Graphical web browser for DOS and Linux
Arachne
is an
Internet suite
containing a graphical
web browser
,
email client
, and dialer.
[2]
Originally, Arachne was developed by Michal Polak
[1]
under his xChaos label, a name he later changed into Arachne Labs. It was written in
C
and compiled using
Borland
C++ 3.1.
[3]
Arachne has since been released under the
GPL
as
Arachne GPL
.
Arachne primarily runs on
DOS
-based operating systems, but there are also builds available for
Linux
.
[4]
The Linux version of Arachne utilizes SVGALib, allowing it to function without requiring a display server.
Background
[
edit
]
Arachne supports many file formats, protocols and standards including video modes from
CGA
640×200 in monochrome to
VESA
1024×768 in high color mode (
65
536
colors). It is designed for systems that do not have any
windowing system
installed.
[5]
Arachne supports multiple image formats including
JPEG
,
PNG
,
BMP
and
animated GIF
. It supports a subset of the
HTML 4.0
and
CSS 1.0
standards, including full support for tables and frames.
[6]
Supported protocols include
FTP
,
NNTP
for
USENET
forums,
POP3
,
SMTP
and
Gopher
. Arachne includes a full-fledged TCP/IP connection suite, which has support for some dial-up and Ethernet connections. However, Arachne has no support for
JavaScript
,
[2]
Java
[2]
or
SSL
. Arachne can be expanded with the use of add-ons for such tasks as watching
DivX
movies, playing
MP3
files,
IRC
chat,
RSS
and viewing
PDF
documents. Arachne also supports
DOS Gateway Interface
(DGI), a unique feature similar to
Common Gateway Interface
(CGI) scripting on the client.
The first version of Arachne with a known release date was 1.0 Beta 2, which was released on 22 December 1996. The final and official version by Arachne Labs was 1.70R3 for DOS (released 22 January 2001) and 1.66 beta for Linux (released 20 July 2000). While there have been several more DOS versions,
[7]
[8]
Linux development lay dormant until 24 May 2008 when a beta version 1.93 for Linux
[9]
was released. The current DOS version, maintained by Glenn McCorkle, is 1.99 as of 23 December 2021. In 2006, there also was an experimental
DPMI
port of Arachne by Udo Kuhnt, named DPMI Arachne.
Support
[
edit
]
Arachne supports a limited subset of stylesheets and HTML. Known support as of version 1.93:
[6]
Style
|
Aliases
|
Options
|
color
|
|
#rgb or #rrggbb or a color name
|
background-color
|
background
|
#rgb or #rrggbb or a color name
|
font-size
|
|
%, px, pt
|
font-style
|
|
i[talics]
|
font-weight
|
|
b[old]
|
text-decoration
|
font-decoration
|
u[nderline]
|
Derivatives
[
edit
]
xChaos software licensed the source code of Arachne to
Caldera UK
in 1997. Caldera UK added
Novell
's dialer and
TCP/IP
stack,
JavaScript
,
SSL
, implemented their own support for frames, added support for animated GIFs, audio output, printing on a multitude of printers, an optional on-screen keyboard for mouse and touch panel usage (
SoftKeyboards
), user profiles, and they completely changed the design of the browser (customizable), using
Allegro
for graphics. Also, they ported it to compile as a 32-bit protected mode extended DOS application (utilizing
DPMI
using
DJGPP
, a GNU compiler for DOS),
[10]
while Arachne is a 16-bit application. This program was sold as
DR-WebSpyder
in 1998; the name was to associate it with
DR-DOS
, which Caldera owned at the time.
When Caldera had transferred DR-DOS to its branch company
Caldera Thin Clients
, which renamed itself into
Lineo
in 1999, the browser was referred to under the name
Embrowser
.
[11]
[12]
Since 2000, the Linux port of the browser has been called
Embedix Browser
.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Polak, Michal (2018).
"Michael Polak"
.
Piratska strana
(in Czech). Archived from
the original
on 2019-05-31.
- ^
a
b
c
Rakitin, Jason (1997-10-27).
"Review: Alternative Web browsers"
.
Network World
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-11-28.
- ^
Arachne Labs
- ^
"Section 508 Alternative Browsers"
.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
.
- ^
Stutz, Michael (1997-06-06).
"Czech Browser Won't Do Windows"
.
Wired
.
Archived
from the original on 2008-12-02
. Retrieved
2017-03-05
.
- ^
a
b
"Arachne HTML support"
.
FreeDOS
. 2008-07-10. Archived from
the original
on 2008-07-13
. Retrieved
2008-11-26
.
- ^
"Arachne file archive"
. Archived from
the original
on 2008-06-24.
- ^
"Arachne"
.
Evolt Browser Archive
.
Archived
from the original on 2020-02-08
. Retrieved
2020-02-08
.
[…] 1.2_beta7 2002-05-03 […] 1.41b 2006-06-13 […] 1.43_beta2 2002-05-03 […] 1.47b 1999-08-21 […] 1.66_beta 2002-05-03 […] 1.70 2002-05-03 […] 1.73 2006-06-13 […]
- ^
McCorkle, Glenn (2008).
"Arachne v1.93;GPL for Linux"
. Retrieved
2008-07-02
.
- ^
"Arachne Frequently Asked Questions"
. Arachne Labs. 2005-03-02. Archived from
the original
on 2005-03-02
. Retrieved
2018-02-13
.
- ^
Caldera, Inc.
(1999-07-20).
"Embedded Linux moved to top priority at Lineo, Inc. formerly known as Caldera Thin Clients, Inc."
(Press release). Lindon, UT, USA. Archived from
the original
on 2017-06-25
. Retrieved
2017-06-24
.
- ^
Smith, Tony (1999-07-20).
"Caldera Thin Clients renamed to focus on embedded Linux - Lineo, Lineo -- wherefore art thou, Lineo?"
.
The Register
.
Archived
from the original on 2018-08-22
. Retrieved
2018-02-13
.
Further reading
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
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