** 2 page review / 1422 words **

CAB 2

** CAB2.GIF here **

With the release of version 2 CAB changes its status from freeware to commercial, Kev Beardsworth takes it for a spin...

The survivability of the Atari software market never ceases to amaze me. As new features are bolted on to the PC and Mac platforms you can be sure someone is scheming to implement similar features for the Atari platform - I remember reading the scramble to get on the web would put the last few nails in the Atari coffin. Happily, with the benefit of hindsight, such a statement seems ludiculous and it's largely thanks to the creation of one piece of software, originally named HTML Browser, now called the Crystal Atari Browser or CAB.
CAB is programmed by Alexander Clauss, who also programs OCR and the CD-Player utilities, all three are excellent examples of easy to use yet powerful applications and amongst the best software packages ever to grace the Atari platform. CAB, used in conjunction with STiK or MiNT and a CAB.OVL file, can make the web your playground.
CAB 2 contains many improvements over the freeware releases although many of them are not immediately obvious. First the parser which turns HTML code (whether downloaded from the Internet or read from disk) into the pages displayed on screen has been completely re-written to support frames - the most serious limitation of the freeware releases (See boxout) and has injected a healthy speed improvement in the process.
For anyone undertaking web authoring on the atari platform the inclusion of OLGA support was another exciting addition, which makes creation of web pages in conjunction with applications which support OLGA a cinch (Texel, QED, Everest, Kandinsky etc). So long as you're running a multitasking environment you can edit your web pages using any OLGA compliant application and a save operation signals CAB to update its display to match - WYSIWYG!

** C2BUBHLP.GIF here **
With BubbleGEM installed, instant help is only a right mouse click away
** end **
Newcomers to CAB will enjoy BubbleGEM - right click on any buttons, text fields or icons and a neat speech bubble appears revealing that objects secrets. Although BubbleGEM is designed to work in a multitasking environment it will work under SingleTOS installed as a desktop accessory (Ed: Both BubbleGEM and OLGA were covered in AC#5 and included on the Reader disk).
To tidy up the CAB folder a separate MODULES folder has been added where all the ancillary utilities for use with CAB can be stashed, these include:
** BL **
* CAB.OVL, two different modules are available, one for use with STiK the other for MiNT
* CAB_JPEG.OVL, to handle JPEG images internally
* GEMJing, a sound utility, programmed by Götz Hoffart, which supports the following formats: WAV (Windows), DVS (WinRec), AU and SND
* Cache-ed, a utility, programmed by Manfred Ssykor, designed to make it easy to manage the cache.
** end BL **

System scenarios
In the UK CAB 2 is supplied one a single floppy complete with A5 manual including a smart colour cover put together by Rob Perry. An installation program personalises your copy and installs the files onto your hard disk. In theory it's possible to run CAB online from floppy drive but it's not something I'd recommend. With the low cost of RAM upgrades and hard drives it's well worth upgrading your system if you intend to use CAB online. For maximum web surfing satisfaction access to colour resolutions really do add another dimension but CAB works fine in monochrome. In 16 colour resolutions CAB has to dither colour images which not only looks terrible but also eats processor time. To alleviate this CAB offers an excellent greyscale display mode which is recommended for use in 16 colour modes. Browsing in colour is really only practical in 256 colour resolutions or higher.
Once installed you should check each of the CAB option dialogs in turn and adjust them to suit your system. The Font selection dialog requires normal, bold, italics and bold plus italics fonts to selected for body text, headings and pre-formatted text - twelve selections in total. The manual recommends using vector font families but you can get away with the built-in system font (or other GDOS fonts) using the bold and italics toggle options to make up your selection. It's also important to set the path and size for your internet cache. Although it should be possible to re-use an existing cache I'd recommend creating a new cache because a number of people have reported problems after updating an existing cache.
The major new feature in this release is frame support which can be toggled on/off via the Display dialog. Leave frame support on unless you have a good reason not to - you'll notice less window gadgets.
Other visible changes have taken place in the main CAB window. The toolbar icons have been redesigned using colour and new features have been added. Toolbar icons can display, text only, icons or both (the default).

** C2INTE_D.GIF here **
Using the Internet clients dialog you can tell CAB which external programs to use
** end **
Most web pages include links or URL's to FTP sites, Email and News servers and these can all be supported via the CAB Internet clients dialog. Select the paths to specify which external programs to use and CAB will call them as required. Currently the freeware program, Newsie, programmed by John Rojewski, is proving popular because it includes Email, News and FTP support and when called via CAB displays the appropriate window ready to use.

Online
After many hours of testing I'm pleased to report CAB 2 is a vast improvement over v1.5 (which still remains available and supported as an entry level freeware program).
The immediately noticed CAB 2 is much faster - the little clock progress indicator displayed at the left hand end of the info line zooms across the screen compared with earlier versions. Text can also be downloaded before any graphical elements which means you can scroll the page and follow links to other pages without waiting for every image to arrive, this feature alone saves a lot of download time.
CAB 2 supports more HTML table commands than before so tables look much more impressive - certainly on a par with other browsers.
It's clear a great deal of time and energy has been poured into CAB development and (having seen the latest beta in action) I'm delighted to report there's plenty to look forward to in the pipeline. I can easily sum up my thoughts about CAB2:
CAB is amongst the best software application ever programmed for the Atari platform, it stands alongside programs like Papyrus and Calamus as one of those programs by which others will be judged.

** Frame boxout **
Frames where developed by NetScape. Frames enable the main viewing window to be divided into a number of smaller, individually controlled, areas.
The main advantage offered by frames is the ability to display the contents of a website in one frame all of the time and use other frames to display the contents. This makes it easier to navigate a complex website without constantly reloading the Home or Contents pages. Unfortunately frames do run counter to the spirit of the HTML specification, which was designed to enable HTML compliant webpages to be displayed on any HTML compliant browser.
Once you've added frames to your site you exclude anyone using earlier versions of CAB and many other browsers - but there is a solution.
Web authors can design dual format webpages, these detect whether the browser supports frames and displays the appropriate pages. I would encourage all web authors to take this dual format approach - although for anyone using CAB 2 it's no longer an issue.
** End boxout **

** Product boxout **
Product name: CAB 2
Publisher: ASH
UK distributor: System Solutions
Contact: +44 (0)181 693 3355
Cost: £19.99 (or £13.99 if you previously registered CAB or the Internet Access Pack via InterActive)
Requires: Any Atari, hard disk recommended
Pros: Amazingly cheap, succinct manual
Cons: Not a one-stop online solution (requires separate OVL file and STiK or MiNT)
Score: 95%
** End of boxout **

** Captions **
** C2ABOUT.GIF **
Click on the About dialog to display this "hidden" page containing of useful extra details

** C2APCOMP.GIF **
Here's the dual format AtariPhile disk magazine pages displayed with and without frames

** C2DISP_D.GIF **
The main CAB display dialog. Frame support can be toggled here - the decision is yours

** C2ICNBAR.GIF **
The icon bar can be toggled between icons and text only by clicking on the tiny triangle towards the right of the toolbar - especially useful if you're running at lower resolutions