Classilla 9.3.0

[ClassicHasClass]

As posted to macos9:

Classilla 9.3.0 is released after a long gestation and period of refocusing.
As is widely known and reported, 9.3.0 alters the user agent to preferentially

get and use mobile content, and I will be directing optimizations and fixes

to optimize the browser for such mobile sites since that is a better fit for

our older code and older computers. After a period of experimentation, we're

using a user agent based on the Nokia N90, which is similar to Classilla's

rendering engine. You can still change this from the User-Agent pref panel.

It was originally my intention to also fix the network stack in this release

but I was not able to get it working in any meaningful state (I'm going to

try again later).

However, the other big new change in 9.3.0 is the Byblos rewrite engine.

The Byblos syllabary is one of the great mysteries of ancient scripts, but

the hope is that a stele like the Rosetta Stone might come to light to

decipher it. In a like manner, Byblos lets you write "stelae" in JavaScript

to translate sites from the HTML up -- adding, changing or even removing

sections of content to get the browser to render. This is all dynamic and

happens on the fly, and all you need is knowledge of JavaScript, HTML and

a text editor. Complete docs are on Google Code:

http://code.google.com/p/classilla/wiki/ByblosSteleDocs

Stelae for developer.mozilla.org and yfrog.com are included with the base

release, and I am soliciting for stelae from the user community to include

in future versions.

Finally, there are multiple security and stability improvements ahead of the

full security audit which will finally bring Classilla to security parity

in Classilla 9.3.1.

In 9.3.1 and 9.3.2, more features will be progressively exposed to user

control. In 9.3.0, there is an internal hard whitelist that uses desktop

user agents for certain sites. In 9.3.1, once this is better understood,

advanced users will be able to place about:config entries in, and in 9.3.2,

there will be an entire UI for this when locale strings are unfrozen along

with other UI changes.

Thanks for tolerating the long period between updates.

http://www.classilla.org/

 

[ojfd]

Already using it

Anyway, you guys and gals involved in this project are doing a great job! I would be lost without your browser.

Big THANK YOU!

 

[Bunsen]

9.3.0 alters the user agent to preferentially get and use mobile content

Is that user-reversible?

Byblos lets you write "stelae" in JavaScript to translate sites from the HTML up -- adding, changing or even removing sections of content to get the browser to render.

So, kinda like Greasemonkey on FF?

By the way, I upgraded my browser yesterday from FF 3.6.x (OS X Tiger, 2x 1GHz G4) to TenFourFox 7450. Not only was the transition seamless - it even loaded the tabs/windows from my previous FF session - it's running noticeably smoother for me, even on challenging sites like Facebook and Youtube. I can watch videos in 360p without skipping now, whereas previously 240p was the best reliable rate. Best of all, no crashes to date - even with 40+ tabs open and plug-ins enabled.

Thankyou for your continuing work on both these browsers

 

[theos911]

Is that user-reversible?

Yes. I tested this on my WS 300, with Classilla 9.3.0 . My test site was http://www.spanishdict.com/'>http://www.spanishdict.com/

With the new default user agent it auto redirects to http://www.spanishdict.com/m

Whereas if I switch back to the old default agent, "Classilla 9.3.x" it stays at http://www.spanishdict.com/

Personally, I like this change as I've been manually switching to the mobile versions of sites anyway. However, there is a hardcoded list of sites that use the default "desktop" user agent by default. This is likely due to incompatibilities with their mobile site. (Sometimes the mobile versions are heavily catered to webkit mobile safari type browsers and use things Classilla doesn't have whereas their desktop site is fully, or at least more compatible.) You can probably override this by just typing the mobile site's direct address, but YMMV as it is probably whitelisted for a reason.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Yes, you can switch back and forth.

9.3.0 is mostly an experiment. I'm trying to do lots of things with it and see what works well and what doesn't. As I get feedback (feel free to post), I'll use that to expand the default internal whitelist.

In 9.3.1 I would like to allow this kind of configuration with about:config settings to advanced users, but I haven't figured out how this will look yet.

So, kinda like Greasemonkey on FF?

In theory, yes, but in practice this is much lower level than Greasemonkey. Greasemonkey can only intercept data after it has been integrated and processed by the browser into the DOM. Byblos actually inserts a translation layer on top of the network stack and changes the HTML *as it comes* over the wire. Read the docs on it, I think you'll find it more powerful.

Glad to hear the Fx->10.4Fx transition was painless.

 

[Tron]

I'm trying it right now!

Thank you. Keep going whith your good work.

 

[Mathias]

That Byblos may become our future!

The most important "script" would be a "Wikipedia monobook" one. A script that adds to every wikipedia link "?useskin=monobook" for a flawless usage of wiki again. They totally fucked up wiki with vector. First it was even totally unusable with MacOS 9 until Cameron adapted Classilla.

Well such a script could bring pleasure back again to browsing wiki, and should not be that hard. Any volunteers?

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Every wikipedia link everywhere? That could seriously slow down the browser (Byblos won't do *.js kinds of things anyway).

But I can imagine a very short one for en.wikipedia.org.js (or choose your language) that would do it just to things on that site.

The most important bug to fix for 9.3.1 is issue 184 since that affects otherwise normal mobile sites (plus the security audit). Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with the mobile switchover.

 

[ojfd]

I thought I'll add my observations after a week of use

Based on the sites I visit regulary (and there aren't that many, btw) 9.3.0 crashed more often than 9.2.3. I swithced back to 9.2.3 for the time being. I'm not bad mouthing or anything - it's just me and my 5c.

Anyway, I still highly appreciate the work of people behind Classilla.

 

[highlandcattle]

Ooh I'll try it today

 

[ClassicHasClass]

I haven't heard from anyone that the memory changes I made in 9.3.0 helped the situation people reported in 9.2.3 where memory usage climbed on some sites. If no one is noticing a change in memory usage (apart from the obvious), then I'll revert to the safer but less thrifty code in 9.2.3.

 

[bittin]

awesome