Everhart, Glenn
From:	cook@wvnvms.wvnet.edu
Sent:	Wednesday, February 10, 1999 4:42 PM
To:	Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject:	ANN: VMS Mosaic 3.2
Release 3.2 of VMS Mosaic is now available at

    ftp://alpha.wvnet.edu/mosaic/mosaic3_2.zip

If you download it, please be sure to read

    ftp://alpha.wvnet.edu/mosaic/readme.bugs

3.2 includes the following changes since the previous release (3.0)
announced on comp.os.vms:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From VMS 3.0 to VMS 3.1 (the release on the V4 Freeware CD)

 o Added support for Refresh URLs in <META> tags
 o Added support for proxy server authentication
 o Added Referer info to image download reguests
 o Added support for relative redirection URLs
 o Added support for <S> tags
 o Added partial support for NUMBER as a form input type
 o Improved progressive display of page backgrounds
 o Removed space between left aligned tables and adjoining tables
 o Corrected transparent animation refresh problem in tables 
 o Eliminated /STANDARD=VAXC for DEC C builds of the SRC library
 o Various bug fixes

From VMS 3.1 to VMS 3.2

 o Added support for browser safe colors
 o Added Floyd-Steinberg dithering of images
 o Added support for right floating tables
 o Improved support for floating images
 o Improved vertical alignment of images
 o Added support for tables containing no <TR> and <TD>/<TH> tags
 o Added support for HTML containing Null characters
 o Added Referer info to image viewer download reguests
 o Reduced icon and GUI colormap usage
 o Changed "Previous page" button to ignore Refresh URLs
 o Updated help information
 o Improved support for file://localhost/ URLs
 o Improved support for PNG images
 o Upgraded PNG library to version 1.0.3
 o Removed CCI support from default build
 o Removed HDF and DTM code from source
 o Various bug fixes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Browser Safe Colors (i.e. the Netscape color cube) is the biggest
change.  It can be enabled/disabled via the Options menu, however it
is not a dynamic option (i.e. preferences must be saved and Mosaic
restarted).  In any case, Browser Safe Colors is only enabled if
Mosaic can allocate the required colors, otherwise support is disabled
regardless of the Options menu setting.  If you are using the New
Desktop (aka CDE) on a 256 color graphics card, Mosaic will not be
able to get enough colors unless it is given its own color map by
starting it with the /INSTALL_COLORMAP qualifier.  If you are using
DECwindows on a 256 color graphics card, then Mosaic should be able
to get enough colors if no other color application is running and
if the color settings in your MOSAIC.DAT have been updated to match
those in the MOSAIC.DAT_COLOR file provided with 3.2.

Floyd-Steinberg dithering of GIF, XPM and PNG images is the other
major change.  It is only used when Browser Safe Colors is enabled.
Although the Jpeg library used by Mosaic has always done Floyd-Steinberg
dithering on Jpeg images, its dithering is improved when Browser
Safe Colors is enabled.

Browser Safe Colors combined with Floyd-Steinberg dithering makes
many pages look significantly better (a few pages may look slightly
worse).  In particular, pages which have multiple color photos will
usually see major improvements (some will go from being almost
unviewable to looking fairly nice).  Another advantage is that the
color shifts which occur when using multiple Mosaic windows have
been greatly reduced.

The preference COLORS_PER_INLINED_IMAGE is ignored when Browser Safe
Colors is enabled; each image can use as many of the browser safe
colors as it needs.

Browser Safe Colors probably should not be used on a 24 plane graphics
card (i.e. one supporting more than 256 simultaneous colors) unless
the multiple Mosaic windows color shift problem is of major concern.
Note that if you have a 24 plane graphics card (and Browser Safe Colors
is disabled), the preference COLORS_PER_INLINED_IMAGE should be
increased to 256 (the maximum) for optimal page appearance.

Is there any interest in having all the menu help pages available
for installation on local systems?  There was at least one request
for this several years ago.  If so, I now have them all on my http
server (NCSA was no longer maintaining them on their server) and
could make them available for ftp.


George Cook
cook@wvnet.edu