Hi All.
PMStripper from Don Hawkinson has been updated and I @Macarlo, registered user (I purchased my license from BMT Micro, Inc.) quickly downloaded the new copy of this fine release for webmaster that works on OS/2 Warp. I suggest that you jump BMT Micro in order to get a copy and see for yourself.

Please note that this most recent version is only for registered users like me (congratulations for me, registered user of 212 OS/2 shareware!). You can download just a trial copy; if you register it - sincerelly, I recommend - the developer send to you the most recente release, the 1.23.

Photo above shows the new PMStripper working on @Macarlo's OS/2 Client

New in PMStripper 1.23

Added  'Hard code word wrap' menu item under "File" on the menubar.
This option adds CR-LF pairs to each line in the display window
to make the current word wrap permanent. This should make it easier
to print the stripped text.

This PM shareware utility strips HTML codes from Web pages, leaving
only the text and URLs (optionally).  Some of the page's formatting
is retained, but since PMStripper is not an HTML interpreter most
formatting is lost.  While the layout of tables and lists is lost
during stripping, data is sorted to separate lines for legibility.

PMStripper is designed to provide a quick conversion of HTML coded
files into plain ASCII text.  Although the converted files can be
edited while loaded in PMStripper, only simple edit commands are
available.  Therefore, if extensive editing is needed, the text
should be loaded into a more capable word processor or text editor.

The registered version offers a menu item to easily move stripped
files to programs suited for advanced editing.

A convenient way to use PMStripper is to install it as the raw
HTML viewer in the IBM Web Explorer.  This makes it easier to
save information from Web pages or cut and paste URLs from Web pages.

PMStripper is a shareware program and if you continue to use the
program you should register it.  PMStripper does not have any
code to check on how long the program has been in use, so it is
up to the user to determine a reasonable trial period.

The shareware version of PMStripper is fully functional, some of
the convenience features are disabled but they do not effect the
function of the utility.  Trying the disabled features will bring
up an unregistered message requiring a user response.

 Installing PMStripper:

1) Unzip the archive.

2) If REXX is installed:  Run the INSTALL.CMD script from an OS/2
command prompt, or by double clicking on the install file's icon.

The script will create a destination directory and transfer program
files to it.  Optionally, you may use the unzip directory as the
working directory.  In either case the script will create a
PMStripper program object on the desktop and set file associations
for .HTM and .HTML files.  Setting associations this way allows
instant loading, and stripping, of saved Web pages by double clicking
their icons.

If the install program cannot create the desired directory, just move
all unzipped files to the working directory before running the
install program.

3) If REXX is not installed:  Unzip the archive in the desired
working directory and manually:  a) Create a desktop program object,
and b) Set .HTM and HTML associations.  (See OS/2 documentation for
instructions, if needed.)

Files

PMStripper is distributed as a compressed archive.  The registered
version is PMSR_xxx.zip and the shareware version 1s PMS_xxx.zip,
where xxx is the version number.  The contents of the archive is
detailed in the file named FILES.

Uninstalling PMStripper:

If you find it necessary to remove PMStripper, simply delete the
unzipped files, program object, associations and directory.
PMStripper makes no entries in configuration or initialization files.

Using PMStripper

PMStripper is a simple program with only five menu bar items:

1. 'File' offers nine pull-down menu items:  'Open File',
'Reload Source File', 'Reload Source File As Raw HTML', 'Save As',
'Save - No Prompt', 'Save Marked Text To File','Hard code word wrap',
'Print On Default Printer'  and 'Exit'.  All except the Reload,
Save - No Prompt, Hard code word wrap and Print selections perform
in a standard OS/2 manner.
                  
The 'Reload Source File' menu item reloads the current HTML file and
is a handy way to make changes in the stripp options and then view the
same file, processed differently.

The 'Reload Source File As Raw HTML' menu item reloads the current
HTML file without stripping the HTML codes. This was added so that
installing PMStripper as the raw HTML viewer in Web Explorer does
not rob the user of a way to view the raw HTML code.

Picking a file name for the 'Save As' is easy: Highlight some text
for the name and then click on 'Save As', or simply highlight and
then press Alt+S.  If you have not highlighted text for the file
name, the original file's name (with the extension .htm or .html
replaced by .txt) is offered as the default.  The option to use
highlighted text is only available in the regisered version. A
check has been added to warn the user if he is about to overwrite an
existing file. If the file is write protected an error message is
displayed.  If the file is not write protected, the user is prompted
for an 'Ok' or 'Cancel' response.

The 'Save - No Prompt' menu item saves the stripped file without
opening a file dialog box.  It uses the file name that would have
been offered in the file dialog box that is used in the normal
'Save As' menu selection.

The 'Save Marked Text To File' menu item opens a standard file
dialog box and after the use has entered a destination file
name, the marked text is saved.

The 'Hard code word wrap' menu item adds CR-LF pairs to each line
in the display window to make the current word wrap permanent.

The 'Print On Default Printer' menu item sends the stripped file
to the default printer without any special formatting. This method
bypasses the WPS print manager and uses the printer's default font.
Additionally, since word wrap in the PMStripper display window does
not reformat the text, line lengths must be user adjusted to fit the
printer.  The user can select a printer as the file's destination by
selecting the "Save As' menu selection and entering 'lpt1' or 'lpt2'
as the file name.

If the INSTALL.CMD file is used to install PMStripper, the association
for .htm and .html is set so that a double click will load files with
those extensions into PMStripper.

The utility will also load HTML coded files for stripping via drag
and drop of the file's icon onto that of the PMStripper.  However,
the capability to load files by drag and drop onto an open edit
window does not exist.

2. 'Edit' has five sub-menu items which also operate as expected.
They are 'Cut', 'Copy', 'Paste', 'Select All' and 'Undo Change'.  The
'Undo Change' selection will undo the last change made to the text in
the window and is only one level deep.

3. 'Options' has seven sub-menu items.  They are 'Display Options',
'URL Settings', 'Strip Options', 'External Editor Settings',
'Filename Settings', 'Use idle time priority'  and 'Save Settings'.

'Display Options' has three sub-menu items.  They are 'Font',
'Reset to default colors' and 'Word Wrap'.  'Font' brings up
a standard OS/2 font dialog box and will allow the selection of
any of the installed fonts.  This option only changes the font
in the main window.  To change the font for the menubar or the
information area below the main window, use the OS/2 font palette
and drag and drop a new font on either area.  For the main window,
font drag and drop does not always work correctly. The font
selections are only saved when 'Save Settings' is selected.

The 'Reset to default colors' option restores the system default
background and foreground colors.  To change the colors on the
menubar, main window, or the information area use the OS/2 color
palette and drag and drop a color selection.  When 'Save Settings
is selected , the color selections are made the default colors.

The 'Word Wrap' option is a toggle setting that turns word wrap on
or off.  Word wrap is set on each time the application is loaded.
The wrap function does not actually reformat the text, instead it
effects only the way text is displayed.

'URL Settings' has three sub-menu items.  They are 'Add URLs,
'Leave URLs'and 'Only http type'.  These options effect how the HTML
file is processed and the file must be reloaded for these changes to
effect the current file.  'Add URLs' appends the URLs found in the HTML
file to the end of the stripped text.  'Leave URLs' leaves the URLs
found in the HTML file in the stripped text. The 'Only http type'
limits the URLs to those links containing a http reference. The
"normal" URL detection looks for htlm code containing href and will
find gopher, ftp, mailto, and relative links to other web pages as
well as complete URLs.

'Strip Options' has three sub-menu items: 'Ignore <BR>' and 'Ignore
cr-lf', and 'Translate quotes'. The first two selections are mutually
exclusive. These options are useful when the stripped output has
excessive blank lines.  This often occurs in Web published poetry since
many are formatted with both carriage return - line feed (cr-lf) pairs
and the HTML code <BR> which prevents text reformatting by the browser.
PMStripper normally translates <BR> into a cr-lf pair thereby producing
unnecessary blank lines. These two menu items strip either the cr-lf pairs
OR the <BR> codes from the text before any other actions are performed.
The results of using either option should be similar, but one method may
produce better results depending on how the text was originally formatted.

The 'Translate quotes' option translates the "smart quotes" used on
some web pages into the standard ascii values (0x93 and 0x94 are changed
to 0x22).  The "smart apostrophes" are translated to standard ascii (0x91
and 0x92 are changed to 0x22). The two "special hyphen" characters are
translated to standard ascii (0x96 and 0x97 are changed to 0x2d).  The
0x85 character is translated into 3 periods (0x2e) to approximate an
elipsis character.  In addition the 0xA0 and the 0x99 characters are
each translated to a space. The translation is done before any html
character enties are translated, so this option should not effect
languages that use those characters as part of their normal text.

These options effect how the HTML file is processed and the file must
be reloaded for these changes to effect the current file.

'External Editor Settings' has two sub-menu items.  They are 'Use
__TMP2__ File' and 'Use Clipboard'.  'Use __TMP2__ File' causes the
temporary file __TMP2__ to be left in the current working directory
for use by an external editor.  'Use Clipboard' causes the stripped
file to be copied to the OS/2 clipboard when the user selects 'Exit
to Word Processor'.  These option settings are only effective in the
registered version.

'Filename Settings' has seven sub-menu items.  They are 'Replace Space
with Underscore Character', 'Leave Space in Filename',
'Enter Default Save Path', 'Enable Use of Default Save Path',
'Enter Default Load Path', 'Enable Use of Default Load Path',
and 'Enter Default Save Extent'.  The first two items are
toggles and only one setting is active. They determine how the
highlighted text is converted to a destination file name for the
stripped HTML file.  The following option settings are only effective in
the registered version.  'Enter Default Save Path' and
'Enter Default Load Path' bring up a dialog boxes that allow the user
to enter paths for saving and loading files.
'Enable Use of Default Save Path' and 'Enable Use of Default Load Path'
are toggles that enable the use of the default paths. These toggles
allow the user t

o disable the default paths without clearing out the
path information.  'Enter Default Save Extent' brings up a dialog box
that allows the user to specify a default extent for the stripped
HTML file when it is saved to disk.

Note: A period is not part of the extent.

'Use idle time priority' reduces the priority of the thread that
processes the source file.  Using this option reduces the impact
PMStripper has on other tasks that are active.  Users with faster
CPUs may not notice any difference when this option is selected.

'Save Settings' saves all of the option settings to an INI file named
PMSTRIP.INI. The file will only be created when 'Save Settings' is
selected.  The utility reverts to word wrap on when loaded.

For PMStripper users who wish to add an environment variable to their
config.sys file, PMStripper will use that environment variable to
determine where the PMSTRIP.INI is located if it is not found in the
working directory.

The environment variable is specified in your config.sys file.

SET PMSTRIPPER=C:\YOURPATH

The C:\YOURPATH should be changed to the location of PMStripper or
the drive and directory that you want to locate the PMSTRIP.INI file

The install routine does not add the line to your config.sys.

NOTE:  When PMStripper is activated by dropping the icon of a HTML
file onto that of PMStripper, the location of the HTML file becomes
the current working directory.  PMStripper will look for its INI file
in that directory before checking the location specified in the
config.sys file. This is convenient for those who may want several
INI files, each with different attributes, according to the location
of the source HTML file.

4. 'Exit' has two sub-menu items.  They are 'Exit' and 'Exit to Word
Processor'.  'Exit' causes the stripped file to be discarded and
PMStripper to close.  'Exit to Word Processor' causes the OS/2 CMD
file PMS_CMD.CMD to be executed and PMStripper to close.  The 'Exit
to Word Processor' option is only effective in the registered
version.

Photo above shows PMStripper 1.18 running fine on @Macarlo's Warp 3.0

New in PMStripper 1.22

Corrected a bug in handling the "TD" html code.
Check the web page at href="http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma1.htm
to see the effect of the change.

New in PMStripper 1.21

Fixed bug that prevented the font selection made from
the menu from being saved as the new default font.

Added support for saving drag and drop color and font changes
made to the information area below the main window. This
should make PMStripper easier to use for OS/2 users with
vision problems.

Added a "Save Marked Text To File" option under "File"
on the menubar.

Due to a problem with the IBM Open Class Library and the
way PMStipper was designed, using drag and drop to select
a new font for the main window may not work correctly.  The
font is changed, but the incorrect font size may be saved
when the user selects "Save Settings".  The correct font
information is saved when the 'Font' option from the menu is
used to select a new font.  This problem only effects the
main window font selction via drag and drop.

New in PMStripper 1.20

Added support for saving drag & drop color and font changes
made to the menubar.  This should make the utility easer to
use for OS/2 users with vision problems.  Also fixed a bug
in the saving of the font selection for the main window.

Fixed a bug in the naming of the profile file when
the environment variable in the config.sys file is
used to specify the location of the file.


CONTACT AUTHOR

Don Hawkinson , author of CCA, DH-Grep-PM,
PMStripper, Pastry Box, and DH_ClipSave/2
http://www2.southwind.net/~dwhawk
dwhawk@southwind.net

@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

[TOP] [HOME] [INDEX]