Visopsys 0.83 released

[andymc]

Hello everybody

Things continue to move along, and version 0.9 is still in the works, but in the meantime here's an update: Visopsys 0.83. The summary:

Overview: This maintenance version features user experience enhancements and reliability improvements, and a more capable Archive Manager program. Bug fixes cover a number of GUI flaws and memory leaks, and some of the low-level network infrastructure code has been refined.

As always, the downloads can be found here https://visopsys.org/download/
And the changelog here https://visopsys.org/download/change-log/

[ronaldlees]

Andy: Thanks for the update. I took a peek at the change-log and saw the jpeg changes you put into v0.83. I have some large jpeg image files that wouldn't load on prior versions, and so it'll be interesting to see if they behave differently on v0.83 ...

The new TCP-related library functions sound interesting. Seems like your C library is getting to be pretty sophisticated. You should give it a name - maybe someone will want to fork it someday.

[ronaldlees]

Hello Andy,

I wonder how your TCP/IP stack is coming along? Been awhile since I checked in - BTW - have a merry Christmas!
-Ron

[andymc]

Hi Ron,

The TCP, DNS, etc code is 'finished' - has been for a while - but it needs more testing/debugging.

I'm currently focused on making some applications that can use it for real-world stuff.

One thing is a very primitive, throw-away, web browser that's just a proof-of-concept. Slightly more useful will the underlying 'document canvas' widget and the libraries that parse XML and HTML, to render an HTML document in a readable way, and will enable the viewer program to display a local HTML file - such as documentation - reasonably well without a web browser.

Obviously a real user would want to use a port of a real web browser, which will come later, and which will be an installable package pulled down from the software 'store' depot thingy (which is also sort-of implemented for the 0.9 release).

Andy

[ronaldlees]

Hi Andy,

I've been retired for a while now - so there's available time to do some testing when v0.9 arrives. Is the v0.9 code online somewhere? I actually think that "primitive" browsers are a good thing. In order to avoid the fluff that comes with javascript, I often turn it off, which results in a primitive but speedy experience. Sometimes I use text mode browsers like links and lynx.

Packages are a nice idea too.

- Ron

[andymc]

Hi Ron!

I thought about posting up a dev version of 0.9 for you to try - and I can do so if you're keen! - but so far, from a user perspective, there's not much obvious added functionality. Most of it is still under-the-covers, or command-line, stuff. I still need to add the polish and the UI stuff that makes the new functionality 'pop', if that makes sense. I fear that if you tried today's version of 0.9, you'd scarcely be able to tell the difference between it and 0.83!

Or like you'd open a command window, and type 'telnet fooxyz.com', and it would work for a hypothetical fooxyz.com because of the new TCP and DNS support, and the telnet library and all the rest, but who really wants to use telnet anyway? I feel like I need to build more actually useful bits before I can elicit more than a bored yawn from most users. (telnet protocol support is actually useful for other things)

Andy

[andymc]

Hello, welcome!

I think there will be a version 0.84 soon, but it's only lots of small things and bug fixes so far. I'm spending most of my time working on 0.9. I was hoping to release it by the end of 2018, but I still have several things I want to add. It will be a few more months, I assume (I'm also expecting a new daughter in the next couple of weeks!)

Andy