* This software package is called "Arachne WWW Browser".

* Version: 1.66 beta for Linux - SVGAlib/GGI

* Release date: 5th July 2000

* Arachne will crash your computer sooner or later, and you know 
it may trash your hard disk, if you reboot Linux without unmounting
file system, ie. without shutting down the system in well behaved way,
so I think no one should really use this software at all.  YOU WERE WARNED ! 
Go and buy Micro$oft Windows with Microsoft Installer pre-installed - no 
one forces you to use Arachne....

* You have to read LICENSE file if you plan to do other things with 
Arachne than just trashing your filesystem.

* After launching Arachne for 1st time, check ~/.arachne/arachne.conf for:
GraphicsMode - some cards may

* System requirements:

  - i486 (special build of executable for i386 is available)
  - libc 2.1 based system
  - Linux kernel 2.x
  - SVGAlib (libvga) 1.4 or GGI 2.0 (or both, or later versions, probably) 
  - libvgagl 1.4 or later
  - libpthread
  - 3 MB disk space
  - min 4 MB RAM
  - video card capable od dis~playing 800x600xHiColor
  - /usr/bin/djpeg (djpeg executable in search path, frontend to libjpeg)
  - /usr/X11R6/bin/convert (from ImageMagick package, png conversion)
  
* Recommended:

  - sound support in kernel ;-)
  - play to play .wav files
  - ppp or eth interfaces configured and up ;)  

* Installation notes:

  - to install Arachne, log-in as root and run script "./install", located
    in installation directory. You have to change your working directory
    to installation directory:

    cd arachne-1.64b
    ./install

  - installation script is otherwise self-explaining. After finishing
    installation, any user can log on and start arachne to get personal

  - If you don't like 800x600, you can add line "GraphicsMode Hi16.i"
    for 640x480 or "GraphicsMode Hi16.k" to "~/.arachne/arachne.conf".
    You can also change resolution using "+" and "-" keys.

 
  - If you don't have HiColor video card, you can't use Arachne for now.
    When using GGI, your GGI target (eg. X11) must run in 16bpp mode.

  - GGI can be obtained from http://www.ggi-project.org/ - you need two 
    .tar.gz archives, one for GGI and one for GII (general input interface).
    When unpacking them, execute just "configure" script, than "make" and
    "make install" - it will install libraries to /usr/local/lib, where 
    Arachne startup script and KDE/GNOME launchers will easily find them.
    If you want "clean" GGI installation, copy GGI libraries from 
    /usr/local/lib to /usr/lib, or set enviroment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH
    to /usr/local/lib, and you will be able to use arachne-ggi binary without
    any further wrappers and launchers.

  - configuration file for SVGAlib is /etc/vga/libvga.config - maybe you will
    have to change mouse protocol or so.

  - check ~/.arachne/arachne.conf for folloing variables:
    GraphicsMode - currently recognized only in SVGAlib, GGI requires 800x600
    GGI_MaxFrameRate - maximum frame per second rate for asynchronous GGI 
                       visual. On fast PCs, set this to 24-30 for best
                       results. On slow PCs. GGI Arachne will be jerky anyway.
    GGI_FastScrolling - on slow PCs, set this to No.
    svgalib_MouseScale - you will have to set this to 0 for some mouse types.

  - more information about SVGAlib: man svgalib

  - more information about GGI: man libggi

  - some documentation and HTML files are stilll DOS releated and 
    therefor almost irrelevant for Linux version :-(

  - screenshots can be generated using PrintScreen hotkey; resulting BMP
    file can't be opened in GIMP (don't know why - I am just writing what
    I was told to be BMP ;-), but it is readable for bmp2png or cjpeg 
    utilities.

  - PostScript output shortcut in Linux is Ctrl+P, not Alt+P, because I 
    haven't learnt yet how to catch Alt+something in SVGAlib...

  - if you want to see Arachne in full action, you should probably get
    DOS version anyway. Only cca 55% of functionality has been ported so far.

  - Arachne interactively overwrites "~/.arachne/arachne.conf", but most
    of changes done by graphical setup screens won't take effect until
    you manually restart Arachne. "Use new settings button" is not yet
    functional.

* Known cookie bug when accessing MP3.com:

  - Arachne can launch mp3.com streams in mpg123, but default nag-screen
    requesting e-mail address unfortunately crashes *their* CGI script,
    so Arachne can't get requested cookie. But there is another way
    to get this URL - some sites link to streams at "chooser.mp3.com"
    instead of "download.mp3.com", and once you get your cookie from
    chooser, all MP3.com streams will work in Arachne. This is problem
    of MP3.com's stupid CGI script, which is Arachne incompatible - not
    Arachne problem !!! 

  - Tip how to overcome MP3.com nag screen: create ./arachne/cookies.list
    with following line: "MP3_EMAIL=user%40hotmail.com; domain=.mp3.com; path=/;" 
    This should always work.... in fact, I added this as default cookie to
    share/arachne/templates/cookies, so every user will be allowed to 
    listen to MP3.com streams by default ;-)


* Missing features and bugs: almost everything..... namely:

  - animated GIFs
  - virtual screens
  - cache management - please delete content of ~/.arachne/cache/ and
    file ~/.arachne/cache.index by manualy hitting F8 time to time...
  - FTP, SMTP, POP3, GOPHER (;-), FINGER
  - e-mail client
  - local file browser (the interactive part of it ;-)
  - you are welcome to get source code for Arrachne utilities which works
    in DOS, and whic are all released under GPL, and start porting them to
    Linux, using mime.cfg file to make them work with Arachne for Linux

* All bug reports and suggestions for new features can be send to author
(xchaos@arachne.cz), although we don't promise to use all suggestions.

* To get help from experienced Arachne WWW Browser users, subscribe mailing
list arachne@arachne.cz. To subscribe this list, send mail with text
SUBSCRIBE ARACHNE to e-mail address listserv@arachne.cz. To submit message
to the list, send it to address arachne@arachne.cz.

* e-mail contact:
1. Registration and sale information: sales@arachne.cz
2. Development: xchaos@arachne.cz
3. Mailing lists at listserv@arachne.cz ("subscribe <name of the list>")
   arachne              - for general discussion, new users, etc.
   arachne-digest       - digest version of previous list
   arachne-announce     - only anounces of new releases and new plug-ins
   arachne-development  - mainly about porting Arachne to Linux

* Internet homepage of Arachne WWW browser:
1. http://arachne.cz/           - maintained only by Arachne Labs
2. http://arachne.browser.org/  - if there are problems with arachne.cz DNS

* You are strongly recommended to use always the latest version of Arachne.

