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  The Communicator 4 Experience By Ahmad Abualsamid When Netscape Communications Corp. first released Communicator 4 (its renamed and revamped Navigator), I downloaded Preview Release 1, played with it for about a week and then went back to Navigator 3. Communicator had too many bugs, its memory leaks caused my computer to crash, and overall, using it was not a productive experience. However, Communicator is maturing: I tested Preview Release 4 in Network Computing's University of Wisconsin labs and I am now on its bandwagon. Many of the bugs have been ironed out, so I can spend more time browsing the Web and less time rebooting my machine. Not Merely Browsing Communicator is not just a Web browsing tool. It is a complete Internet experie nce--and a delightful one at that. The floating taskbar sits on your desktop and provides easy access to various functions, including a browser, e-mail reader, composer (the HTML editor) and news reader. The look-and-feel of Communicator's modules is intuitive, customizable and easy to use. Its support for new HTML features means you won't miss out on any of the latest additions to your favorite Web sites. And its support for dynamic fonts, style sheets, and positioning and layers can make your Web browsing experience a more enjoyable one. The dramatic improvement of the interface and the breadth of new functionality are important enhancements. Netscape also has improved the core, adding a number of Java improvements. Communicator includes Symantec Corp.'s JIT (Just In Time) compiler for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh--one of the best in the industry--which results in faster Java applets. It supports the Java Development Kit (JDK) 1.1, which translates into support for JAR (Java Archive), Object Se rialization, I/O and networking enhancements and most important, Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) imaging improvements. Communicator supports JavaScript 1.2 with a set of powerful features, including the noteworthy script signing. Developers will be pleased with the inclusion of Internet Foundation Classes (IFC), which should reduce the development time of real Internet Java applications. (This implementation is not unique to Communicator: Sun Microsystems soon will roll out the best of IFC in its Java Foundation Classes.) Netscape Messenger is another useful Communicator component; it is a sophisticated mail client with support for the Post Office Protocol (POP) 3, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) version 4. |
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by Ahmad Abualsamid Sailing Along With BreezeNet Pro's Adapters by Joel Conover Sphericall Redefines Voice Networking by David Willis Updated June 27, 1997 |
