Headline Viewer
Version 0.9.7 History

• 0.9.7 - 10 Jul 2001
  Some great new features and bug fixes:
  
• Headline Viewer now deletes empty categories (and any then-empty parent categories) after an automatic provider update and also after making changes to the provider list using the Settings dialog.
  
• Non-English content is now translated using the BabelFish translator at babel.altavista.com. The Go site used in past releases has gone silent. The new translator can also translate from Russian, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese.
  
• Headline Viewer now runs in the system tray. Right-clicking on the icon displays a popup menu. Left-double-clicking on the icon will open up Headline Viewer if it is minimized or bring it to the front if it is covered up. Headline loading will continue in the background.
  
• A status dialog is now shown on entry to the Settings dialog, since copying thousands of providers can take a bit of time.
  
• The status dialog now shows more information when the provider list is updated from the master provider list stored at headlineviewer.com.
  
• Headline Viewer now retains headlines across the use of the Settings dialog. After opening, manipulating, and then closing the Settings dialog, any previously loaded news headlines will remain loaded.
  
• New providers can now be added to Headline Viewer by clicking on a specially formatted link at www.newsisfree.com. The links use a simple HTTP server within the Headline Viewer process. This server listens on port 8900 and handles a single type of "GET" request -- the string "add_provider" with a "url" argument that points to an XML file to load. Headline Viewer will return a status string to the browser indicating the success or failure of the request.
  
• The time that the Master Provider List was last successfully loaded from headlineviewer.com is now shown in the Updates tab of the Settings dialog. This field is updated on an automatic update at startup and also on an update trigged by a push of the Update button.
  
• The Updates tab of the Settings dialog now includes two new buttons. The Check For Update button checks to make sure that you are running the latest version of the product. The Visit Download Site button opens a browser window on the Headline Viewer download site.
  
• If one in a series of External Provider List loads from the XMLTree site fails, then the remaining loads are skipped. This avoids long waits if the site happens to be temporarily unavailable.
  
• The Move Up and Move Down buttons in the Providers tab of the Settings dialog no longer get "stuck" on if a timer-driven move happens to hit the beginning or end of the provider list.
  
• Two new, professionally designed skins are now available for Headline Viewer:
  
  • Sputnik
  • Echos
  Either of these can be selected by pressing the Settings button, choosing the Skins tab, and then selecting a skin by name in the scrolling list.
  
• The Echo Factor site no longer syndicates its news. All references to it have been removed from the Settings dialog and the Help.
  
• Clicking on the logo in the About box now displays a scrolling list of credits.
  
• The program now handles XML files which reference non-existent DTDs. Such is the case with all RSS files -- Netscape deleted the DTD for no apparent reason.
  
• Better status information is now provided when loading from an external provider list. The right-hand portion of the Settings dialog shows a scrolling display of the information loaded from the external list.
  
• Loading an external provider list is now much faster. A preparatory phase which could take over a minute on a fast machine now takes less than one second.
  
• The provider sort in the Providers tab of the Settings dialog is now 10-50 times faster. Sorting 3000 providers on an 800 Mhz machine now takes just one second.
  
• More parts of the Headline Viewer user interface are now skinnable. All of the buttons on the Main Dialog now have a normal and a pressed icon, including the System Buttons (Min, Max, Close, and Restore).
  
• The provider name sort for the Statistics tab of the Settings dialog is now case-insensitive.
  
• The email addresses in the About dialog now point to the new Yahoo Groups instead of the old eGroups.
  
• Fixed a bug which would corrupt some internal state files, which caused the infamous "The Master Provider List cannot be loaded" message to be displayed on startup after provider files were updated on the Headline Viewer server.
  
• Headline Viewer no longer locks up or issues spurious error messages if there are no active providers at all.
  
• The automatic check for version updates now respects the setting in the Updates tab of the Settings dialog.