Return to the Article Index
Return to the Main CD Index

Catch a Wave
by Bruce Thomas

The Web. A few years ago this term would conjure up images of spiders or secret agents caught up in espionage. Lately, the term is synonymous with just about everything imaginable.

It is nearly impossible to do anything without seeing references to www.thisplace.com or www.spendmoney.com. The Web, for those who don't know, is short for World Wide Web (where the 'www' comes from) and it is a subset of what is known as The Internet.

History

I won't go into any long history of The Internet except to say that it has been around in one form or another for over 30 years. It started out as a defense project to allow military installations to share info securely in case of attack. To make the system operate certain rules and protocols were developed including TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). These protocols fit into specific layers of the theoretical network model and make up part of the communication process between computers.

The Internet started off as a text-based system to share text-based information. This was during the time in the history of computing where mostly huge building-sized mainframe computers were in use. As time progressed, Educational Institutions connected to The Internet so that academics could share information. One thing led to another and eventually millions of regular people 'got on' The Internet.

The millions of people, however, did not jump on the bandwagon until their sensory inputs could be stimulated. As Desktop Personal Computers grew in power and popularity more people could access the information on The Internet. This was made all the easier with the development of HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and HTTP (HyperText Transport Protocol). HTML is the language that web pages are written in allowing clickable links to be embedded in a document for easy navigation and HTTP is the protocol that governs the transmission of HTML. Once Graphical Browsers were developed The Internet quickly gained popularity amongst people who could point and click to almost anything imaginable.

The Shell Game

For Commodore users we have long had the ability to access The Internet in its original text-based format. Using dial-up Shell Accounts we have been able to use our Commodores to access programs running on UNIX host computers like Pine (for e-mail) and Lynx (for web browsing).

Since the majority of Internet users access the Internet from more modern PC's running the Windows operating system Shell Accounts are not required. Modern PC's use Dial-up PPP accounts (Point-to-Point Protocol fits into the lower layers of the network structure) to make their connections and more and more ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are dropping support for dial-up Shell Accounts.

Where does that leave Commodore Users? We have to search for ISPs who provide text-based access. When we find one we are often left to our own devices as Help Desk personnel are trained to assist PC or Mac users and their software products.

Progress

As we all know, the world of computers is in a constant state of change. Our Commodores are no exception to this fact and we are still seeing new developments in hardware and software. Some of the very important hardware improvements include storage space (in the form of large RAM devices, Hard Drives and High-Density FD Floppy Drives) and processor speed (20 MHz SuperCPUs are amazing add-ons). We have also seen some important software arrive lately including Errol Smith's Unzip, Steven Judd's JPEG Viewer and Maurice Randall's Wheels upgrade for GEOS users. Alternate Operating Systems offer TCP/IP protocol stacks necessary for Internet connections.

When taken separately these items all provide something for Commodore Users that was missing prior to their introduction. When these things get put together by the creative people who give us support they can take on a new life of their own.

Right now we are witnessing the birth of one of these new lives. The entity that is being created will combine a lot of the new software and require a lot of the new hardware to provide our Commodore computers with an application that other platforms take for granted - a Graphical Web Browser with versions specific for the 64 or 128.

Ride The Wave

What will you need to use this Web Browser? The following system specs will let you know if you have what it takes to enGEOy this new application. The Wave requires: C-64 or C-128 running Wheels, color monitor (128 version is 80 column only), SuperCPU with minimum 4 MB RAM, HD or RL for storage, Swiftlink or Turbo232 and 14.4 Kbps or faster modem.

Who is responsible for this new application? It is likely no surprise that Maurice Randall is the man behind the project. One aspect of this project that differs from others that Maurice has undertaken (geoFAX, Wheels, etc.) is that he is spearheading the project but will not do all of the programming.

Maurice posted a note to the comp.sys.cbm Internet Newsgroup in October of 1999 announcing the project and requesting assistance and code from other programmers. Almost two months to the day later he released the first version to the COPS (Commodore Only PostScript) mailing list members for testing.

This first version included a simple terminal mode to allow dialup connections to BBS's. The HTML Viewer would allow a user to view HTML documents stored on local disk drives and navigate around by clicking on the links. No support was provided for viewing images (JPEG and GIF) but that will be included in the final version.

Near the end of January 2000 Maurice announced that he had successfully connected to his ISP using a dialup connection, PPP and The Wave. This means that the project is moving along and another test version of the program is likely not far off.

Due Consideration

This project is important in a number of ways. First off, the hardware requirements mean that you will need to make an investment in the future of your Commodore if your system isn't up to the challenge.

While a number of people scoff at adding some of these powerful pieces of equipment to their systems they are an investment that pays off by returning a non-renewable resource to the user. That resource is time and each of these required add-ons makes your time at the keyboard more productive.

Secondly, the fact that this project is a collaboration means that the programming expertise of the Commodore Community as a whole is able to contribute to the finished product. Some wonderful pieces of software will be merged together to make this project a success.

Thirdly, the final product will be freeware which means that anyone can use it without cost. Not only that but the entire source code (programming) for the project will be freely available to anyone who cares to make enhancements. This open-source attitude means the product can take on a life of its own is making its mark in the PC world also with the highly popular LINUX Operating System.

Finally, probably not the least important change relates to cost. As mentioned, a certain amount of hardware is required to run The Wave and if you don't have it you will have to lay out some bucks (although this will prove useful for everything else you do with your Commodore). We also must consider that our Internet Access costs will change.

I have a text-based account at Edmonton FreeNet that costs me $25 per year. To add PPP dial-up graphics access to my account the cost jumps to $100 per year. Both of these options feature unlimited connection time, which is a good thing, but just the same I am going to start looking for a faster modem than the 14.4 Kbps model that I have at present.

Commodore users are able to create web pages as HTML is just ASCII text. Images can be included in GIF format and special text formatting commands allow for different size print on the page. From what I have seen in the demo version that Maurice has released The Wave will allow Commodore users to now see these pages on the Internet as others do. I have every confidence that The Wave will become a fully-functional, useful, software addition to my Commodore library.