8:32 a.m.
Last weekend there was a small "hack weekend" meeting of some
NetSurf developers in Manchester. I thought it might be
encouraging to spread some information.
If you have been downloading Continuous Integration (CI) builds,
you will probably have noticed that there have been over 25 of
them in the last few days. This represents the progress that
NetSurf has been making, both in adding new functionality and
in fixing bugs.
One bug that has been reported multiple times is that NS seems
to loop for ever when Javascript is enabled. It actually
didn't loop for ever - it just took longer than most people were
prepared to wait. The culprit was a regular expression
evaluator - not where most of us would expect lots of time to
be spent. Recent versions have shown an enormous speed up in
that particular part, which translates to a large speed up in
page loads as a whole.
Some bugs that caused crashes when Javascript was enabled, have
been fixed.
The main thrust of the work at the moment is in adding Javascript
functionality using the Duktape library. When all the Javascript
features that were there with the previous library have been
replicated, NetSurf version 3.4 will be released. This will also
add new Javascript functionality.
Many other bug reports concern the layout. NetSurf's layout
engine needs to be rewritten. This work will start some time
after release of 3.4 - though how long after is not yet known.
I would urge you to download CI builds of NetSurf and try them.
Always keep a known good version that you can go back to in the
unlikely event that a new CI build fails.
And, most of all, keep the bug reports coming in! We looked at
many of them over the weekend, and were able to close quite a
lot, in most cases because more recent versions work and do not
exhibit the reported problems.
NetSurf is fully capable of creating bug reports using the Mantis
issue tracker, including attaching files and adding notes. If
you have a problem, ask on this list for help.
In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I
hope you all do too!
Dave
____________________________________________________________
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12:54 p.m.
On 3 Nov 2015 Dave Higton <dave(a)davehigton.me.uk> wrote:
[snip]
In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I
hope you all do too!
This user (and occasional bug reporter) is very encouraged too, and
also very grateful.
Best wishes,
Peter.
--
Peter Young (zfc Os) and family
Prestbury, Cheltenham, Glos. GL52, England
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk
pnyoung(a)ormail.co.uk
4:54 p.m.
On 3 Nov 2015 as I do recall,
Dave Higton wrote:
[snip]
In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I
hope you all do too!
I've been very impressed by the speed with which the last few issues I've
reported have been fixed.
--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==
There are two ways to write error-free programs; only the third one works.
5:22 p.m.
In message <a3feee1c55.harriet(a)blueyonder.co.uk>
Harriet Bazley <lists(a)orange.wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:
On 3 Nov 2015 as I do recall,
Dave Higton wrote:
[snip]
> In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I
> hope you all do too!
>
I've been very impressed by the speed with which the last few issues I've
reported have been fixed.
Thanks for speaking up, Harriet. The developers really are trying!
Perhaps your posting will add weight to my pleas for more testing.
Another thing: you must have downloaded and tried numerous development
(CI) builds. How many have given you trouble?
Dave
____________________________________________________________
FREE 3D EARTH SCREENSAVER - Watch the Earth right on your desktop!
Check it out at http://www.inbox.com/earth
5:42 p.m.
On 3 Nov 2015 as I do recall,
Dave Higton wrote:
[snip]
you must have downloaded and tried numerous development (CI) builds.
How
many have given you trouble?
I only normally download a random development build when I want to report a
bug (to check that it's still present in the current version).
Hard to tell how many of those have introduced bugs that weren't previously
present! The (apparently new?) non-scrolling bug is the one that caused
the most serious usability issues.
I don't think I've been unlucky enough to download a version of Netsurf that
didn't actually run - now that the majority of the lock-up/superslow
rendering problems seem to have been located and fixed, I'm considering
downloading a newer version of Netsurf on this (e-mail hosting) machine,
which I have so far avoided doing because my mother, who also uses it,
simply can't cope with switching Javascript off again to access sites that
don't work with JS on by default.
There's still the issue (for her) of sites that provide a working non-JS
alternative but where you don't get to access this when Netsurf claims to
support Javascript then doesn't actually submit the form when you click on
the button, etc....
--
Harriet Bazley == Loyaulte me lie ==
Positive: Mistaken at the top of one's voice.
2:43 a.m.
On Tue, Nov 03, 2015 at 22:42:09 +0000, Harriet Bazley wrote:
There's still the issue (for her) of sites that provide a working
non-JS
alternative but where you don't get to access this when Netsurf claims to
support Javascript then doesn't actually submit the form when you click on
the button, etc....
I can appreciate this is a pain. Once we have events working in the new JS
implementation well enough that we feel 3.4 could come out; we're going to
switch the "JS always on at startup" back off, so that users have control once
more.
Until then, keeping a couple of different verisons around is probably best. I
would never give a CI build of software to my mum and not expect problems --
she's a bug magnet :-)
D.
--
Daniel Silverstone http://www.netsurf-browser.org/
PGP mail accepted and encouraged. Key Id: 3CCE BABE 206C 3B69
5:42 p.m.
In message <eb8cf11c55.DaveMeUK(a)my.inbox.com>
Dave Higton <dave(a)davehigton.me.uk> wrote:
In message <a3feee1c55.harriet(a)blueyonder.co.uk>
Harriet Bazley <lists(a)orange.wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:
>On 3 Nov 2015 as I do recall,
> Dave Higton wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>
>> In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I
>> hope you all do too!
>>
>I've been very impressed by the speed with which the last few issues I've
>reported have been fixed.
Thanks for speaking up, Harriet. The developers really are trying!
Perhaps your posting will add weight to my pleas for more testing.
Another thing: you must have downloaded and tried numerous development
(CI) builds. How many have given you trouble?
IME the development builds are pretty stable. I generally update NS
every couple of weeks or so and have been doing so since the CI series
started: I could probably count the troublesome versions on the
fingers of one hand. I keep a copy of the last stable release in any
case, and can revert to that in the (rare) event of problems. Good to
see development is proceeding energetically: the platform doesn't have
too many alternatives to NetSurf. I've used Peter Naulls' Firefox port
in the past, and the Otter port fairly intensively over the past 3
weeks and, while the latter is promising, it is not yet responsive
enough for day-in, day-out use on a low-powered computer such as a Pi
or Iyonix, IMO, and I imagine a considerable amount of work would be
required to make it so. We really do need NetSurf!
--
George
2:35 a.m.
In article <eb8cf11c55.DaveMeUK(a)my.inbox.com>, Dave Higton
<dave(a)davehigton.me.uk> wrote:
In message <a3feee1c55.harriet(a)blueyonder.co.uk> Harriet
Bazley
<lists(a)orange.wingsandbeaks.org.uk> wrote:
>On 3 Nov 2015 as I do recall, Dave Higton wrote:
>
>[snip]
>
>
>> In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I hope
>> you all do too!
>>
>I've been very impressed by the speed with which the last few issues
>I've reported have been fixed.
Thanks for speaking up, Harriet. The developers really are trying!
Perhaps your posting will add weight to my pleas for more testing.
Another thing: you must have downloaded and tried numerous
development
(CI) builds. How many have given you trouble?
I am glad to endorse views expressed here. Real progress in being made.
Java issues do seem to have been problemattic, having regularly downloaded
and tried many builds, but no doubt in the fullness of time...
Also, I do find that many newsletters do not render correctly beyond the
first page, eg,
http://app.emails.timeincuk.co.uk/e/es?s=1642912926&e=956685&elq=...
no idea what is going on here.
Brian
5:15 a.m.
On Tue, 03 Nov 2015 21:54:09 GMT Harriet Bazley wrote:
I've been very impressed by the speed with which the last few
issues
I've reported have been fixed.
We've been trying hard.
I looked at bug 2339, thinking it might be easy to fix. It isn't at
all straightforward, sadly - but at least you have a work-round.
If you change the case sensitivity during a search, change the search
text (and then presumably change it back again) - this will cause the
case sensitivity to be obeyed, at the cost of the caret going back to
the start of the document.
Dave
____________________________________________________________
FREE 3D EARTH SCREENSAVER - Watch the Earth right on your desktop!
Check it out at http://www.inbox.com/earth
5:44 p.m.
In article <41035CF02C7.0000007Bdave(a)davehigton.me.uk>,
Dave Higton <dave(a)davehigton.me.uk> wrote:
In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I
hope you all do too!
Yes. Thank you, all of you, fror your efforts.
--
Stuart Winsor
Tools With A Mission
sending tools across the world
http://www.twam.co.uk/
3:35 p.m.
On 3 Nov 2015 Dave Higton [mailto: dave(a)davehigton.me.uk] wrote:
[snip]
In short, I feel very much encouraged by recent progress, and I
hope you all do too!
Hi David,
Great to hear of the positive "hack" weekend and see the great
progress being made.
I've noticed that for pages I was loading I don't have to wait nearly
as long now, with more recent CI builds, which is brilliant!
Keep up the good work !
Chris.
(RISC OS 5.21 Raspberry Pi)
Dave
____________________________________________________________
FREE 3D EARTH SCREENSAVER - Watch the Earth right on your desktop!
Check it out at http://www.inbox.com/earth
--
Chris
1:26 p.m.
In article <41035CF02C7.0000007Bdave(a)davehigton.me.uk>,
Dave Higton <dave(a)davehigton.me.uk> wrote:
NetSurf is fully capable of creating bug reports using the Mantis
issue tracker, including attaching files and adding notes. If
you have a problem, ask on this list for help.
This morning I went through the process of signing up to the bug-tracker,
I'm still awaiting the confirmatory email to complete the process.
Though I used my private email not this address, which is kept for mailing
list ony.
--
Stuart Winsor
Tools With A Mission
sending tools across the world
http://www.twam.co.uk/
2442
days inactive
2526
days old
netsurf-users@netsurf-browser.org
11 comments
8 participants
participants (8)
-
Brian -
Chris Dewhurst -
Daniel Silverstone -
Dave Higton -
george greenfield -
Harriet Bazley -
lists -
Peter Young