML definition (which should only refer to the visual
characteristics of the area, not its actual maximum dimensions).


Support
=======

Bugs and comments should be sent to:  [e-mail]
please.  I cannot guarantee to respond to all mails, and I cannot
guarantee to fix any bugs or add requested features, but all mail
is read (eventually) and MAY be replied to.  Please remember to
include the RAM:$.WebRegs file if reporting a bug that resulted in
"ArcWeb has suffered a fatal internal error ..." kind of error.
Detailed instructions on how to make ArcWeb produce this file may be
found in the page linked to from the default page.  All you have
to do is type "*Set DumpRegisters 1" at a command line prompt (in
a TaskWindow or at the F12 prompt, for example) *before* running
ArcWeb.

Telephone support is NOT available.


Other Information
=================

Information, including known bugs and future enhancements, can be found at
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~snb94r/arcweb/

My HTML base line specification document is RFC 1866: "HyperText Markup
Language- 2.0"   Berners-Lee, Connolly, November 1995. ArcWeb is a conforming
level 2 HTML application. Features that are part of the HTML 3.2, "Wilbur"
and/or "Cougar" may or may not be supported at this time - some currently
are, some aren't.

My base line specification document for HTTP is RFC2068 (HTTP/1.1 proposed
standard).  ArcWeb also implements the standards track RFC2109 (HTTP State
Management)

If you find this product useful then I am always happy to accept any
donations you may wish to send to me.  Alternatively, if you prefer,
you could donate some money to a local children's charity or hospice.
(There is no obligation to do either of these)

==
Stewart Brodie
[e-mail]

(Until *September 1997* only!  I shall make known a new e-mail
 address in due course.)