ViolaWWW beta release is available

wei@sting.Berkeley.EDU (Pei Y. Wei)

Mail folder: WWW Talk Jan 94-present
Next message: Martijn Koster: "Important: Spiders, Robots and Web Wanderers"
Previous message: Alexsander Totic: "subscribe"
Reply: Pei Y. Wei: "ViolaWWW beta release is available"

Errors-To: listmaster@www0.cern.ch
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 13:13:49 --100
Message-id: <9402240410.AA09585@sting.Berkeley.EDU>
Errors-To: listmaster@www0.cern.ch
Reply-To: wei@sting.Berkeley.EDU
Originator: www-talk@info.cern.ch
Sender: www-talk@www0.cern.ch
Precedence: bulk
From: wei@sting.Berkeley.EDU (Pei Y. Wei)
To: Multiple recipients of list <www-talk@www0.cern.ch>
Subject: ViolaWWW beta release is available
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
Content-Length: 2892

Hi--

The new ViolaWWW is now available for ftp'ing. It's beta and feedback
is very welcomed. The README file follows...


===========================================================================
ViolaWWW, Version 3.0 Beta                              Feb 23 1994
==========================

ViolaWWW is an extensible World Wide Web hypermedia browser for XWindows.

Based on and drawing from the Viola scripting language and toolkit,
ViolaWWW provides a way to build relatively complex hypermedia applications
that are beyond the provisions of the current HTML standard.


Notable features in the new ViolaWWW
------------------------------------

* HTML+ support: container paragraphs; input forms; tables.
  (Note: not yet exact and complete compliance with the currently
   evolving HTML+ standard)

* In addition to the currently defined HTML+, there're a few other
  extensions, such as for columning and document insertion (client side).

* Embeddable in-document and in-toolbar programmable viola objects.
  A document can embed mini viola applications (ie: a chess board),
  or can cause mini apps to be placed in the toolbar.

* Motif front-end. The X11 (non Motif) version is also available.

* Single binary for easy installation, unlike the old ViolaWWW which
  required setup of various viola application files.


Availability
------------

Source and binary can be found in ftp://ora.com/pub/www/viola.
Sparc binary is supplied.

I'd appreciate hearing about compilation success stories (and patches)
for platforms other than SunOS and Ultrix.


Compiling and running ViolaWWW
------------------------------

To compile, run the 'BUILD' script (or 'BUILD.decstation').

This generate two binaries: viola/src/viola/viola and viola/src/vw/vw.

Right now, you should use the binary 'vw' as it is the ViolaWWW with
the Motif GUI, which is currently the more polished front-end.
But do let us know if you'd like support on the non Motif version.

Note: Viola requires X11R5, and the Motif version of ViolaWWW requires
a Motif toolkit library. The libwww(2.14) that comes with ViolaWWW is
modified, so until the changes are integrated into CERN's, don't use
the libwww that didn't come with viola.


Contact
-------

You can send mail to viola@ora.com. Feedbacks, bug reports, patches,
constructive criticisms, etc, are always welcome.


Acknowledgements
----------------

In particular, many thanks to: Tim Bernners-Lee for inventing the WWW;
Tim and the CERN crew for the libwww; All the contributors on www-talk etc;
Jon Blow (ORA) for the lexical analyzer used in viola; Scott Silvey (ORA)
for creating the Motif front-end; Terry Allen (ORA) for lots of testings
and help with SGML; Dale Dougherty and Tim O'Reilly for supporting the
work on viola at ORA.


                                Pei Y. Wei (wei@ora.com)
                                O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.