Ahoy, maties! Time for another edition of Tim's Opera Bits. There's not a whole lot of news this time, but the stuff I do have to write about is pretty significant. So, here we go:
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Last week, Daniel Goldman, the man behind Opera Watch, joined Opera Software as a Technical Evangelist. This is a great win for Opera users! Daniel has a lot of enthusiasm for Opera and telling everyone he meets why Opera's great. He already has quite an audience for his site and contacts throughout the industry, so he's the perfect person for the job.
Over the past couple of months, Daniel and I have worked together to host the DC-area Opera User group, so I have had the opportunity to get to know him in person. He's a great guy and I'm glad to have him not only as a friend, but as a co-worker.
- Today, Opera Software launched Dev.Opera, a site geared toward web developers. The site features articles about creating content for the Web and is accepting your contributions. This is a great opportunity for web developers to get their name out to the community and teach others how to build sites the correct way.
- Also today, Opera Software launched Opera Mini 3.0 beta. This release features secure browsing, feed (RSS/Atom) preview and aggregration, and some other great advances. If you haven't tried Opera Mini for your mobile phone, now's a great time to give it a spin.
- As I mentioned in the last Tim's Opera Bits, Opera Software is co-sponsoring the WebmasterWorld Pubcon in Las Vegas on November 14 - 17. Jon (Opera Software's CEO) will be giving a keynote address on November 14th. I'll be at the Opera Software booth, talking with anyone that stops by. Daniel Goldman and Lawrence Eng will also be attending, though I don't know if they'll be in the booth. I hope to see you there!
- And now for something completely different: I'd like to answer some of your questions about Opera Software and Opera for Desktop in the next Tim's Opera Bits. Please leave your questions in the comments to this post. I will not be able to answer all questions, but I'll do my best.
Thank you for sticking around!
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Peregrine
Yeah, give us Peregrine goodies. Thanks. :)
Yeah, that's one of those
Yeah, that's one of those things I can't do. Sorry.
See you in Vegas!
Hi Tim,
I almost certainly will be at the booth, and also attending some of the various sessions and keynote addresses (especially Jon's), which I hope to write about. Look forward to seeing you there!
-Lawrence
Cool! Sounds a lot like
Cool! Sounds a lot like what I'll be doing. It'll be good to finally meet you. :)
Peregrine
When will I get a Peregrine build to play with??
When the developers fix the
When the developers fix the compile problems. :P
For the non-employees asking about Peregrine, we have a lot of work to do on it yet, so you'll have to wait a while still.
Just 3 Questions for now
1. Why is Opera so reluctant to add an API to allow extensions? It seems the natural step forward, and is one thing which Opera is lacking (other notable browsers like IE7, Firefox, Maxthon already has it). Lets face it, its impossible for any browser to cater to the demands of millions of people. So why not do the next best thing, and allow them to add the desired funtionalities themselves.
2. I remember about a year or so ago Daniel had wrote that Opera would add skype like pc2phone service (voip). Can you provide/leak any more info about that?
3. Why is Opera allowing sites like Google services ( gmail, google docs blah blah blah) to get away by blocking Opera.Have a look at this page. It seems that Google thinks that 6.03 is the latest version of Opera available. In the past you guys have sued MS with pleasent results. Why not try it again?
Great questions. I'll
Great questions. I'll address these for you in the next Tim's Opera Bits.
Some questions
1. What are the great plans for Opera 10? I'm not speaking of single features... more... overhauls (which standards to be implemented, what about the chat and mail clients?).
2. Part of 1.; will 'Quick' (the UI engine) be re-written? We severely need some features currently limited by Quick.
3. When will you add something like FF's "DOM Inspector"? Even MS has provided a "Dev Toolbar" with this functionality. It's important for Web Developers (imho).
Um... another question: What's "Peregrine"? (answer in comment form, please :P)
Peregrine is...
Peregrine is the next major feature release, probably Opera 10. No version number has been set yet, though.
Please note that I'm unlikely to disclose future feature plans.
What about Quick do you find so limiting?
limits of Quick
More often the answer to a wish on the wish list is "can't be done, by design" (Quick).
Examples:
Right-click on folder-items accessed from personal bar should display properties of the bookmark (folder-item).
Middle-click should do the same as Shift-Click in all context menus (and the above mentioned bookmark folder menus, also panels, etc.).
Also see this post by Researchwizard about mouse gestures and the limitations regarding mouse buttons.
There are other things as far as I can remember that seem to work fine in programms that use OS-native API(s). Someone said these aren't currently possible without a rewrite of Quick (or use of APIs, but that'd not be cross-platform, would it?). That's why I ask.
Also, some people (including me) complain about not being able to put certain "buttons" on certain toolbars. This should be fixed imho (this is a clear disadvantage compared to the "traditional" UI system present in IE/FF; you can put any toolbars on the same line).
I like the way Opera manages toolbars (if that was what you were asking for). I just want... consistency.
For example I have also problems with SSPs: No "default" button-state.
And with content-blocker: The single-character wildcard ("question-mark") doesn't work.
I'd appreciate pointers to
I'd appreciate pointers to the threads you're referring to. For those that don't know, Quick is the code-name for the home-grown UI toolkit used in Opera since version 7. As far as I know, the examples you have given should be possible, if Quick is given the ability to do those things. There are limitations in Quick, yes, but I don't see that they necessitate a rewrite.
As you mention, Opera does not use OS-native UI toolkits. That means that any functionality that's in those UI toolkits needs to be added into Quick for Opera to act like native programs. This also means that we can have the exact same UI on all Desktop platforms without having to add native code for each platform. This allows us to release all Desktop platforms at the same time.
I agree that it would be quite handy to get rid of the limitations on which buttons can be in which toolbars and allowing toolbars to be rearranged by dragging. Hopefully that will be added some time soon.
By the way, the last two items you are asking for aren't really limitations in Quick, just things that haven't been implemented.
-_-
I guess that's how rumours spread...
Tried to find one of the threads. Any thread. I was so completely sure Rijk said something like that, but I can't find a single statement. The only thing I could find was him raving about Office's new UI (and realising it's hard for Opera to add something like that).
Can't find many threads discussing the mentioned shortcommings either, but I know they are there O.o (damn I didn't use subscriptions earlier)
In this light...my apologies. This is great news, though. I thought something substancial would hinder progress in that area (like the layout engine rewrite 6 -> 7 was necessary).
If you meant my last two sentences yes, these were just examples about "consistency" (or lack of thereof). I think Opera is quite consistent as it is, but it is a complex application and I think we could need some more UI consistency.
Consistecy across platforms
Nice bits! Thanks!
And my question:
Is there any reason to be not consistent in case of drag and drop?
For example in Opera for Mac I can drag icon from address field and drop it in other browser -- it's an easy and handy way to open current page in other browser to test. And it works both ways on Mac.
On Windows (and I believe on *nix) there is no way...
Where "star in address field" have lost
One more question. I really don't know why I didn't ask this one on previous meetings... :-?
There was a really helpful and innovative feature in Opera 9 first TPs -- button-indicator that show you if current page already bookmarked/noted or not. Than it was removed, but not completly -- you still can add buttons manually (they are not even presented in customization dialog).
So, the question is "why is that?". :-?
Re:
I absolutely loved that nifty little star when it came out- it saved me from bookmarking pages multiple times for instance. Yeah, why has it disappeared?
Dev tools
When will the dev tools presented at the last Opera London backstage go public ?
I'm not sure I'll be able to
I'm not sure I'll be able to disclose this, but I'll see what I can do.
DOS 8.3 ?!
I'm sorry, but I remember one more important (only to me?) question... Question is actually short one: why Opera still use 8.3 format when saving files?
This question bother me from version 3 of Opera... When I quit using IE and start using Opera 3 as primary browser this 8.3 format was (and still) one of biggest disappointments.
Good questions, I'll address
Good questions, I'll address these in the next Tim's Opera Bits.
Mail Encryption in Opera?
Will there be ever a Opera/M2 Version wich will support PGP/GPG?
Or, is this a license issue?
Good question. I'm not sure
Good question. I'm not sure if I'll be able to answer this, since it deals with possible future feature plans. But I'll see what I can do.