Rather than opening this text file, you should directly open the view file "Easy View - Read Me" in order to appreciate the program.

EASY_ VIEW_

~Dedicated to D. Ali Eyler~
who taught me truth and precision

**Version 2.6 of February 1995**

Introduction
------------
Easy View is a program for browsing of collections of structured (but otherwise plain) text files, large or small. It allows very fast access by recognizing the internal structure. All of the following text formats can be viewed using Easy View:

* setext, including TidBITS and similar publications
* Info-Mac, c.s.m.p, or similar digests
* Mail collections: Internet (Eudora), Navigator, NewsWatcher, etc.
* Dictionaries
* Plain text

Files <<
-------
Easy View comes with four documents, one view and three text files, which also demonstrate the setext format:
1. Easy View - Read Me [This view]
2. Easy View Introduction [This file]
3. Easy View Notes
4. Easy View Extensions

Please open "Easy View - Read Me" (if you have not done so) to read the other files. You may find the <space> key handy for continuous reading.

After gaining some experience with the program, you may want to open the text files (with TeachText or the editor of your choice) in order to see how structure is indicated in setext.

Modified or new sections are indicated by a << character.

Folders <<
---------
Four folders you will find with EV contain various non-essential stuff:
1. EV Extensions Used in the Extensions menu
2. TidBITS Collection Place your TidBITS files here
3. Sample Formats Other formats such as Digest and Mail
4. EV Sample Scripts For demostrating scriptability

None of these folders are required for the operation of EV.

Author
------
Written by M. Akif Eyler, Bilkent University, 06533 Ankara, Turkey.

e-mail: eyler@bilkent.edu.tr

The application was developed using MacApp 2.0 and Think Pascal 4.0.1, as such it may contain portions copyrighted by Apple Computer and Symantec.

This program can be distributed freely on any medium, for non-commercial purposes, along with the enclosed documents. It may not be sold or exchanged for profit.

Thanks <<
--------
The individuals listed below have contributed to the development of Easy View in some significant way.

**Special Thanks**
Adam Engst TidBITS editor; ideas on user interface
Ian Feldman Design of setext; ideas on user interface

**Thanks**
Ömer Ayzan Initial motivation & support
Geoff Duncan Discussions on EV
Ric Ford Discussions on EV
Susan Lesch Ideas on user interface; bug reports
Peter Lewis Ideas on Internet connections
L. Mollamustafaoglu Discussions on MacApp
John Norstad Code for opening a URL and bkg search
Craig O'Donnell RSI Network Newsletter editor
Riza Nur Paçalioglu Ideas on user interface
John Pugh Motivation for scripting
Akif Üçel Discussions on MacApp

**Users**
I would like to express my gratitude to all others who have contributed ideas and encouragement. Too many to cite here, most of the inspiration coming from the users have already been converted to binary instructions in EV 2.x. Some ideas are still in the to-do list. A few suggestions were either beyond the scope of the current design or too difficult to implement.

**Freeware Authors**
The freeware cited below was used (directly or indirectly) in the development of Easy view.

Günther Blaschek PopChar
Lloyd Chambers MacCompress
Steve Christensen MountImage
Steve Christensen SuperClock
Tom Dowdy DarkSide
Michael Engber Save a BNDL
Ken Hancock DeSEA
Michael Hecht ResCompare
Joe Holt Swatch
Rick Holzgrafe Applicon
Kaz Matsuki TextMerger
John Norstad Disinfectant
Peter Lewis MungeImage
Leonard Rosenthol StuffIt Expander
Daniel Schaerer Small Screen
Rich Siegel BBEdit Lite

**BBEdit Extensions**
Several extensions are distributed with Easy View:

Rich Siegel the concept itself
Kamal Abdali Word Count
Jamie R. McCarthy BBXKeys
Marco Piovanelli Import
Mark Fleming Speaking

setext <<
--------
For more information on setext, the structure-enhanced text
format, we have some pointers here:

* contact Ian Feldman directly <ianf@random.se>

* send 'Subject: setext', EMPTY message body, no quotes,
to the TidBITS <fileserver@tidbits.com>

* http://hospex.icm.edu.pl/hospex/setext-clients.html

* http://www.bsdi.com/setext/

* ftp://ftp.bilkent.edu.tr/pub/Local/setext/setext-docs.hqx

If you have Internet connection, "Get URL" is in your Extensions menu, _and_ you have Anarchie/MacWeb installed, you can command-click on the last three lines and get the information immediately.

What's New in EV 2.6
====================
This chapter itemizes changes since EV 2.5.

Modified or new sections are indicated by a << character.

New Features <<
--------------
* Full scripting support and recordability

* "Search view" event that enables outside applications and scripts to use EV as a search engine

* Command-click calls Get URL extension, making EV Internet-savvy

* Background search/extract (Thanks to J Norstad)

* Searching the headers only
(This feature could be _much_ faster, if properly implemented)

* And some low-level work, transparent to the user

As a result of all this, System 7 is required. The size of the program did not increase because of the low-level work mentioned above.

Modified <<
----------
* Menus represent the state of the modifier keys (option/shift)

* Configuration dialog for Digest format is more readable

* Aliases are recognized for the extensions, too

As a whole, the user interface was not modified significantly, even though this version is almost a major update.

Bug Fixes <<
-----------
* Digest parser was made stricter

* Empty files are not considered for inclusion

Scripting <<
-----------
This opens a new set of possibilities for EV users. Several sample scripts are included, but they are not particularly bright or useful. They just demonstrate the terms used by EV. Open EV dictionary for more explanation.

Please remember that EV is recordable. All menu and keyboard events are recorded, but mouse events are not. Each of these events is driven by a single number which can be discovered through recording.

Object support is not implemented yet.

User Interface <<
----------------
For Internet users, the ability to command-click on any URL is a tremendous time saver as demonstrated by NewsWatcher. Just make sure the latest version of Get URL is in your EV Extensions folder.

Some menus are modified when option or shift key is pressed _before_ choosing the menu item. The modifications are reflected in the menu by italic typeface.

A useful navigation item is the Backward (4) and Forward (6) keys in the keypad. Although this feature has been available for a long time, most users are not aware of it.

What's New in EV 2.61
---------------------
Several bug fixes, the first being quite serious.

* An alias is correctly ignored if its original cannot be located

* <Shift><Space> moves backward (same as "B")

* c.s.m.p Digests are correctly parsed, even though they do not
contain the right number of hyphens

* A working version of Get URL extension is included

Getting Started
===============
Being an application in a class of its own with several non-standard features, Easy View requires a few words for the new users.

Users of previous versions should skip the next section.

New Users
---------
(Adapted from TidBITS#136/03-Aug-92)
To start using Easy View, it is a good idea to have some issues of TidBITS, because it illustrates the setext concept best. If you don't have as many of the back issues as you would like, you can download them from your favorite site: CompuServe (MACCLUB #8), ZiffNet/Mac (ZMC:DOWNTECH #7), America Online (TidBITS library in the Hardware forum), and the Internet (sumex-aim.stanford.edu in the /info-mac/digest/tb directory).

Once you have several back issues defunked, put them in the TidBITS folder that comes with Easy View. The folder includes an empty view (the file with "V" on its icon) in the TidBITS folder, so go ahead and double-click on that to start up Easy View. You will see all the issues you just put there, displayed in a such form as intended by the author.

Sample folders are included for other formats, such as digest and mail.

Upgrading from EV 2.5
---------------------
All files (View and Preference) are compatible between various versions of EV 2.x. So nothing special is required other than dragging the application in place of the older version.

Thus, you need not copy the sample folders that come with this version, your old views will work as is.

"EV Extensions" folder may reside with the application as supplied, or it could be placed in Extensions folder of the active system. Its presence is not required for the essential functions.

Rather than opening this text file, you should directly open the view file "Easy View - Read Me" in order to appreciate the program.

Original file name: Easy View Introduction - converted on Sunday, 19 December 1999, 16:56