Hi Folks
I wrote:
>> My own method is to use the Arachne Hotlist as a sort of notepad for
>accumulating URLs (with despriptions). I then transfer those entries to
>a fixed BOOKMARK.HTM file, written and edited by me, deleting the
>harvested bookmarks behind me.
Christof wrote:
> Yes, Ron, I share this approach, too!
<snip>
> A well organized bookmark file saves time and money. I
> think, Arachne should be most flexible here! And as storing
> bookmarks is something that actually concerns every user of Arachne,
> it would be good to provide a way of customizing and editing the
> hotlist that can be understood by everybody.
I agree completely.
> Present hotlist manager is an attempt in this direction. But loading
> time and complexity of your collection of bookmarks soon cause
> problems with this approach. I first tried to put everything into one
> huge structured file and insert links to move between its main
> chapters. With growing number of URLs, the loading time increased,
> until I decided to split the file into several topics. Besides that
> the Ctrl+Arrow function in Arachne does not allow to jump between
> diferent parts of one file, but only switches between different
> files.
er, not sure that is too important. I have put a table of "contents" at
the top of my BOOKMARK.HTM file with anchors to the topic headings further
down. Clicking (or tab, tab, ENTER) jumps to that position in the bookmark
file.
My file is currently at 45 kb, 615 lines long and takes 4 seconds to load.
I don't find that a hardship. Pressing HOME goes back to the top of the file
where the topics are listed - navigation is pretty bloody quick !
> So, I think, sooner or later any collector of bookmarks will arrive
> at a tree structure with various bookmark files which are more or
> less in a logical relation to each other. You will abandon hotlist
> manager and start editing your links as ordinary HTML documents with
> your favourite text editor. And at this point the bookmark function
> of IE is still far superior to Arachne. How can Arachne improve
> here? I can (only theoretically) imagine two directions:
>
> - - Hotlist manager (or whatever comes after it) will use discrete
> files in HTML format, perhaps with a DOS directory structure in
> DOWNLOAD subdirectory, and relate them to each other (no, I do not
> know, how!)
I can think of a way.
> - - The hotlist (or whatever file containing the bookmarks) will be
> transformed to another format that allows to store a virtual tree
> structure of links.
Well, my "Table of Contents" does exactly that, but within the same file. You
would need something approaching 2,000 or more individual bookmarks before it
becomes more efficient to set up multiple files (one for each topic or
subject), but the "how" is still fairly simple. :)
> Does anybody understand me? Is the problem in my grammar or in my
> head?
Understand perfectly. :)
> Less science fiction may be the following idea:
>
> What about making the hotkeys more customizable? There are certainly
> more than two Arachne users who do not want the new bookmarks
> automatically go add to the main hotlist/bookmark file. Why waste a
> hotkey (Shift+F6) if there are four hotkeys related to the same
> hotlist? Would it be possible to define two keywords in Arachne.cfg
> instead of one? E.g. 'AddBookmark=X.HTM' for hot key A and another
> 'Hotlist=Y.HTM' for hotkey 'H'. Default value for both may be
> hotlist.htm.
It is also, it occurs to me, possible to write a little program that:
* could be called from an .OOK file within Arachne
* could generate a standard form of .HTM file to be used as a bookmark
receptacle, more if needed
* would allow "cut 'n' paste" of accumulated bookmarks FROM Arachne's usual
HOTLIST.HTM file and insert them (one at a time) into a selected position in
another .HTM file - say one generated by the same program
I can certainly write one that will do the job. BUT: I cannot write in "C" or
ASM or PASCAL to keep it small. What I turn out will probably be an .EXE of
between 40 and 80 kb. (Amateur & self-taught, using PBPLUS language and
compiler.) So I will not be offended if someone else wants to write it.
And I do agree with Christof that there are more creative ways of looking
after bookmarks.
Regards,
Ron Clarke
Ron Clarke http://homepages.valylink.net.au/~ausreg/music.html
-- This mail was written by user of Arachne, the Ultimate Internet Client
