Beest
Beest is presently an HTML viewer, but later it will be developed
into a word processor, a web browser, and probably
into a library for use with C programs.
It is intended to have the following qualities:
- Portability to almost any system which has a C compiler.
- Smallness to permit running it on systems with minimal resources.
- Modularity to permit the program to be converted into a library.
- Open source code as described in the GNU Public Licence.
What's in a Name?
The name Beest is the last portion of
"wildebeest," which is another name for
that animal known as the gnu.
My intention from the start was to make
Beest an open source program
covered by the GNU Public License, and the
name reflects that.
However one could additionally argue
that the name "Beest" is apt due to the fact
that this is a complex program. It is, to use
the common expression, a "beast". Still, if it is
beastly in nature, it is a rather friendly
beast, and tame enough so that you could invite it
into your livingroom for conversation and a beer.
Why Create Beest?
There are several reasons for my beginning the Beest project:
- To help myself in several ways:
-
Its portability and smallness allow me to run
Beest on older systems and in particular under DOS
(FreeDOS being the open source variant)
which I still use because it has several advantages over Linux,
including bootability from a floppy (with much room to spare),
very fast booting from a hard drive (5 seconds),
no need to "sync", and simplicity.
-
I prefer to use less expensive computers, so I am
normally prohibited from running larger office suites
such as KDE Office or large word processors
such as AbiWord. Also I greatly prefer to never use
publicly available or rented computers for simple word processing.
Beest's expandability offers me the opportunity to develop
a small word processor out of it which will fit on a floppy and
serve all related needs.
- To help others in various ways:
-
Many people have old computers which they believe
they can no longer use, since the latest commercial software
no longer runs on them.
That is to say, bloatware does not run on them.
Alas, it is in the interest of the software and hardware industries
to condition consumers to believe that bloat is a vital necessity.
In developing Beest, especially into a browser or word processor,
such unfortunate consumers will be able to
re-use, to recycle their older systems, thereby saving themselves
expense of upgrading, of buying a new system for their kids, and so on.
-
Beest is initially an HTML viewer.
Some people require one, either to view HTML or to look at
other formats which have been converted to HTML.
I myself have written a program, "rtf2htm" which converts RTF files.
Furthermore, some users prefer to word process by writing
hand coded HTML. Beest gives them a quick method of viewing
the result.
In addition, some people would prefer to view manual pages
from the console. The manpages package comes with
a converter from "roff" format to HTML, so
Beest can be used for viewing manpages.
Lastly, when the PostScript(R) driver is finally added
to Beest, it will provide a direct mechanism of
printing HTML without invoking a bulky commercial browser.
Copyright (C) 2000 by Zachary Thayer Smith. This document
is covered by the GNU Public License (GPL). For information about
copying please see the provided description of the GPL in the
file COPYING. PostScript is a trademark of Adobe.