Version 2.0b20 ============== November 23, 1994. This is not a major new release. I'm releasing it now mostly because this version lets you use the new Netscape 0.93 beta as a URL helper, which is something many people have been waiting for. URL Improvements ---------------- Version 0.93 beta of Netscape now works as a helper program with NewsWatcher 2.0b20. Netscape 0.93 beta supports the new standard URL Apple event suite, and NewsWatcher 2.0b20 uses this suite with Netscape. NewsWatcher also works with the recently released new version 2.0b2 of TurboGopher, which also uses the new standard. Thanks to Aleksandar Totic and Farhad Anklesaria for helping design the new standard and for implementing it in these new releases of their programs. Both Netscape and TurboGopher are available in the helpers directory: ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/newswatcher/helpers/ NewsWatcher now recognizes multi-line URLs, provided they are enclosed in angle brackets <...>, in either the format "" or "". You can now command-click anywhere in any line of such a multi-line URL. For example, The double quote (") is now recognized as a URL delimiter. This makes command-click work with URLs which are part of HTML fragments. For example, NewsWatcher now flashes and selects the entire URL string when you open a URL. In some cases, it used to only flash and select part of the string. Escape codes in the form "%xx" are now handled properly in mailto, news, and nntp URLs, as specified by the draft URL RFC. Note that NewsWatcher does not, however, process these escape codes in URLs it sends to helper programs. That is the responsibility of the helper program. For news URLs, NewsWatcher now recognizes all three legal forms from the draft URL standard: news:message-id Opens the referenced article in a new article window. news:newsgroup-name Opens a subject window for the newsgroup, as if the group had been opened from the full group list. news:* Shows the full group list window and makes it the active window (brings it to the front). The last two forms are new in this version. The previous version only recognized the first form. On the advice of Peter Lewis, NewsWatcher no longer accepts "slack" ftp URLs. The chapter titled "Opening URLs" in the user document has been revised to discuss these topics. Apple Event Improvements ------------------------ NewsWatcher now properly checks for unexpected required parameters on Apple events. The geturl event now properly returns error codes as the event reply (if a reply is requested by the client). It returns the error code -50 (paramErr) if the URL string contains a syntax error or is not one of the three schemes recognized by NewsWatcher (news, nntp, and mailto). It returns the error code -43 (fnfErr) if a referenced news article or group does not exist on the server. Other OS error codes are also possible. If no reply is requested by the client, NewsWatcher displays error messages to the user, provided user interaction is allowed. NewsWatcher now properly handles the Apple event user interaction options. In the case of the print event, if user interaction is not allowed, NewsWatcher prints one copy of all pages of the file or files, and does not present a print job dialog. With these changes, NewsWatcher now fully conforms to the URL Apple event standard and to Apple's general requirements and recommendations for Apple event handling. The new URL Apple event standard was recently finished and is no longer in "draft" status. See the following document if you are interested in the details: ftp://ftp.acns.nwu.edu/pub/newswatcher/url-ae-standard.txt Errors Fixed and Other Changes ------------------------------ People found the error message "Could not get server address" confusing. It has been changed to the following more informative message: Could not get server address. You either typed the server address incorrectly, or your MacTCP domain name server information is not configured correctly, or the network connection failed. People found the error message "Lost connection to server" confusing. It has been changed to the following more informative message: Lost connection to server. The server abruptly closed its end of the connection without sending an error message to NewsWatcher, or the network connection failed. The news server error code 502 ("access restriction or permission denied") is no longer treated the same as error code 411 ("no such news group"). In particular, when you open a user group list, groups for which the server returns error code 502 are no longer deleted from the user group list. Instead, they are treated as if they are empty (contain no articles).