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UNIX Browsers, Viewers and HTML Preparation Software

This document contains information about WWW browsers and associated viewers, HTML editors and document-to-HTML converters. The areas covered are:

WWW BROWSERS

Netscape for UNIX
Developed by Netscape Communications, this is a fast and full-featured browser, and is the most popular Web browser currently in use. There are equivalent versions for Macintosh, PC/Windows and various UNIX platforms. You can get copies at the Netscape Anonymous FTP server, or by doing an archie search for the word netscape. Netscape is free for academic use only, and moderately priced (<$40US, I believe) otherwise.
NCSA Mosaic for X-Windows
Mosaic is the ubiquitous, and most popular of the WWW browsers. It is developed by NCSA and is both functional and simple. Versions (precompiled) are available for a variety of UNIX workstations from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu. in the Mosaic/ directory. However, this site is often overloaded.
TkWWW
TkWWW is a Tk/Tcl-based WWW browser that also allows for editing and preparation if html documents. It is almost a WYSWIG editor, but not quite. Various versions can be found at the above anonymous ftp site. Note that you will also need to install
Chimera
Chimera is a World-Wide Web browser with an X/Athena graphical interface. It does not require Motif. Chimera can access HTTP, FTP, and Gopher information servers and can access local files. Chimera supports forms and inline images. The current version of Chimera is 1.54. You can get it from the FTP site ftp.cs.unlv.edu, but it is mirrored at several places (sunsite.unc.edu, ftp.sunet.se, ftp.germany.eu.net, src.doc.ic.ac.uk).
ViolaWWW
A browser based on the "Viola" hypertext system. Multifont, neat buttons. One text window with "clone" facility. Bookmarks. History list. Future enhancements to include graphics and general SGML support. It is available from world.std.com in /src/X11R5/viola or at xcf.berkeley.edu in /pub/src/local/viola.
Lynx
Lynx is a full screen text-mode hypertext browser for www. It Uses arrow and tab keys, cursor addressing and highlighting to indicate hypertext links, FORMS regions, etc. Lynx can be run from any text terminal, such as a VT-100 or WYSE. Thus Lynx is extremely useful for accessing WWW via a dial-in terminal connection.
Source code and several precompiled binaries are available from ftp2.cc.ukans.edu

HTML EDITORS

Unix-based HTML editors seem to come in a few flavours: you will have to try them out to find the one that suits you best.
A.S.H.E. (A Simple HTML Editor)
ASHE is an HTML editor written using the C language, Motif and the NCSA HTML Widget set. You can find ASHE at the ftp site ftp.cs.rpi.edu in the ASHE directory pub/puninj/ASHE/ Please, first read the README file under ASHE directory. This README is also available at the URL:
ftp://ftp.cs.rpi.edu/pub/puninj/ASHE/README.html. Additional Information about ASHE can be found at http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~puninj/TALK/head.html.
( Entry last updated: 30 January 1995 ).
Phoenix X-Windows WYSIWYG HTML Editor
Phoenix is an X-Windows editor with useful cut-and-paste features. It is available by HTTP or anonymous FTP. You can get it via HTTP at http://www.bsd.uchicago.edu/ftp/pub/phoenix/README.html . Pick it up via anonymous FTP on www.bsd.uchicago.edu in the /pub/phoenix/ directory, or e-mail L-Newberg@UChicago.EDU for more information.
(Entry updated Nov 17 1994)
TkWWW
TkWWW is a Tk/Tcl-based WWW browser that also allows for editing and preparation if html documents. It is almost a WYSWIG editor, but not quite. Various versions can be found at the above anonymous ftp site. Note that you will also need to install
tkHTML
TkHTML is a near-WYSWYG html editor and preview based on th Tk/Tcl language. The above URL points to am introduction to this program, by its author, Liem Bahneman (roland@cac.washington.edu). You can get the source from the ftp.u.washington.edu anonymous ftp source, in the directory /public/roland/tkHTML.
EMACS macro packages
Various EMACS macro packages have been developed for viewing and editing WWW documents.
HoTMetaL for Windows
HoTMetaL is a commercial HTML editor, but a still very effective implementation is available, for free, via anonymous FTP. Currently the only Unix version is for Sun computers but other versions should be soon available. There is a also a Windows version. SoftQuad (who makes HoTMetaL) has their own Web server with up-to-date information on HoTMetaL. There are several anonymous ftp sources: one is in gatekeeper.dec.com, while another is the NCSA ftp archive -- but this site is so busy you had best try elsewhere. Alternatively there is a site in Norway (This entry accurate as of 27 June 1994).

IMAGE VIEWERS

DOCUMENT TRANSLATORS

The following list points to various conversion programs and filters that convert documents from other formats (Microsoft RTF, latex, framemaker, etc) to HTML. You should keep in mind that, as the HTML definition evolves, some of these converters will break, and will need to be updated.
Rtftohtml
Rtftohtml converts Microsoft RichText Format to HTML. The most recent version supports WORD 6.0 RTF files. Note that this program is most useful for MS-Word document, as these use RTF format as the document code. See the above link for more details, and for information on how to get it. This code can be used on Macintoshes, PC's or on Unix boxes. The installation package tells you how to do all these things. You can find out more about this package from a CERN based description file.
pstohtml PostScript-to-HTML Converter
This is a Perl-script package for converting postscript-to-html, and also for converting PostScript to plain text. If you have perl on you PC, then you can run this. Note, though, that the package comes as a UNIX tar file.
To use this code, you will also need a postscript interpreter, for example Ghostscript 2.6.1. You might find the accompanying fonts and Ghostview 1.5 handy too.
latex2html
latex2html LaTeX to HTML converter program - not only does it successfully show the more complex LaTeX formatting, for example for mathematics, but it also has a set of iconic images, which are included for navigation, and to mark footnotes and references. (new version 0.5.3). There is also a short CERN computer newsletter tutorial. For more information contact: nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk (Nikos Drakos)
Hyperlatex
Hyperlatex is a little package that allows you to use a subset of Latex to prepare documents in HTML, and, at the same time, to describe a fine printed document with all the possibilities of Latex. Note that Hyperlatex is quite different from "latex2html", and is modeled after the "texinfo" system provided with Emacs.
Networked Bibliography -- BibTeX
The network bibliography at AT&T uses scripts to index BibTeX files and to convert them to html on the fly on retrieval. The source is available via anonymous FTP from gaia.cs.umass.edu . Contact: hgs@research.att.com (Henning Schulzrinne)
texi2html
texi2html is a Perl script that converts GNU's Texinfo files to HTML. The program takes Texinfo files (and not info ones) and produces a set of HTML files. The quality of the output is close to the printed output and is much better than a info->HTML gateway.
txttohtml
Plain text to HTML converter
asc2html
Ascii text file to HTML converter
html2asc
HTML to plain text converter.
Miscellaneous other filters
There are other filters for troff, DECwrite, FrameMaker, Interleaf.. For some reference pointers look to the CERN Word Processor/Filters page

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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