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The Wanna-Be Web Browser

WannaBe is a limited text-only web browser for MacOS under development by David T. Pierson. For a more detailed description, see the WannaBe ReadMe. There is also a short FAQ answer sheet maintained by Timo Becker.

What's New

Thursday, 29 September 2005

I have added a link on the Localizations page for information on using WannaBe in Japanese.

Monday, 4 July 2005

I have updated some links on the Localizations page. Unfortunately, most have all rotted except the ones I updated.

Wednesday, 11 August 2004

More non-WannaBe news: I have a Power Mac 7100 and some other Mac stuff I would like to give away.

Tuesday, 24 May 2004

This news is only indirectly WannaBe-related. I am now using a new iBook, with which I hope to get back into programming for fun. Also, for those in the southern New England region of the United States, I have a Performa 6116 I would like to give away.

Thursday, 17 October 2002

WannaBe 1.0b14 is now available as a new development version. The changes from 1.0b13 are almost entirely internal. The one new feature is support for HTML div elements.

Wednesday, 25 September 2002

I have made WannaBe 1.0b13 the designated stable version. There is not currently a newer version available as a development version.

Since downloads from this server occasionally fail for some reason, I have uploaded the latest stable versions to Yahoo! Groups. Yahoo! requires a cookie to be set in the browser used to do the download, so unfortunately WannaBe cannot be used to download WannaBe from Yahoo. You can still download from here though.

Sunday, 9 June 2002

WannaBe 1.0b13 fixes a bug introduced in 1.0b12. The problem was that HTTP requests did not use a User-Agent header, which causes some sites to refuse the requests. The new version also brings the search plug-in documentation up-to-date.

Tuesday, 4 June 2002

WannaBe 1.0b12 is now available for download. It fixes a few small (never reported by anyone) problems:

fixed display of authentication realm in the HTTP authentication dialog box
fixed handling of no-proxy domains that are specified in Internet Config
fixed a memory corruption problem when using HTTP authentication

WannaBe 1.0b11 is now the designated stable version.

Sunday, 3 February 2002

WannaBe 1.0b11 is now available for download. It fixes a few things, such as:

<?xml ... ?> tags, as found in XHTML, are now not displayed.
When clicked, links to aliases now correctly open the destination file.
A local file is now interpreted as HTML if its "<HTML>" tag is preceded by other tags or directives, not just whitespace. Also, the HTML tag can contain a space after the tag name, such as "<html ", not just "<html>".
The platform part of the User-Agent header should now be reported correctly for WannaBe 68k running on PowerPC Macs. It had been reporting 68k, but should be PPC.

WannaBe 1.0b10 is now the designated stable version.

The survey has closed. Thank you to those who participated. I will possibly give my thoughts on it in the near future.

I added to the localizations page an FTP link to Jean-Pierre Kuypers's French localizations of WannaBe. He has recently added a PPC version of 1.0b10.

Thursday, 18 October 2001

I added to the localizations page a link to Jan Muennich's page of his own German localizations of WannaBe. He currently has a PPC version of 1.0b10 available.

Monday, 01 October 2001

Attention WannaBe users: please provide your input to the new survey question concerning development of WannaBe.

WannaBe 1.0b10 is a new development version which incorporates a few changes. First, it fixes a bug whereby Basic HTTP Authentication always failed because server responses were not being handled by prompting the user for credentials. (This bug had been around for about 18 months with no one reporting it. I guess that just shows how little HTTP authentication is used anymore.) Also fixed is a bug whereby an incorrect text style would be used when a server returned pages in certain size chunks. Finally, Opera has been added to the list of browsers to which URLs can be passed.

WannaBe 1.0b9 is now the designated stable version.

Saturday, 28 July 2001

WannaBe 1.0b9 is a new development version which, among other things, adds HTTP POST support through search plug-ins or Apple Events. The complete list of changes in this version includes:

fixed bug in HTML interpreter whereby it wasn't recognizing uppercase closing </P> tags
added OpenURL command to WannaBe's AppleScript dictionary
added support for HTTP POST method requests, via Search plug-ins or OpenURL Apple Events
changed internal help page on search plug-ins to indicate that plug-ins using the HTTP POST method are now supported
fixed lack of encoding of non-user values from Search plug-ins
added browser status messages for some additional situations
fixed handling of OpenURL Apple Events to use a destination file if requested
fixed problem whereby option-clicking URLs with schemes other than HTTP,FTP,HTTPS, or FILE caused an error dialog

WannaBe 1.0b8 is now the designated stable version.

I updated the Search Plug-ins Starter Set, adding a plug-in for the Internet Movie Database.

Thursday, 14 June 2001

WannaBe 1.0b8 is a new development version which fixes the closing "P" element bug. Basically, "</P>" tags weren't being recognized, but now they are.

Sunday, 10 June 2001

New stable and development versions of WannaBe are now available for download. Both versions fix a crashing bug that exists in all versions of WannaBe prior to 1.0b6.

WannaBe 1.0b6 is a new stable version that fixes a bug in all previous versions of WannaBe. This version is a modification of 1.0b2, which means changes included in versions 1.0b3 - 1.0b5 are not present. The bug that is fixed by this version is a crashing problem that exists when a new window containing no content is open and the mouse is moved over a certain part of the window. It doesn't seem to occur in most system configurations (which is why I didn't find it until recently), but nevertheless can be serious.

WannaBe 1.0b7 is a new development version that fixes 2 problems from 1.0b5. The first is the same bug described above as fixed in 1.0b6. The other bug was introduced with version 1.0b5, and is characterized by improper scrolling to URL #fragments.

I am still working on the HTML rendering problem of new paragraphs not being started in certain situations, namely the closing of P and DL elements.

I fixed a problem with 2 of the plug-ins in the Search Plug-ins Starter Set.

Thursday, 7 June 2001

After having some system problems, I've been able to finish WannaBe 1.0b5. This is a development version that fixes some of the problems with 1.0b3 and 1.0b4. If you are using 1.0b3 or 1.0b4, you should upgrade to 1.0b5 or downgrade to 1.0b2, the latter being safer. [download]

Changes include:

fixed a memory trashing problem in the HTML parser
fixed a long-standing problem whereby anchor names would not be recognized if a web page was being served in small chunks
fixed handling of "dt" and "dd" elements
fixed labelling of type "a" and "i" ordered lists
fixed handling of XHTML-compatible elements

Monday, 4 June 2001

I've discovered a very serious bug in WannaBe 1.0b3 and 1.0b4 that can crash WannaBe. I've removed the links to these versions from the download page, and strongly suggest moving to 1.0b2 if you are using either 1.0b3 or 1.0b4. I'm working on a fix to the problem and will make a new version available as soon as it is ready.

Saturday, 2 June 2001

I added a starter-set archive of Search Plug-ins to the download page. It contains plug-ins for Google, Yahoo!, dictionary.com, download.com, Info-Mac HyperArchive, and Weather Underground.

Friday, 1 June 2001

WannaBe 1.0b4 replaces 1.0b3 as the current "development" version on the download page. It fixes an entity problem and adds support for over a dozen more entities.

Wednesday, 30 May 2001

WannaBe 1.0b3 is now available. It implements a completely new HTML parser and interpreter which:

better handles improperly formatted HTML entities
supports more HTML entities
improves the labelling of ordered and unordered list items (though there is a bug with type="a" and type="i" ordered lists that I am still working on--they improperly appear as upper case)
improves the removal of script and style elements

Also, the new version will open a new window to support a "Get URL" request (from Internet Config or another application) that occurs when the frontmost browser window is already busy either connecting or displaying a page. Sherlock plug-ins are now opened through a browser window. This causes hassles if opening more than one at a time or while the frontmost browser is busy, so I am planning on changing this back to the old behavior.

Thursday, 24 May 2001

Since I've received no show-stopping bug reports for 1.0b2, I've made it the designated "stable" version. I now recommend that anyone using a prior version of WannaBe upgrade to 1.0b2. 1.0b3 should be out within a week. It will feature a new HTML interpreter (though not much more advanced) and fix a couple of bugs.

Saturday, 28 April 2001

WannaBe 1.0b2 is now available. It fixes a number of bugs:

fixes a few sources of memory leaks
fixes the version strings being out of sync (resource vs. About Page)
fixes caching problems associated with loading a URL containing a #fragment
fixes a problem whereby redirecting to the current URL interfered with navigating "Back"
now loads the documentation page if Internet Config doesn't report a preferred home page
fixes misreporting of a malformed HTTP response when connections fail or are cancelled

I haven't received any reports of problems with 1.0b1, so I'm assuming there aren't any serious problems. (Though I don't get many bug reports even when there are serious problems, so that may not mean anything. Please send me bug reports, even for little things like the above-mentioned misreporting of malformed HTTP responses.) However, I think I'll keep 1.0a50 as the designated "stable" version for the moment. If I don't get any reports of problems with 1.0b2 after several days, I'll make that the recommended version.

I'm considering new names for WannaBe. If you have any suggestions, let me know.

Saturday, 14 April 2001

WannaBe 1.0b1 is now available. It features a significant decrease in executable size, as well as a new and hopefully more helpful error message system. The change to "beta" version numbers indicates that I am concentrating on adding only a few more features before "finalizing" the 1.0 release. This new version is not necessarily any more stable than 1.0a50, and I would guess that it may be less stable, simply due to the lack of testing. Therefore, you may want to use 1.0a50, which I've now made the designated "stable" version.

Note to translators: This new version makes some significant changes to the resources you need to modify in order to localize WannaBe for your language. I haven't yet written up a list of all the resources that could potentially be translated, but a little exploring will turn them up fairly quickly. Also, the method of modifying the startup page has changed. See "Making Modifications" for instructions.

As always, I welcome all comments, suggestions, and bug reports at <dtp@mindstory.com>.

Part of the WannaBe website, by David T. Pierson, <dtp@mindstory.com>. This page was last modified on 29 September 2005.