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Firefox 4 Beta 1 Shines On HTML5

snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner takes a first look at Firefox 4 Beta 1 and sees several noteworthy HTML5 integrations that bring Firefox 4 'that much closer to taking over everything on the desktop.' Beyond the Chrome-like UI, Firefox 4 adds several new features that 'open up new opportunities for AJAX and JavaScript programmers to add more razzle-dazzle and catch up with Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, Microsoft Silverlight, and other plug-ins,' Wayner writes. 'Firefox 4 also adds an implementation of the Websockets API, a tool for enabling the browser and the server to pass data back and forth as needed, making it unnecessary for the browser to keep asking the server if there's anything new to report.'"

16 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Have I missed any? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ::grumble grumble:: Not as good as Gecko/Opera/Safari/Chrome/etc

    Gecko is the rendering engine of Firefox.

  2. Re:Firefox needs better support for security token by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Tools" -> "Options" -> "Advanced" -> "Encryption" -> "Security Devices".

  3. Horray Websockets! by DontLickJesus · · Score: 4, Informative

    As a javascript developer I'd simply like to applaud this addition from the HTML5 spec. Simulating the effect with Web Workers wasn't cutting it.

    --
    Where genius and insanity become confused true wisdom is found
  4. Re:Have I missed any? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    You can also view memory usage in detail by putting this into the location bar:

    about:memory

  5. Re:Have I missed any? by blair1q · · Score: 3, Informative

    Both of which can be disabled using about:config settings.

  6. Re:Firefox needs better support for security token by blair1q · · Score: 4, Informative

    You mean "Edit" -> "Preferences" -> "Advanced" -> "Encryption" -> "Security Devices".

  7. Re:Its too bad the UI got messed up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Firefox 4 still has separate address and search fields.

  8. Re:Acid test still not 100/100? by t0y · · Score: 3, Informative

    The remaining tests target SVG font functionalities which are not being actively developed.
    You can find a semi-official rationale for not implementing them here: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/archives/2010/06/not_implementin.html

  9. Re:Peter Wayner by icebraining · · Score: 2, Informative

    yes it's Java

    Where does this myth come from? Most of OOo is written in C++, and even many parts written in Java are compiled to machine-code using GCJ. The only parts of OOo that require a JRE (Java interpreter/JIT compiler) are:
            * the media player on Unix-like systems
            * all document wizards in Writer
            * accessibility tools
            * Report Autopilot
            * JDBC driver support
            * HSQL database engine (used in OpenOffice.org Base)
            * XSLT filters
            * BeanShell, the NetBeans scripting language and the Java UNO bridge
            * export filters to the Aportis.doc (.pdb) format for the Palm OS or Pocket Word (.psw) format for the Pocket PC
            * export filter to LaTeX
            * export filter to MediaWiki's wikitext

  10. Re:Have I missed any? by icebraining · · Score: 3, Informative

    You don't need about:config for the Tabs on top config:

    "To disable the tabs from the top position, click on the Firefox button on the top left corner. From the menu, click Customize-> Tabs on top. Uncheck the box against "Tabs on top"."

  11. Re:Its too bad the UI got messed up by BZ · · Score: 3, Informative

    > Merging the address and search fields is a big drawback

    Of course Mozilla hasn't merged them. So I'm not sure what you think they got wrong.

  12. Re:Acid test still not 100/100? by surveyork · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think you're right: Mozilla is mastering the material, not studying for the test. The only thing that really keeps them from getting 100/100 is the lack of implementation of some SVG stuff. See: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=119490 , specially the last 10 or so comments. However, Mozilla publicly stated that they wanted to fully implement SVG 1.1. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/svg/

    --
    2019 is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
  13. Re:On Windows 7 by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 3, Informative

    It is supposed to use Direct2D, just like IE9. I don't know if it does yet or if it is enabled by default

    FF 4 beta 1 does that, but it is not enabled by default. Here are the instructions on how to enable it.

  14. Re:I don't believe that by psYchotic87 · · Score: 2, Informative

    At the risk of getting a few "whoosh" comments, let me explain this to you (and anyone else that doesn't know about websockets): your browser requests a websocket from the server, which responds with an address it can connect to. Once connected to this address, your browser and the remote server can exchange anything over a regular full-duplex TCP channel, effectively bypassing all the HTTP limitations. Look here for more information.

  15. Re:Its too bad the UI got messed up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    When working in a call centre, customers would routinely enter URLs in the search bar rather than the address bar (despite asking them to click the bar with the "http" in it, and whatever else I could think of). From that, they would click on the sponsored links. This was a pretty common occurrence.

  16. Re:Peter Wayner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    And what exactly is a Type III Secretory gland? Gland? SInce when did bacteria get glands? Bacterial type III secretion systems are a protein complex typically used to inject proteins into a host cell. A gland is a hormone secreting organ found in animals. More different they could not be...