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WannaBe is a limited text-only web browser for MacOS under development by David T. Pierson. WannaBe 1.0b3 is now available. It implements a completely new HTML parser and interpreter which:
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 David is planning on changing this back to the old behavior. WannaBe loads Webpages like lightning, even through the crummy dialup connection I'm obliged to live with. I LOVE WannaBe. David has been very conservative about rating the stability of WannaBe, even though in my experience it has been more stable than a lot of final software, such as Microsoft applications . 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. 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 not yet supported. David Pierson says that his aim in writing WannaBe was not to create a full-featured browser. He wanted a minimal browser that allowed him to read his favorite web pages each morning without gobbling up several megabytes of RAM (WannaBe requires 2M) and without wasting time waiting for tables to render. WannaBe is quite limited in that it doesn't support images, tables, forms, bookmarks, cookies and several other standard browser features. WannaBe can handle standard downloads from Web Pages itself. All FTP links are passed to Internet Config. Simply change Internet Config's settings for FTP to your favorite file transfer program or any other web browser ('Helpers'). Of course, a text-based browser will never be a major threat to full-featured browsers like Netscape or Internet Explorer or iCab. Some pages are totally graphics oriented; WannaBe doesn't support frames; and sometimes you just want to look at the pictures. No problem. If you're surfing with WannaBe and hit a frames-only page, or want to look at a graphic, just pull down the Go menu and select "Open This Page In..." The choices are currently: Navigator, Explorer, iCab, Mozilla, CyberDog, and MacWeb. The page then opens in the browser of your choice. Slick. While WannaBe has no Bookmarks function of its own, I found that I could make a copy or alias of my iCab Hotlist or Internet Explorer Favorites html file (from the system Preferences Folder), drag it to the WannaBe icon, and voila! -- a browser window opens with all your Favorites, which can be Command-clicked to access Websites in a new window -- at warp speed. 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 ). It also requires Color Quickdraw, which is available on all PowerPC and 68k Macs except those with the original Motorola 68000 processor. WannaBe requires Internet Config 2.0 or later, which is available thru the WannaBe download page at . 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:
For my full review of WannaBe, visit:
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