Changing to the new system
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Overview
The NWE staff would like to welcome you to the NWE system. The NWE system is actually the CLAS system with a customized face. We hope that the applications you find here will meet your needs.
Please read the rest of this page before starting to use the system, so you'll better understand some of the major features as well as the information we need when you send in a bug report, comment, or suggestion.
Summary of application equivalents
This table shows which applications were ported over from the old NWE system in the Fall of 2001 -- first for the six main applications on the toolbar, then for the Services menu, then for other applications. (Lists of less frequently used applications and new applications are below.)
| Old NWE | New NWE | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| xfm file manager | dt file manager (dtfile) | Should be a big improvement. |
| Netscape Navigator web browser v 4.07 | Netscape Communicator web browser and email client v 4.7 | This new version of Netscape should also include more plug-in functionality. |
| exmh email client v 1.67 | exmh email client v 2.31 | While this is the same application, the version on the new system is considerably newer than the old -- it allows viewing MIME attachments, HTML mail, and other features. |
| asWe HTML editor v 3 | asWe HTML editor v 4 | Updated version includes support for HTML 4 with same look and feel. |
| tkMOO-lite moo client | tkMOO-lite moo client | New and old applications are identical. |
| WordPerfect 7 | StarOffice 5.2 | This is the biggest change. StarOffice includes a presentation package, spreadsheet, and ability to read MS Word and PowerPoint files. To see how to convert your old WordPerfect files into StarOffice files, see our help pages. |
| Pine email reader v 4.03 | Pine email reader v 4.44 | A text-based email reader. (Depreciated -- use exmh instead) |
| Xterm Shell | same | New and old applications are identical. |
| Netscape 3.01 | -- | Deprecated. Use Netscape 4.7 instead. |
| Acrobat Reader v 4.0 | Acrobat Reader v 4.0 | New and old applications are identical. |
| Change mail forward | same | New and old applications are identical. |
| Change password | same | New and old applications are identical. |
| XV image viewer v 3.10a | same | New and old applications are identical. |
| Xpaint image editor v 2.11 | Xpaint image editor v 2.61 | Update includes considerable stability and feature improvements. |
| ImageMagick 4.28 | ImageMagick 5.31 | While this is the same application, the version on the new system is considerably newer than the old. |
| Who is on the System | -- | Deprecated. Use 'who' from a shell instead. |
| Pico text editor | Pico text editor | New and old applications are identical. |
| Emacs editor v 20.3.1 | Emacs editor v 20.3.1 | New and old applications are identical. |
| Calculator | Calculator | New and old applications are identical. |
The following less commonly used software not on the Toolbar or Services menu will be available on the new NWE system:
Ghostscript, TinyFugue (tf), gifsicle, giftrans, lynx, procmail.
Major differences
-
Email should be working now. You may need to migrate old folders to match the configuration of Pine or Exmh. If you need assistance with this please contact the help staff. - WordPerfect
- You may have had time to notice that WordPerfect is missing from the button bar. We were unable to bring WordPerfect over to CLAS. It has been replaced by the office suite StarOffice. StarOffice includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and a presentation package as well as several other applications. It has a look and feel more like Microsoft Office than WordPerfect. The downside is that it will not natively read WordPerfect documents. In order to transfer them over, you will have to use WordPerfect to convert them to RTF or plain text.
New software
The following software has been added:
| application | description |
|---|---|
| The Gimp (gimp) | raster image processing application similar to Adobe Photoshop |
| sketch | vector image processing application similar to Adobe Illustrator |
| xfig | vector image processing application |
| TeX | Typesetting and document production system |
| gv | Viewer for GhostScript |
| RealPlayer | Player for streaming audio and video |
Contacting us
We encourage you to tell us what you think of the new system. Please bear the following in mind before sending your comments to us:
- Missing Software
- If a software application you used regularly seems missing, please check the new applications to see if they do the same things before notifying us. Some applications were not ported to the new system due to cost, lack of support, licensing, or duplication by another application. We've made every effort to preserve all the functionality of the old system on the new. However, after checking the new applications, if you are unable to complete some task that you were able to do before, please send us the name of the old NWE application and a description of the task you can no longer perform.
- Bugs
- If you receive an unexplained error message, an application
crashes, or you believe an application is not behaving as it should,
we'd like to hear about it. However, before you contact us, please
make sure the problem is "recreateable". That means: exit the
application, restart it, and try to make the error happen again (do
the exact same things you were doing when the error occurred). If the
problem is recreatable, send us the following information:
- application used
- what the application did (crashed, the complete error message, etc.)
- what you were doing in the application at the time
- what other applications you had open at the time
- Layout, icons, look and feel
- To insure readability and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance, the look and feel of the new system was developed with a graphic artist. However, we encourage feedback regarding usability and appearance. Please include a reasoned argument which explains your problem or dislike. For example, if you don't like an icon, please send a URL for an icon you would prefer.
To make a comment, suggestion, or to report a problem, please use our web-based contact form or e-mail help@nwe.ufl.edu.