An updated quick look at ViolaWWW
This W3 browser for X11 workstations is based on the
Viola hypertext
environment. Viola uses X11 intrinsics, but does not need motif. I tested
it using a NeXT with CubeX, in grayscale and color versions.
We've also now run it on Sun4 and decstation.
This is an update of my
earlier review.
(Sometimes there are problems with fonts which cause it to hang on startup, for example
under openwindows. See the
bug list
for details of problems of particular platforms.)
Pei Wei, Viola's author, is finishing his degree at UC Berkley, and
will be with O'Reilly Associates where he will continue to work on Viola.
Here are my personal comments on a (May 15) test version. See also:
running it at CERN , comparison with Erwise. SummaryFeatures of the browser are:
- Multifont text
- Links highlighted with "button" boxes, single click to jump
- "Home", "Back" and "Forward" buttons
- Single window operation plus "clone" of a copy of any document in
another window.
- A History window with list of documents visited.
- A "bookmark" facility
- Online help buttons
- Searching of remote index: input field at bottom of window
The bugs reported in the last review have been fixed, and there is now
online documentation available especially on
viola in general
from Pei's server in Berkeley.
Look and FeelThe overall look was very good to my particular taste: I'm no great
fan of motif LAF, anyway. The "feel" is also good, apart from the
speed of display which is just slow enough to be frustrating if you're
used to something faster. The old1.0 version was much faster, but
monofont. The multifont text is certainly worth the wait unless its
only a phone number you're after.
The formatting of the text is very good: the styles are clear and
distinct, apart from the List style (LI) which looks too much like
normal text. It could do with being indented and a bit of white space
inserted between list elements.
Ease of useThe program has to be installed, coming with three parts: a binary,
a directory full of viola scripts, and a shell script to define an
environment variable to point to the viola script directory. Once
this has been set up, all you have to type is "vw" and the program
starts from a default home page just as the line mode browser does.
That's three keystrokes, and it's point-and-click from then on!
Cut and paste don't seem to work yet although one seems to be able
to select text, which is then underlined.. more features in the pipeline,
I suspect.
Bells and WhistlesThe arrow buttons along the top margin look like "Previous", "Back"
and "Next", but don't work in quite the same way as in the NeXT and
line mode browsers. The left and right arrows move though the history of
where you've been. The up arrow is quite confusing in that it means
"go to where I was last" litterally, so using it twice brings
you back to the same place.
At any time, if you follow a link, the new document is put on the end of the history
so you loose your place. This can be confusing if you're not using the history
window.
If you are using the history window, the confusing element is that the same
document appears more than once in it if you have visited it more than once.
This means the history window can become quite large if you wander around a lot.
I've used the word confusing, but once you know how it works, its fine to use.
The function of "Next" meaning the next article
in a list is not available.
Hidden documentationYou have to be inquisitive to find out that there's documentation
about Viola hidden under the globe icon. It is more obvious that
help resides under the big question mark. In both cases, the program
intelligently checks for a local copy of the help before going off
to California for the original. It then caches a copy in /usr/tmp.
Nice point. I suggest a link from
the help into the "About Viola" documents.
See the hypertext markupOther gadgets are at the bottom of the window: three small icons tucked
in after the index search field. The history feature and "print"
buttons don't quite work in practice, but are close to working.
The third is is source viewer which allows you to see the HTML source
of a document in a separate window. This is useful for information
providers, and also for explaining how WWW works!
Cloning
There is a little "clone" button (an icon of tearing a sheet off a
pad) which allow one to make a copy, in another window, of a document.
This is not a complete clone, as the window does not have any buttons
(except for "clone"!). Therefore, if it is an index, you can't search
it (pity),. You can, however, follow links with it -- but the referenecd
document is brought up in the orinial, unique "master" window. The
clone window is nicely unclutteretd as a result, though.
ConclusionA very neat browser useable by anyone: very intuitive and straightforward.
The extra features are probably more than 90% of "real" users will
actually use, but just the things which an experienced user will want.
I'm looking forward to the minor bugs with the scroll bar and color
working being cleared up.
Tim BL
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