Opera Seeks Developer Input For Opera 10

taskforce writes "Opera Watch is reporting that the folks Opera Software are asking web developers for input on what they think the most important features are which could be added into the next version of the Opera desktop browser. Considering what has been added in Opera 9, what do you think would be most important for the browser from both a developer and a user standpoint?"

Comments

Niggling

[rinkjustice]

Give users more monitor real estate (less toolbar, more web page) and reinvent favorites/bookmarks. Say automatic online backups to Simpy.com and an easier way of keeping bookmark catagories organized. I've recently gotten into genealogy and the links pile-up in a hurry. I almost want to use a browser exclusively for that research alone.

The Linux support is awesome however. It's the best browser for that platform.

Re:Niggling

[RobbieGee]

I have a few tips for you.

1. Put the status bar next to the address bar.
2. Use search shortcuts instead of the search bar. Typing 'g something' in the address bar will search for 'something' on google, while 'z something' will do the same for Amazon.
3. The progress bar can be toggled to show only when something is loaded, and you can even make it appear inside the address bar.
4. Instead of showing the tabs, you could use the window panel. You need to enable it by customizing the panels.
5. Ctrl-F8 will toggle the address bar, also while in Full-screen.
6. Alt+F11 will toggle the main menu.
7. Ctrl+F7 will toggle the scrollbars.
8. For quicker switching between tabs in fullscreen mode, I recommend holding right mouse button while scrolling. Personally, I prefer to set that list to use the tab-bar order instead of which were last used, you can find that setting in Tools->Preferences->Advanced->Tabs then "Cycle in tab bar order".

These are just things off the top of my head though, so if you *really* wanted to go nuts you could probably get away with a lot more.

Re:Adblock

[LubosD]

Opera 9 has integrated content blocking - it is quite good. You don't have to edit filter.ini any more...

Opera gives you all the space you need! (scrensht)

[eddy]

> but even then it still usues way too much screen space for things other then the actual webpage.

WTF?! You do know that the sidebar "Panel" toggles on and off with F4, right? Requests ought to focus on stuff that isn't already in the browser and trivially available to users to configure, don't you think?

I'm sorry, but requesting more space for the web page is sort of insane, considering there's always full screen mode (F11). The difference between full screen and my current configuration is neglible. Here's a current full screen screenshot (~44KiB) of my setup. Explain what you want to disable and how that makes a real difference to your browsing experience.

Personally I'd like a special tab which would include all client-server exchanges, toggable to exclude content body/show as hexa, etc.

Re:Adblock

[Jugalator]

Bah, how about not forcing Opera to keep up to date with specific extensions found in Firefox...

Firefox actually has a worse adblock implementation then Opera, did you know that?

The root of the problem as I see it is not a poor integrated adblock functionality -- I'm sure Opera 9's new interactive and visual adblocking mechanisms are sufficient for most people -- the problem is more likely deep extension support for power users to extend functionality as they want and need.

While Opera ASA is doing an admirable job of keeping up to date with the competition as a company, my number one wish for Opera 10 is good extension support.

And no, Opera's aging Netscape plugin support is lacking in so many areas, like chrome and renderer extensibility, that I won't even discuss it.

Re:Adblock

[Rits]

Do you have to do this for every new ad you see? Or does Opera automagically create regexes for permanent blocking of similar ads by using your method?

No regexes, but a simple matching expression using * is automatically created. You can also block specific images only by holding Shift while clicking. It is quite intuitive, with a simple UI with only a few buttons and a short explanation text.

Re:Extensions

[Wildclaw]

This should be possible with the current opera. I'll describe how to add a shortcut key that launches the current webpage in internet explorer. If you want to add it to a gui element (like the right click menu) you will probably have to edit an ini file. Anyway, here is how to add it as a keyboard shortcut, step by step.

* Goto Tools->Preferences->Advanced->Shortcuts.
* (Optional) Duplicate the current keyboard setup using the duplicate button.
* Edit the keyboard setup you want to change.
* Select the "application" entry in the list that appears and click the "New" Button
* Enter the keyboard shortcut to the left. For example: i ctrl shift alt
* To the right enter the following: Execute program, "iexplore.exe", "%u"

Now, whenever you click ctrl+shift+alt+i, internet explorer should launch using the current url as an argument.