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: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... :)