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DR WebSpyder with network card and DHCP? (Users)

posted by mht Homepage, Wroclaw, Poland, 14.12.2008, 11:15

DR-WebSpyder is really based on an old version of Arachne. As far as I know, Caldera bought licence from Arachne's author, and they added some features (as limited JavaScript support and some improvements in HTML rendering). They also compiled everything with DJGPP using Allegro for graphics; Arachne is a 16-bit Real Mode application built with Borland C++ 3.1 (and written in C, not C++), using a proprietary graphics library from Arachne Labs. When you look at directory stuctures of both browsers' installations, you can clearly see the similarities. The user interface is also very similar, just icons and fonts (unfortunately, ISO-8859-1 only, while Arachne comes with several internationalization packages) are different.

While DR-WebSpyder might be sometimes faster (because it is 32-bit and does not have to constantly swap memory using XMS, EMS or disk, as Arachne does -- anyway, from my impressions, later Arachne versions were actually faster than WebSpyder), its limited JavaScript seems to be rather useless nowadays, and Arachne improved a lot its HTML rendering, stability and other features since the release of WebSpyder, and it is much more usable.

Anyway, I suceesfully used Arachne on a few computers with ISA and PCI Ethernet cards (and WebSpyder worked there as well), and once using an external modem on COM port. Most often I used Novell ODI drivers and PKT2ODI converter (it comes included with WebSpyder) to provide Packet Driver interface for Arachne and a few other applications (as FTP or SSH) while still being able to use Personal NetWare client/server to share files between my notebook and two desktop PCs (all were running DR-DOS 7.03).

I think thay you should find a way to establish a connection before you start Arachne/WebSpyder, so that either Packet Driver or ODI API would be available. There is also a way to provider Packet Driver API over NDIS (used by Microsoft LAN client), though I have never used it.

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