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Firefox retains the best potential GUI. Opera and Firefox both have a horridly usably minimalistic GUI. Microsoft has disseminated IE7's GUI, Safari's can't be customized, and Konquerer's GUI potential is not.
Here's looking to Opera 9.1, maybe they will fix the four or five bugs I saw on my site right off the bat. Heck a simple JavaScript referral code didn't work. It's a step up from Opera 8 though.
but does NOT pass as a "Good" browser by my rendering engine references
Can you elaborate on that? I must admit that I'm a little perplexed by that comment.
It's an honest question, not a jab (no pun intended) ;)
This does not work correctly (anymore) for example...
<body onload="if (location!= top.location) {parent.border.location.reload(); parent.copyright.location.reload(); parent.mplayer.location.reload(); parent.content.location=document.referrer;} else {location.href = document.referrer;}">
It has in previous versions of Opera.
I rate browsers (more specifically by their rendering engines) by the level of how their bugs effect my site or the internet in general.
I rate browsers: Good, Minor, Moderate, Major, Severe, Crash (and they are color coded: Green, light green, yellow, orange, red, and black text with red background.
Opera was so close to Good (free of bugs). IE7 rates Major, IE6 Severe, Safari Major, Konquerer from what I could last tell Minor. Gecko rates minor but has many minor bugs but it's not the number of bugs but how much it inconviences or disables the visitor's ability to use the site that they are at.
I have seen only a few bugs on other sites because most people like to play it safe but I didn't care when I locked out IE (6 and below) users out of my site.
So while it's good that Opera 9 was released to me it was not a "finally they released it" as it was not such a huge step for them. I think they were pushing browser features more while making some modest changes to their rendering engine.
They will still probally fix all the bugs I've seen however long before Gecko 1.9 sees the light of day. I don't even think the people at Mozilla will even budge on half the bugs that effect sites like mine that date back to last century for 1.9. I'd love to have Firefox's GUI with Opera's rendering engine (with the ability to use extensions like adblock plus appled to Opera's rendering engine...in say half a year if they fixed everything, then you'd have a potentially perfect browser in my view (remember GUI's are unusably minimalistic). People don't click on buttons without labels which is severly holding back Firefox's potential.
- John
I'm sure they didn't have problems in the last version of Opera.
Anyone else have Java applets on their site that Opera 9 is choking on?
Opera's rendering engine is modified as they go so there is no separate distinction (that I know of at least) with Opera though it's rendering engine is named Presto.
UserFriendly, does your Java applet work correctly in any other browser, if so which one? Does it work correctly as a stand alone? Does it work correctly with a different version of the Java plugin? Unrelated but something I'd like to share, I disable Java on people's browsers to shut it out as it's been a huge source of viruses for the past three or so years and I have seen no reasonable use that Flash can't handle. If you're big on covering all your bases test your site with Java disabled (Opera and Firefox can both easily allow you to do so).
IoI Receptional Andy...I like the cute brunet in the middle (of the three women). :) I think it's an appeal to various types of people who may come across Opera..."Oh that reminds me of myself, I might like this" sort of encouragement to use Opera.
Opera has in it's past been extremely technical though it's become more humanized in recent times. I think that is critical to helping rid of the curse of ...not competent browsers. ;)
nice release so far.
--hakre
Are you doing clean installs or upgrading over your older version?
On my laptop (Win XP) I upgraded from a beta which in turn was an upgrade from 8.54. On my desktop (Win 2k) I upgraded from 8.54. I have experienced no problems. Settings, passwords etc. work flawlessly.
I find the interface and general browsing can be improved vastly by the following tweaks I like to make:
1. Remove New Tab button and add custom button to replace it on the address bar. This opens up my home page, rather than just a blank page. Also set home page to a local file of links I use.
2. Add Home Page button to address bar. Absolutely essential. It remains a mystery why Opera is the only browser without this. Luckily it can be added easily by right-clicking on a toolbar and selecting Customise...
3. Replace rewind, back and forward buttons with ones that have a drop-down arrow next to them. Also remove fast-forward button.
4. Disable Start menu that drops down from the address bar.
5. Add custom button to View menu to Refresh from cache only. Essential for testing as you can keep editing a page without reloading it from the server.
6. Add custom buttons to duplicate the existing menu at top. (File, Edit, View etc.) These can then be placed anywhere you wish. I have them at the right edge of the address bar, before the Wand icon and the rewind, back, icons etc. This makes navigating a lot easier as you aren't reaching to the corner to go back and forward all the time. (IE7 designers take note.) Of course I could always use mouse gestures...
7. Add Menu toggle button to View menu. Now I can turn off the main menu altogether (as I've duplicated it below) and save a whole row of space.
8. Turn on Status toolbar at bottom. Now I can hover over links and see where they go.
9. Make sure Progress pops up at bottom, to show more information, and not appear in the address bar.
10. Add 'Find in page', Google search and Zoom to the status bar at the bottom for easy access. Copy 'Find next' green arrow to status bar from View menu. Also duplicate Home and Back buttons in the left corner for 'Boss' mode. :)
11. Change side panel to have icons wrapped across the top, like Opera did in the past. Also remove panel toggle for more screen space.
12. Change the skin to the Windows default.
There are many other tweaks I make, such as increasing the minimum font size to a more readable 11pt, importing notes and special text from previous versions, and adding custom CSS for certain sites.
I adore the way Opera is so tweakable. I can put icons anywhere I want, add or remove toolbars, even add a wide range of custom buttons. For anyone wanting those, bookmark this essential site:
[operawiki.info...]
When it comes to customisation, Opera simply leaves other browsers in the dust.
I also noted that Opera has implemented an IE-style Eolas-feature: Flash-objects now require a click to be activated, unless they're written into the page using JavaScript.
<body onload="if (location!= top.location) {parent.border.location.reload(); parent.copyright.location.reload(); parent.mplayer.location.reload(); parent.content.location=document.referrer;} else {location.href = document.referrer;}">
I don't think that should work. The code is written in a way that can cause unpredictable results. The correct snippet should be:
<body onload="if (location.href != top.location.href) {parent.border.location.reload(); parent.copyright.location.reload(); parent.mplayer.location.reload(); parent.content.location=document.referrer;} else {location.href = document.referrer;}">
Also, you should avoid using "keywords" as frame names, such as "border" and "content". Change that, and you'll see it will work.
It is not a bug ... it's slightly poorly written code ;)
1.) User clicks drop down menu at top right for JavaScript menu item that will bring them to a theme page.
2.) Theme page sets cookie via PHP, reloads all frames if any and loads the referal page, else load referal page.
However the cookie value always remains the default when you fist arrive at my site.
It worked great in Opera 8. Opera 9 seems a little rushed.
- John
Jennifer
