78 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
3.7 KiB
Plaintext
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-*-text-*-
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This is Prospero release Alpha.5.2a. This release has had a number of
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changes made to it since Beta.5.1. If you are running an archie
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server, then you almost certainly really want to install your server
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under Beta.5.1, not Alpha.5.2a.
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Installation instructions can be found in the file INSTALLATION_s for
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the client and server, or INSTALLATION_u for the client only.
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The most important new features in this version of Prospero are:
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(a) A menu-based browser client, similar to the Gopher client
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(b) A gateway server which makes all of Gopherspace available through
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Prospero queries.
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(c) A menu-based browser API interface library to Prospero, which allows
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one to easily write new browsers that use Prospero to make their underlying
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calls.
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(d) A new per-server password authentication mechanism, which provides
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far stronger authentication than before for sites that are not running
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Kerberos.
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(e) ACLs have now been implemented for all Prospero objects, not just
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for links and directories. You can now control who can set
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{\sc object} attributes on files and directories.
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The menu browser client can be invoked as 'menu'. It's mostly
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self-documenting, with some additional documentation in the user's
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manual. It provides a much needed alternative interface to Prospero.
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If you compile the Prospero clients in the easiest way you can, you
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can start it up with 'menu' and explore the default menu at the USC
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Information Sciences Institute guest site.
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The menu-based browser supports all of the basic Gopher types:
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searches, text files, data files, and portals (what Gopher calls
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telnet sessions). It does not yet support sophisticated display of
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binary image files, reading Postscript or MIME documents, playing
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sounds, or automatic decoding of uuencoded, compressed, or tarred
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files. These enhancements will be added shortly; the protocol
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definitions for them have already been made.
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The gateway server is part of the Prospero server, and translates
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Prospero queries into Gopher protocol queries.
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The latest release also features:
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-- Improvements to the server code so that old xarchie clients don't
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break (see the CHANGES file).
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-- Messages to the Prospero server may now be of arbitrary length.
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-- An expanded library reference manual
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-- The user's manual has been updated to reflect the current version
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of Prospero. A few things still need to be documented; those are
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noted in the user's manual.
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-- Improvements to the Kerberos version 5 support
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-- Caching of native directories and reliability improvements to the
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directory writing code. OBJECT attributes are cached. The
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directory server now treats all links and objects equally, so you
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can attach attributes to native links and objects too. The only
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exception is that you still can't delete native links from a
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directory. (If you want this feature available, write to us; we'd
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like to know if there's any demand for it.) The directory server
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now always tells the truth about whether a native link is a FILE or
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a DIRECTORY.
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This release of Prospero includes a standalone client to query archie
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servers. It is standalone in the sense that, once compiled, it does
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not require Prospero to be installed on the host from which it is to
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be used. It is installed by default when you build the Prospero
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utilities. As distributed, no default server is configured for the
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archie client. To specify a default, edit the line ARCHIE_HOST in
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include/archie.h.
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Look at the file CHANGES in this directory for a list of recent changes to
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Prospero.
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Look at the file SUPPORTED in this directory for a list of which
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machines and operating systems Prospero has been compiled on and of
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which are supported.
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