Moz1.3 observations
Posted on March 17, 2003 @ 23:13 in Software
I've been using Mozilla 1.3 for a couple of days now and while it's got its good sides, it's not picture perfect. I'm not using Mozilla for anything else but browsing, so I'm only talking about the browser here.
First, it's fast. Moz1.3 is really fast, maybe not quite as fast as Opera 7, but getting close. In general Opera 7 feels a bit more responsive, but that might also be because it starts rendering the page sooner than Mozilla, which waits for a bit more data before it starts showing the web page.
Second, Mozilla's download indicator seems a bit broken. I hardly ever see it in the status bar, where it should tell me how much of the page it has downloaded. This function is implemented really well in Opera.
Third, the message "Transferring data from www.domain.com" in the statusbar doesn't always disappear, even if the browser is obviously done with loading the page. This can be a bit confusing.
Fourth, Moz1.3 has a bit of trouble selecting text in the address bar. Double and triple clicking don't always work reliably.
Fifth, for the life of me, I can't get Composite installed. (Composite promises WYSIWYG editing of content in HTML textareas.) The Composite website is a bit of a mess: it only provides a download of version 0.0.5, which it says is broken, but the recommended version 0.0.4 isn't available either (I had to get that through Google). Besides, how the heck do I install .xpi files? I always thought that simply opening them should do the trick, but apparently not.
Sixth, a couple of times now the address bar of Moz1.3 locked up. Everything was still working, including new tabs and launching websites through bookmarks, but I couldn't type anything new into the address bar. Closing and opening Mozilla again solves the problem.
I think that for my Mozilla browsing needs I'm going to switch back to Moz1.2.1 and check back on 1.3 after the next point release or maybe when Composite or another textarea editor becomes available for it. Too bad...
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Yep, composite's a wreck. Sorry bout that, my fault. Don't know what the heck happened to our xpi's -- I swear they use to work.
There is a payoff coming down the pike. With Mozilla 1.3, we'll be able to embed a rich editor directly in the page -- no popup window required.
I've already knacked the new composer api in http://www.blozom.com, so we'll get there *eventually*.
Posted by Andyed on March 17, 2003 @ 23:56
That's good news :-) I guess waiting a little longer will make it all the sweeter when it arrives. The screenshots look thoroughly appetizing.
Posted by Frank on March 18, 2003 @ 09:51
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