Re: IIGS specific graphics web browser for IIGS specific web sites!

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

CUTjefbla@bconnex.net (Jeff Blakeney) wrote:

>supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>
>>Ideas for a IIGS specific web browser.
>>
>
>I've thought of the same thing.  Unfortunately SIS only supports a 7
>bit connection at present which means the only way we could include
>images in current web pages would be to BINscii encode them or
>something.  This would increase their file size unfortunately.
>
>However, if we wait a while for the new Marinetti and new Spectrum to
>come out, then maybe Geoff will update SIS to use TCP/IP and therefore
>give us an 8 bit connection.  Downloading images, or anything for that
>matter, would become possible.

Then a true graphical IIGS web browser supporting graphics and
sound would be possible!

>By the way, if the conversion routines from Convert.3200 were to be
>used, most GIF images could be converted in a matter of seconds for
>use on the IIgs.
>
>Oh, and another problem right now is the way SIS displays its
>information.  I believe at present it is using a TextEdit control
>which doesn't support putting in images so any update to support
>graphics would either have to have a separate window to view the
>graphics or have to totally rewrite a large portion of SIS.  :-/

That's true, but it is better than nothing.  The AOL web browser
also opens a window to display a graphic if you click on a
graphics file on, for example, an http connection to an ftp site,
so it is doable.  It would be great if a web browser could be
written from scratch, though, that did not use TextEdit.

>>This may sound crazy, but since we have SIS specific html
>>tags, how about IIGS specific web graphics!  These graphics
>>can be stored scaled to fit the IIGS screen and stored in
>>SHR format.  No longer having to decompress and scale the
>>graphics, a IIGS web browser using a IIGS specific web site
>>will be able to browse a traditional looking web page.
>
>There is no need to make a SIS specific image tag.  If you put in an
><IMG ...> tag that points to a graphic format that the current browser
>doesn't have a viewer for, it will display a broken graphic image.  I
>just tried it with Internet Explorer and I got an image frame with a
>white document icon with a red X in it.
>
>However, there is nothing stopping people from writing a plug-in that
>will allow viewing of IIgs graphic formats for Internet Explorer or
>Netscape.  They could even have the viewer automatically double the
>height of the image to retain proper aspect ratio on the higher
>resolution machines.
>
>They could even do a PaintWorks animation plug-in too if they wanted
>to get really fancy.  :-)
>
>Yes, you can put one of those "Best viewed on an Apple IIgs" icons on
>the page for those less fortunate folk who are using IBM or Mac
>machines.  :-)
>
>However, see above for reasons why it could still work for other
>browswers.

That's a great idea.  How about also including support for synthlab
music and IIGS rsounds?  It is not too hard to design an Apple II
web site comprised of text, SHR/APF graphics, synthlab instead
of MIDI, rsounds instead of .wav files.  Since these are IIGS formats
requiring no conversion, a IIGS with Marinetti and a 14.4 modem
is more than enough hardware to view these pages.

These pages can also have plug ins, like you suggest, for IE and
Netscape so that web browsers on other computers BECOME the
conversion software to access IIGS files....on AND off the Internet.

For years we've heard of how impossible it is for a IIGS to convert/
decompress a .jpg web graphic sufficiently fast and all that
garbage, but just think....if the web pages were design using IIGS
FORMATS, the IIGS DOES NOT NEED TO CONVERT/SCALE/
DECOMPRESS or any of the other time consuming activities.
A IIGS web browser, at least for IIGS specific web sites using
IIGS specific sounds and IIGS specific graphics is VERY possible.