whats new in firefox 3 nightly, developing story, new shortcuts for switching tabs

[clevin]

I think I should just start a thread like this so I don't need to create a new one every time something new was added.
You can always check daily update of all platforms here http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=23 here I will just report interesting changes (I expect) mac users care about...

download nightly build from here ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/

20080410

proto theme is still changing,

20040404

Fixed: 417176 - [Mac] Add keyboard shortcuts Cmd+{ and Cmd+} for switching tabs.

Scroll down for details

20080402
Beta5 released, This is last beta. Firefox RC1 will be out in second half of April (may delay tho).

20080327
This is NOT beta 5
This is beta 5 Release Candidate 2. grab it at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/3.0b5-candidates/rc2/

20080326
This is NOT beta 5
This is beta 5 Release Candidate 1. grab it at ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/nightly/3.0b5-candidates/rc1/

20080319

The theme has been updated again, previously if you disable bookmark toolbar, there will be color discontinuity between toolbar and tab bar, now this has been fixed

scroll down for detailed comparison.

now new folder button is added when you click the blue star twice to sort the bookmarks

20080308

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=417302
a solute to the robot who appears in the first run of firefox beta 2 and beta 3, (you can still see the page here and here

Type in "about:robots" in your address bar (much like "about:mozilla" easter egg") and enter
new version of about:robots has some nice improvement
20080315

20080308

scroll down for details

20080227

Keyhole lands on trunk for Mac, I don't know how to judge this, somebody likes it, somebody doesn't, this is very first draft, I expect some changes before final

if you want smaller back button, just customize the toolbar and choose "use small icons"

scroll down for details

20080217

Fixed: 401322 - Add a "Zoom Text Only" checkbox in the View > Zoom menu.
Fixed: 416018 - Upgrade cairo to 1.5.8-30-g80e11a8.

scroll down for details

20080207

#415466 [Core:Widget: Cocoa]-draw focus rings for single and multi-line text fields [Mac]

Previous updated since firefox 2

1. new theme for OSX, unified back/forward button
2. rewrite firefox in cocoa
3. memory leak fix
4. places
5. new download manager. enable search among downloads, downloads info in status bar
6. awesome url bar, you can type page titel, any string from link, your tag for bookmarked page, etc, etc, give you unbelievable easy access to your visited, bookmarked page. Its simply AWESOME.
7. easier way of adding bookmarks
8. url bar webpage security info button
9. resizable search area
10. color management, (disable by default)
11. new addon manager, integrate AMO page
12. partial aqua widget in webpage (except drop-down menu)
13. transition to cairo
14. Extended validition from verisign as ONE of the anti-phishing measures, longer greener favicon, Larry turns green as well.

 

[Quillz]

I'm pretty sure Firefox 3 wasn't rewritten in Cocoa...

 

[clevin]

I'm pretty sure Firefox 3 wasn't rewritten in Cocoa...

It is. I think you are misunderstanding cocoa with "aqua". cocoa is API, while aqua is only UI.

 

[Catfish_Man]

Well, claiming Firefox is "rewritten in Cocoa" is a bit of a stretch. It does use an NSWindow for its window though, and definitely more of it is using Cocoa than before. iirc most of the control drawing is done using HITheme, which is a modern-style Carbon API.

However, the important thing is that they're moving off of Quickdraw and old-style Carbon APIs in favor of Core Graphics and Cocoa/HI*.

The "memory leak fix" item is also a little misleading in that it implies that Firefox's memory growth is due to a single issue. There have been many many leak fixes, as well as some fragmentation fixes, but both efforts are still progressing.

 

[Aranince]

I just installed a nightly build of FF3...its quite snappy.

 

[clevin]

Well, claiming Firefox is "rewritten in Cocoa" is a bit of a stretch. It does use an NSWindow for its window though, and definitely more of it is using Cocoa than before. iirc most of the control drawing is done using HITheme, which is a modern-style Carbon API.

However, the important thing is that they're moving off of Quickdraw and old-style Carbon APIs in favor of Core Graphics and Cocoa/HI*.

The "memory leak fix" item is also a little misleading in that it implies that Firefox's memory growth is due to a single issue. There have been many many leak fixes, as well as some fragmentation fixes, but both efforts are still progressing.

I don't know if its a stretch, I believe its at least "mostly" in cocoa, if you want to imply that only small portion of it is in cocoa, I would be glad to do more research and respond to that.

No, you are right on that, memory leaks happens everywhere, and no browsers is doing much better than firefox anyway. Mozilla did plug and fix leaks here and there.

 

[clevin]

a new function (maybe) I didn't even realized before.

1. open a new tab (#1) and goto any page with input area

2. open another tab (#2) and goto some website

3. you can drag the url from that webpage created in tab#2, and move onto tab #1, firefox will switch focus for you, and you can drop that url into the input area!

This is very useful when you try to paste urls, text, image addresses across all the tabs in your browser.

 

[clevin]

first. I would like to say sorry to mod, I won't be able to merge all the previous posts since I report these changes whenever they happen, and its quite necessary, IMHO, to add new post to "bump" the discussion. lol. Thanks

20080217

Fixed: 401322 - Add a "Zoom Text Only" checkbox in the View > Zoom menu.
Fixed: 416018 - Upgrade cairo to 1.5.8-30-g80e11a8.

zoom text only, if checked from view->zoom menu, will revert firefox 3's zoom function to the way firefox 2 handles the issue.

by default, firefox do fullpage zoom for you, which includes the page structure, image, text altogether. This is one of the "advantage" brought by switching to cairo 2D rendering.

PS. Cairo will reach 1.6.0 final release very soon, I suspect firefox 3 will ship with that version eventually.

Cairo is the 2D rendering library firefox 3 will be using, which is responsible for a lot of exciting new features you will find in firefox 3. such as across tabs/windows drag and drop of elements (text, url, image address, etc)

 

[Nick012]

Has anyone else noticed that dragging a .jpg onto the desktop saves it as a .jfif? Its really bugging me ;_;

 

[clevin]

Has anyone else noticed that dragging a .jpg onto the desktop saves it as a .jfif? Its really bugging me ;_;

yes, i have to manually rename the ext for that. I will do a search and see if the bug has been reported.

 

[Aronnax]

I will do a search and see if the bug has been reported.

it is: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=414201

Cheers

 

[clevin]

great, looks like patch has been created, waiting for reviews..

 

[geek-inthe-pink]

IMHO, Firefox three is the best browser ever! I used to be a die hard Safari fan - when I posted this in the "best Browser" thread:

For me Firefox 3 was so buggy, slow, and crashy I just uninstalled it.

ZOMG! This is unbelievable... for a 512 RAM mac mini, too...
clevin was right! Wow! The only request is for FF3 to be written in 99% cocoa, and more aqua before it's released.

But, wow!

 

[snakedoctor]

I can choose to create a new folder when adding a new bookmark......like I could in FF 2.

Is it gone in FF3 or just a bug right now. Its the only thing standing in my way of using the nightly builds as my default browser.

 

[clevin]

Keyhole is a design of back/forward buttons for firefox 3, it landed on Vista/XP version long time ago, and appears today on mac as well.

Personally, I think its ok, not spectacular, but quite unique.

Also, rumors has it that firefox 3 will have another beta (5) before final. This is an impressive update from firefox 2, I understand a lot of bugs need to be fixed. Will report more info when have them.

 

[lofight]

Look's very nice! I've downloaded a nightly build a while ago and it seems quite nice! But i still like safari more!

 

[clevin]

Look's very nice! I've downloaded a nightly build a while ago and it seems quite nice! But i still like safari more!

firefox 3 nightly is a rocket ride. You are welcome to try it out when beta 4 released, and maybe beta 5, and final.

 

[72930]

OK, so I'm trying out FF3Nightly, and there is one feature of Safari I miss, is there a plug-in to give me icons that reflect how far a long a download is?

Oddly iGlasses opens with it. I have turned that off now, but strange.

The default scrolling is jagged and smooth-scrolling is dreadful

 

[clevin]

OK, so I'm trying out FF3Nightly, and there is one feature of Safari I miss, is there a plug-in to give me icons that reflect how far a long a download is?

detail, i don't quite understand this question yet

Oddly iGlasses opens with it. I have turned that off now, but strange.

The default scrolling is jagged and smooth-scrolling is dreadful

i assume you are talking about touch pad pixel scrolling. Since mice scroll are pretty much the same in firefox and safari.

Firefox 3's touch pad smooth scroll is improved compare to firefox 2. And it is indeed very close to what safari does as well. You need to make sure to enable smooth scroll in preference->advanced->General, since firefox has smooth scroll disable by default.

You can follow the development of this bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=350471

 

[karenflower]

You need to make sure to enable smooth scroll in preference->advanced->General, since firefox has smooth scroll disable by default.

Wow, I'm glad it's automatically disabled - makes me feel dizzy lol!

Overall I love how FF3 is coming along. . *is a fan of the keyhole*

 

[lofight]

OK, so I'm trying out FF3Nightly, and there is one feature of Safari I miss, is there a plug-in to give me icons that reflect how far a long a download is?

Oddly iGlasses opens with it. I have turned that off now, but strange.

The default scrolling is jagged and smooth-scrolling is dreadful

I miss this too!!

detail, i don't quite understand this question yet

this:

 

[clevin]

this:

you mean this?

 

[lofight]

you mean this?

this yes,
How come you version DOES have it??

 

[clevin]

my version is default?

type "about:" in your url bar and enter, then grab the UA for me?

 

[lofight]

oh, it works again. But yesterday on a other computer Firefox 3 beta didn't show the load thingys