Safari Beta Updated

Jack Kennedy writes "Apple has released Safari 1.0 Beta v51. Unfortunately, Apple don't list what the update addresses; according to Apple, 'this Safari Update is recommended for all Safari users.' Dave Hyatt's Weblog provides a more detailed account of what issues Apple have addressed over the past few days."

Comments

Re:Much more stable.

[Twirlip of the Mists]

It seems to be both more and less complex than that. See my post here for an explanation of my workaround.

Re:Unfortunately still no tabs

[babbage]

Here's an idea: let's re-evaluate what you *really* want the software to do here. Is it really the case that you need tabs, or can it more accurately be said that you just want some form of a multiple document interface [MDI]. If the latter is correct -- and for me, it is -- then are tabs (as implemented in the Gecko family of browsers) the best or only way to do this? Or are there other, possibly better ways to get to the same goal?

It occurs to me that a better -- and arguably more "Cocoa-ish" -- way to present this would be a tray interface, like what you see in Mail.app. Seen this way, you could have a hierarchy of widgets in the tray, including:

• currently open pages (the tabs, as available in Mozilla etc)
• bookmarked links & folders of links
• history links
• "scrapbook" page[s]?

If presented this way, you could browse open documents and bookmarks much as you can browse mail folders in Mail.app. If items in the tray could be browsed with "flippy triangles" (like in the Finder's list view), then you could zoom in on different kinds of URLs quickly. Plus, having a tray interface might even buy you enough screen real estate that you could even have thumbnail versions of some or all pages in the collection. Neat, huh?

Personally, I agree with everyone that's asking for tabbed browsing, but only to the extent that I think that the web is easier to browse in a MDI style. But the more I think about this tray idea, the less I think that simple tabs is the best way to present this information. Trays. They're IMO the coolest & most innovative part of the Aqua interface, and they really aren't implemented all that often. This seems to me like a perfect place to introduce a tray interface, and if Apple decides to add a MDI option to Safari, my hope is that this is how they'll implement it.

If you agree that this is a good idea, please do as I've done and submit the idea as feedback to Apple with Safari's bug reporter widget, or by using the bug reporter on Apple's site (sorry, I forget the url offhand). Now is the time to let them know what features you would hope for... :)

Possible better answer to the tabs problem

[King Babar]

OK, I'm not trolling here, it would have been really amazing if Apple had added supports for tabbed browsing in only two days. And I understand they haven't.

I used to think exactly what you think about this. Then after seeing (again) some of the objections to them, I came up with an idea to gain tab-like functionality using ideas already implemented in what you might call "bookmark view" and the (key) idea that the information about existing windows that exists in the "Window" menu really wants to be treated like a collection as well. Check out: my previous post on a different safari thread, and then maybe also a slight tweak designed to bring up the "tab list" separately from other bookmark stuff. In both proposals, you would not have tabs listed across the top of the browser by default, and you would have to hit one keyboard combo (either option-cmd-B or option-cmd-w) to see the "tabs" at all. But after that, this view is *better* than what you get from tabs or the Window menu since it would essentially never have to truncate page titles and would obviously give you space to display URLs.

Again, the basic idea is that the "window list" information could be made more navigable in a form very similar to that for bookmarks or the late, great file selector dialogs that allowed type-ahead on filenames. (I think Safari needs type ahead for links in normal webpages, too. Since type ahead is intuitive when the focus is in the location bar, I don't think it's a big stretch to make the Mozilla-like leap to allowing it when the focus is not on a text entry box of some kind.

The functionality of tabs (rapid navigation to one of the several pages you have open) is preserved, while UI cruft is not required. Please tell me what you think. :-)

iBook users may disagree...

[interactive_civilian]

As an iBook user (though I can only speak for myself) screen real estate is very limited and therefore a very precious resource. The iBook screen is only 1024x768, and though I try to target any web-pages I build to an 800x600 screen (because I like to have the extra space for other things), many people don't. So, web-browsing often requires a pretty big window.

IMHO, there is simply no room for a tray on the side of that window, especially if I want to interact with other programs. I feel that tabs, even though they take up precious vertical space, are a much better MDI (oh how happy I would be if the tab bar could be vertical, running down the left-side of the window...but I feel that the horizontal tab bar is more intuitive to use).

So, while a tray might seem like a great idea for users with high resolution screens, right now it seems like a huge part of Apple's market is laptop users, and unfortunately, our screens just don't have many pixels.

As far as tabs go, I wish Mozilla's tabs were a bit narrower and I wish I could shrink the font of the page titles to gain a few more precious lines back. Currently, I have found (for my browsing style) using the PinBall theme with icon only buttons gives me the most real-estate to work with.

But this is all just my own humble opinion, and I cannot speak for all iBook users. Cheers. :-)