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WannaBe is a limited text-only web browser for PowerPC or 68k MacOS computers, written by David T. Pierson. WannaBe should run under MacOS 7.5 and later versions, and may also run under System 7.1 if the Drag Manager and Thread Manager are installed. (Drag and Thread Managers are available thru the Apple updates site). It also requires Color Quickdraw, which is available on all PowerPC and 68k Macs except those with the original Motorola 68000 processor. Finally, WannaBe requires Internet Config 2.0 or later. WannaBe is free, but not yet feature-complete or fully tested. The latest version and information regarding WannaBe can be found at the WannaBe home page.
WannaBe has limited functionality. WannaBe is strictly a text-only web browser. Non-text "http" URLs are downloaded and saved to disk, in the folder specified by Internet Config, which is required. URLs with schemes other than "http" and "file" are passed to Internet Config. Navigation in WannaBe is supported through hyperlinks, direct URL entry, and home, back, and forward commands. The text of pages can be copied to the clipboard or saved to a local file. A find command allows searching for text strings within a page. Web searches can be done only through plug-in files based on Apple's Internet Search Interface Language (the same plug-ins used by Apple's Sherlock application). Plug-ins based on the HTTP POST method are now supported starting in version 1.0b9.
WannaBe is alpha-quality. WannaBe is still in the development stage, and has not been fully implemented. (It is very stable though.) Some features that may be considered essential to web browsers are not included.
WannaBe is written to be lean and fast. The aim in writing WannaBe was not to create a full-featured browser. Rather, I wanted a browser that allowed me to read my favorite web pages each morning without gobbling up several megs of RAM (WannaBe requires 2M) and without wasting time waiting for tables to render. It is quite limited in that it doesn't support images, tables, forms, bookmarks, cookies and several other features. But it does support proxy servers, links to frames and images, multiple threads, and copying of text.
WannaBe has a home page. <http://mindstory.com/wb2/>
WannaBe has an email announcement list. To subscribe to the email list for WannaBe announcements, send an empty email to <wb2-ann-subscribe@yahoogroups.com>.
WannaBe's author welcomes feedback. David T. Pierson can be reached at <dtp@mindstory.com>.