Appendix D
Release Notes
Below is a copy of the most recent release notes included with the “web news speak” application.
Web News Speak V0.05 Beta
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0.05 - 04 April, 2000
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Features:
* Added the sleep function
* Added very basic automated dial-up networking support
* Added basic user instructions in html format
* Expanded the set of special characters recognised
* Added option to set the size of the text in generated HTML files
* Added the ability to allow ignoring of whole ranges of tables
* Added the ability to ignore sections of a page using trigger strings
* Added escape character detection to page file to allow commas in urls, etc.
* Limited downloads to three concurrent threads - winsock doesn't allow more
* Improved log file - fixed mutual exclusion bugs
* Added the ability to see comments in the original HTML when in supervisor
mode - this does not work very well yet
* Added list of nestings for each new table displayed in supervisor mode
* Loads of bug fixes - much more stable now
Known Problems:
* Automated dial-up networking support only works in Windows 98
* No table cell ignores - decided not to bother with them
* Problems occur when downloading multiple pages if the user is also using a
web browser to download web pages
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0.04 - 09 March, 2000
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Features:
* Now uses multiple threads! Downloads multiple pages simultaneously - faster
* Much improved log file (strange ordering is due to multi-threading)
* Added a button to load the log file from the options screen
* Added a download status screen - so you can tell what it is doing
* You can now cancel the download at any time, by clicking on cancel
* Re-ordered the buttons so they are in the correct order for screen readers
* Added a check box to allow turning the status screen text off
* Added cancel button on options screen, so changes can be ignored
Known Problems:
* Still some problems with a few special characters
* Still no go to sleep or table cell ignore functions
* Still no user instructions, and the contents page doesn't break down yet
* Some problems with certain sites crashing the program - mainly BBC Sport
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0.03 - 29 February, 2000
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Features:
* Now saves your options and page preferences when you exit!
* Made viewing external links optional - pages look less cluttered now
* Tidied up the code, and made more things into objects
* Added a log file to aid in tracking down errors
Known Problems:
* Some problems with displaying certain special characters
* Go to sleep function not implemented yet (soon!)
* Table cell ignore still not implemented
* No user instructions yet
* Contents page still doesn't break down into categories
* No status screen when downloading pages, and you cannot cancel the process
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0.02 - 26 February, 2000
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Features:
* Improved table handling - with 3 modes, Display, Announce and Ignore
* Added subpage filters, with more than one allowed for each main page
* Allowed table filters to be applied to subpages depending on subpage filter
* Greatly improved lexical analyser, but now runs (un-noticably) slower
* Parser now handles links properly - but is now limited to following 1 deep
* Fixed problems with unusual characters in html files
* Added supervisor mode to allow setting up of pages within the page file
* Page downloader now downloads and parses any file with an extension that
is not in it's list of excluded file extensions
Known Problems:
* Options and page preferences are still not saved on exit
* Go to sleep function still not implemented
* Table cell ignore not implemented yet
* Still no user instructions
* The main contents page still doesn't break down into categories
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0.01 - 19 February, 2000
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Features:
* Builds category menus dynamically using page file
* Can connect to UMIST server and download newest version of page file
* Can download the selected pages and parse them into plain text
* Can follow links on pages up to a specified link follow level
* Limits followed links to pages on the same domain
* Parser supports 14 main HTML tag types
* Supports downloading pages through a proxy server
* The page downloader only downloads HTM, ASP, and TXT files at present
* Proxy server settings can be changed in the options screen
Known Problems:
* Options and page preferences are not stored when the program closes
* The go to sleep option is not yet implemented
* There are no user instructions yet
* The parser does not handle linked pages quite right yet
* The main contents page of the converted pages does not break down into
categories, and is all on one page
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You should have downloaded this file from:
http://www.co.umist.ac.uk/~mcaiah2/
If you find any major bugs that are not mentioned above, please email me at:
adam.hatherly@stud.umist.ac.uk
Telling me the the following:
- What pages you were trying to download (if appropriate)
- What happened (e.g. the error message that you saw)
- What system you are using (including your windows version)
- What version number of the application you are using
- How you are connecting to the internet (e.g. Modem)
- If possible a copy of the log file (in the program directory) log.txt