Merlin is the name of a small falcon, an Ancient, and as Olli mentioned, the code name of our next major release. Since we released Opera 8.5 today without banner ads, we thought we'd tell everyone some of the things they have to look forward to in the future from Opera. We've been working hard on the next major release for quite some time and we're getting ever closer to releasing a preview.
Here at Opera, we like acronyms. In QA, we use acronyms and abbreviations every day. We have stuff called SPARTAN, OASIS, SNORRE, BTS, etc. In fact, we like acronyms so much, we've stuffed a bunch of them into Merlin. You might recognize a couple: XSLT 1.0, WF2, a new IMAP back-end, and some CSS3 Selectors. Of course, we can't fill Opera with just acronymns, so we stuck in designMode (rich text editing). Oh, there's more, but we can't reveal all our secrets now.
Don't worry, we also had to fix a bunch of bugs. So, we made OBJECTs and IFRAMEs respect z-index, improved our margin-collapsing code, fixed problems with width inheritance for positioned elements, and nearly completed support for Acid2. There's way, way more to talk about, but that'll come later.
Enjoy 8.5 and look forward to Merlin. It's going to be great!
Note: Comments with a light blue background were made by the site owner.
brilliant
You guys gonna rock with the Merlin release. Awesome.
I can't wait for: XSLT, CSS 3, designMode, BitTorrent, and all those fixes for CSS 2 support.
Awesome! Awesome!!!! Very awesome :).
Just make the PNG rendering faster :D.
Did the .exe grow in size
Did the .exe grow in size considerably, or not? :)
Also, would someone pllleeassee tell me if anything BiDi-wise was done already? :(
There are always bug fixes
There are always bug fixes going in for bugs in the rendering engine. If there are specific problems with BiDi you can point out via test cases or bug numbers, I can have a look.
BiDi
Hi again Tim, the original BiDi bugs page is down, but I have managed to get the relevent bug numbers (some may be already closed, other open...): #124393, #125654, #125677, #123767, #125206, #120460, #124699, #124700, #126174, #132116,#132115, #126355, #126464, #126189, #132114, #124080.
I also have the source of the website, but no place to host it, would you like me to email it to you, as it has test cases as well?
Let me get through these
Let me get through these first. :)
Any Luck
Hey Tim... Any luck with those bug report id numbers? :)
No. It's going to be a bit
No. It's going to be a bit before I get through them.
Growing file size
Depends on what you call 'considerately'. I see a 7% growth in file size with the current internal builds, but that might change as either code gets tightened, debug stuff removed, new features added, new version of Flash gets included, etc.
:thumbs up: :beer: :whiskey:
:thumbs up: :beer: :whiskey: :tequila: :unconsciousness:
Any SVG Updates?
Please tell me SVG is one of those acronyms stuffed into Merlin? As in, increased SVG support...
Details about other new
Details about other new features will come in time.
designMode
Setting refToIframe.contentDocument.designMode = "on" does not activate designMode on Opera 8.5/MacOSX. If the iframe is set to about:blank, then I get a security exception, but with a blank.html page, nothing happens. Am I missing something?
Yes. Merlin is not 8.5.
Yes. Merlin is not 8.5.
Tab Improvement
I would like to see major improvements in tab browsing. Trust me if that is improved then me and many others will switch permanently to opera. Things that i want improved (IMO) are.
1: Double Clicking the tab to close it.
2: More control over what to open in new tabs. For Example, give options to open new tab for BOOKMARKS, ADDRESSBAR, SEARCH, and so on. Some of them are implemented while others are required.
3: Options for tab focus. Background and Foreground for each of the mentioned above.
4: It would be great to give the ability to autohide sidebar like in maxthon or firefox using an extension.
And smaller tweaks here and there which you people know better about :)
What about BitTorrent?
And what about BitTorrent? Are you afraid of RIAA and won't inlude it in Opera? Or you just forgot to mention it?
All the new features have
All the new features have not been mentioned. You'll have to wait and see. :)
RIAA has nothing against
RIAA has nothing against BitTorrent, not more than about HTTP-WWW and FTP in general.
BitTorrent from its roots is client-server protocol, so simply close server - nothing different from FTP or WWW.
But "Merlin" is unlucky codename :( Remember IBM OS/2
Merlin
And I thought it was named 'Merlin' because I always say Opera devs are magicians. :)
Thanks for listening...
I know the developer are at least listening.. ( Becoz they implement the drop down menu on trash icon... which i posted it in Opera community a million times... )
But....
1. Why is 8.5 still list itself as IE6.0? This doesn't really help to promote opera. I hope 9.0 Changes that.
2. Why not promote Opera in School / College or University? It is now free so Computer Department no longer have to worry about cost.
3. I dont know about others. But either do it extremely good or not do it. Download Manager / Bittorrent needs some more work. Last time i try on 8.0 resume doesn't work very well.
4. Email - The design of Outlook 2k3 for reading email and Newsgroup.
Outlook 2k3 3-Panel View Screenshot
http://www.winsupersite.com/images/showcase/outlook2003_preview_01.png
Feed Demon - RSS reader 3 Panel View
http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/screenshots/screen.asp?img=1
Notice not only its 3 coloum design but it allow 2 - 3 line of information below the subject of the email/topic.
5. Newsgroup - I dont understand why No current application allow you to read Newsgroup' s thread in a page Like Google Newsgroup. Opera should have this!
To go one - this feature of
To go one - this feature of M1 was killed in M2 and it is a shame imho: let me take URL to the newsgroup message and send it to mate.
Then let him open that URL.
....and let X-Faces will be ! :-)
Argh! i forgot!Mutt
Argh! i forgot!
Mutt (text-mode mailer) allows this for mail-lists
omfg \o/
all these features and more? in the next release? :D
but please stay the most secure browser :) continue where you are now and I think the 2nd place in browser wars could be yours (as you CEO stated;)!
I want that 9.0! now! :DDDDDD
some questions
1. Will there be a javascript debugger and/or DOM inspector? (I'd like to know so that I don't invest too much time into enhancing my own ones [see my docInspector])
2. Like ksec, I would like to see some of Outlook 2003's features in M2, namely:
- message grouping by day/week/month in the message list
- option to display first x lines of message directly in message list
Any chances for that?
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
I'm sorry, but you'll have
I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until the preview to find out more about other features in Merlin.
at least safe JavaScript
f-o-r(-;-;-) a-l-e-r-t("try get out of here")
i put those dashes bacause Drupal does not allwing posting without them - even drupal honours the bomb. But it is pure perspective to hope it must be CMSes to provide safety to browsers
This simple and stupid bomb might sometimes appear just because of errors in lawful script.
In Opera 6 we had a way to stop that script.
Now we do not have it - and Opera (MDI apps with a lot of open pages) should be killes through Ctrl+Alt+Del :-(
Great to hear... only one gripe...
This is good news indeed. I've been using Opera exclusively for years now. My only grip is that there is no pgp support, any chance of that being implemented in M2?
...and man, that is really the only gripe I have :)
Cheers,
Mike
I'm sorry, but you'll have
I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until the preview to find out more about other features in Merlin.
I was expecting as much...
I was expecting as much... it never hurst to mention a request though, does it? ;)
...oh, and keep up the good work!
form completion
IMHO Opera is greatest browser.
But there is a feature to add to Opera: form auto-completion that remembers what you have typed in a specific site.
Ok you can drag n' drop text but it isn't the same thing!
Think about add it, I use firefox only for this missing feature, for me is essential because I type very often in the same forms the same things and with Opera I have to retype every time or to dn'd every time.
Thanx
good job!
designMode
designMode for some elements only, or like in IE for any element?
same here
I was wondering that myself.
Most likely, it's going to just work on iframes, but I hope it works on object tag windows too. And, as a bonus, other elements like IE.
Suggestion: When it's ready, how about an Opera-composed test page with a full-out wysiwyg editor? I'm not so sure that HTMLarea, FCKeditor and the like will work right off the bat. Even if Opera does handle things exactly as IE or Firefox, those editors' browser detections might get in the way.
Paul Lesneiwski, a developer for Squirrelmail and its HTMLMail plugin, is ready to make the plugin work in Opera as soon as Opera is capable. The plugin allows you to compose with either FCKeditor or HTMlarea. I'm sure he'll appreciate any docs and info that will ease the addition of Opera. Squirrelmail is very popular.
How can I get in touch with
How can I get in touch with Paul?
more cooperation? renderer API ?
Perhaps, Opera will have some program to cooperate, if not merge, other programs, currently made a standalone apps?
From one point of view, it will diverge desktop and mobile codebases yet more.
But if the idea itself is not nonsense anymore...
From a headscratch: long asked .MHTML (and perhaps .WAR) support - currently Opera can save only through 3rd party applications.
Personally i gripped about Opera Save dialog years ago :-)
Cascaded user preferences, so when new opera comes with revised GUI it will appear, but user customisation will be left - same here. I wish settings were saved in CVS-like, diff-like manner so more complex customisation could survive upgrades.
Now, sharing all the settings, and all the bookmarks, and all the wand data and messagebase and cache... - Between, say, Linux and Windows. Currently it is non trivial at least.
Ough, i forgot Opera Search Editor!!!
Quoting in M2... I would not expect this to be noticeable priority for Opera Team, but to me M2 is very unflexible. Ironic, most flexible GUI mailer i know is Fidolook for Outlook Express.
Guess there can be named more.
And - since Opera is now free - would renderer API be published ?
I can use MSHTML.dll, i can use libGecko, but yet one cannot use Opera.dll (except for MAcromedia if i remember)
designMode is for entire pages
designMode is for entire pages only. You're thinking of contentEditable in IE.
paul
> no contentEditable, just designMode for whole pages.
Thanks. That means there should be no problem with setting it with the objec tag.
To get in touch with Paul, it's paul AT squirrelmail.org , but you can also address Squirrelmail's plugins list as a whole if you wanted.
http://www.squirrelmail.org/wiki/MailingLists
Thanks.
Thanks. :)
text-shadow?
Tim, could you reveal any info about text-shadow property in Merlin? The effects of it are awesome. Check http://planet.opera.blaut.biz in Safari for example ;)
--
Best regards
Robert Błaut
No, I can't.
No, I can't.
Compatibility
I think that Opera is more then one step ahead of all other browser in terms of number of functions. No one can deny this.
The problem is the compatibility with many websites. I think that google people are fighting against Opera trying to reducing the compatibility between Opera and all the google web applications like gmail and Orkut.
Many other websites have problems with opera because they have been made and tested just for IE.
All the people I know uses FF because of this
We're working on various
We're working on various ways to improve Opera's compatibility with Web sites. Opera 8.0 introduced two new features, ua.ini and browser.js, which allow us to fix sites and push the fixes to all our users. We have many other projects internally to improve Opera's rendering of sites, from bug fixes to compatibility tests to evangelism efforts. The efforts are already paying off, but it will take a while to truly see the results.
For what it's worth, releasing Opera for free is another part of this. We're aiming to increase our market share, which should increase awareness of Opera among Web site designers. We also see Web site compatibility as one of Opera's biggest, if not our biggest, problem. And we're determined to resolve it.
There is not only Windows....
Hi people !
I think that all good , positives points are allready said.
Now, one thing that _SHOULD_ definitely change is the FreeBSD version of Opera.Current (8.5) is stil compiled with version 4 of FreeBSD while there is version 6 around.
Plugin support is as good as not existing (never managed to make any plugin work).
What about 64 bit version ? I mean not only FreeBSD or Linux one but Window$ also ?
I'm using Opera since ver. 3.0 days and never found nothing better. So it would be a great thing for Opera to take care about this(even if there's is no priority on "alternative OS" like FreeBSD).
Just my 2 cents...
FreeBSD
We are working on solving that issue yes :-)
Faster DHTML?
I recognized Websites which are much DHTML-formatted are rendered VERY slow in version 7/8. Thats not so bad, because its always slow (even with any other browser). But I hope this will be performed up in the next release.
Do you have examples?
Do you have examples?
DOM 2 Style
Hi Tim, do you know if Opera 9 will fully support DOM 2 Style (document.styleSheets and so on)?
No, I don't. It depends on
No, I don't. It depends on the work load of various developers. Also, Merlin is not necessarily Opera 9. :)
+1
I add a +1 for improved DOM 2 style support! 8)
DOM 2 Style
Yes, I also want DOM 2 Style support :).
+1 from me.
Error in language file - Cookie settings
I hate to bring this up as you probably already know about it from bug reports, nontroppo's wiki and forum posts, and it's probably already been taken care of in 9, but I've never heard anyone at Opera comment on this, so just in case:
Are you aware that the 3rd party cookie setting "Refuse all Cookies" doesn't refuse all 3rd party cookies? "Accept only cookies set to the server itself" is the one that refuses all. "Refuse all Cookies" just refuses cross-domain cookies.
This has been confirmed by sgunhouse, me and others on the forums and has been that way ever since I can remember.
http://nontroppo.org/wiki/CookieSettings
Now if Opera's in contradiction to our definition of a 3rd party cookie being a "cross-server cookie" then, Opera must mean that a 3rd party cookie is a "cross-domain cookie". If that is true, which I doubt, then the "Accept only cookies set for the server itself" doesn't belong in the 3rd party cookies drop-down at all and would actually need to be an advanced option for Normal cookies. Of course, I stand by the wiki.
Either way, there's an error in labeling and the settings are confusing the hell out of people.
If you read the wiki, you know that editing the language file will fix the label.
Anyway,
Here's the default:
http://home.tbbs.net/shadow/operaforum/cookies/cookie_settings-default.x...
Here's an example that fixes the "refuse all" setting to reflect what it actually does
http://home.tbbs.net/shadow/operaforum/cookies/cookie_settings-fixed.htm...
Here's an example of what you can do by editing the language file to mimic Firefox's settings
http://home.tbbs.net/shadow/operaforum/cookies/cookie_settings-example3....
I hate to bring this up yet again, but this needs to be addressed and just wanted to make sure it's known.
I can find the bug report if necessary.
"Enjoy 8.5"???
Quote (Tim):
"Enjoy 8.5 and look forward to Merlin. It's going to be great!"
I'd really like to enjoy 8.5 if I were not among those doomed people that have all the 8.x releases stall with "Waiting for connection..." after some time.
It's the first time I find Opera's policy not to acknowledge the existence/reproducibility of a bug really frustrating. Just having no idea if it will be fixed ever... (sigh)
Hi Wolfram. I was expecting
Hi Wolfram.
I was expecting the same bug with "Waiting for connection...". It can be easily fixed by clearing the cache. Close opera, go to profile/cache4 dir and delete all files.
feature request: better "save as..."
Saving html pages in a format like mht (only 1 file) would be great (this is what my girlfriend thinks).
And also form completition would be nice, especially if it could be switched enabled/disabled.
(sorry, my english sucks)
Disabled iframes should be.
Will disabled iframes still be downloaded anyway? When I go to wired com, opera is aggressively downloading the iframs, even when I'm off line, opera tries to download the iframe, even though I've turned off iframes, java, javascript, images, etc...
X Could not locate remote server
http://lycos.com/blah/blah............
[ OK ]
X Could not locate remote server
http://lycos.com/blah/blah............
[ OK ]
X Could not locate remote server
http://lycos.com/blah/blah............
[ OK ]
X Could not locate remote server
http://lycos.com/blah/blah............
[ OK ]
etc.
I get multiple popups telling me that it can't download whatever, and have to click OK on all of them before I can do anything, and if I switch to offline mode, I get warnings telling me I'm in offline mode for every page:
"Offline mode is enabled. Can not open
http://....etc.gif
Do you want to switch to on-line mode?"
[ yes ] [ no ]
"Offline mode is enabled. Can not open
http://....etc.gif
Do you want to switch to on-line mode?"
[ yes ] [ no ]
"Offline mode is enabled. Can not open
http://....etc.gif
Do you want to switch to on-line mode?"
[ yes ] [ no ]
This behaviour is infuriating. Please go back to the old way. Did advertisers pay you to make it harder to block ads?
And I don't like that Opera tells me that a new version is available. Please get rid of that.
It's actually funny you ask
It's actually funny you ask, as I've been looking into this very issue over the past couple of days. Yes, I believe Merlin is still doing that.
Opera Mail
I would love to use your email function. Tried but could not import my contacts from Outlook 2003 or Thunderbird. Messages imported OK. If Thunderbird folks can import contacts and email messages to their product, I believe that Opera Devs should be able to make it easier for folks also. I like Opera so far over FF, but will continue to Thunderbird/Outlook for email until Opera Mail overcomes its shortcomings.
Thanks for a GREAT product and keep up the good work....
BillyBoy
Opera 9 vs Merlin
" Also, Merlin is not necessarily Opera 9.
By Tim at Thu, 09/22/2005 - 9:34pm"
Makes me wonder.............
Which will we see first?
Will Opera 9 ever exist???
Will the next version of Opera just be called Merlin???
Tim! You are such a tease :evil:
I've seen too many version
I've seen too many version numbers change internally to start using them before a public release (and even then may be too early, considering the fate of 7.6).
I completely agree with you.
I completely agree with you. Codename is the best way to referring unreleased product.
will merlin be able to "copy
will merlin be able to "copy to note" without losing html formatting? and note editing with rich text support? will it be able to support gmail richtext editing? you know this "rich text" thing is the only reason that I have to open other browser at the same time.
That would be a reasonable
That would be a reasonable extension of our rich text editing support, but I don't know when (and if) it will be available.
On "Waiting for connection"
Hi Wolfram! I thought I was the only one :-)
My problem is that if i _disconnect_ from internet while Opera is running, then Opera will never see it until restart. So I can't connect back, I need to exit Opera, connect again, then run Opera.
My friend suggested a workaround for this: before disconnecting, put Opera to "Word offline" mode, then disconnect. Then whenever you connect, put in back to online mode - and it's working.
This is very stupid bug and I'm very disappointed by the fact it's not fixed yet...
(I know this is not exactly the same that you are experiencing, but this can be related, maybe.)
Merlin Mail.
Tim,
Will there be improvements and/or upgrades in the M2 email/Newsgroup client when Merlin is released.?
Yes. Other than the new
Yes. Other than the new IMAP back-end that I've already mentioned, I can't really go into details.
My pets: Printing Enhancing ? Copy/Past, Drag-n-drop?
While ERA enhanced printing a lot - there is still toruble to me.
Let's take any usual site with a content in the middle and menus, adverts, statistics, trackbacks, links whatever.
I need to print, of course, only the content.
So i select the text and tell Opera to print "Selected only" - all the markup is gone! and let that be fonts and colors - any table is suddenly turned into unformatted stock of garbage :(((((
Ok, indeed that is my pet ;) Another pet is that i want to copy and paste formatted text. At least in the Opera itself.
For example, when i copy-paste RSS message into www-forums's form - the permalink became sticked to the text. :(
Drag-b-drop does not work at all in Win32. It works so fine in Linux that i only have to hope, Opera will expose some API to use X drag-n-drop in Win32 too ;) Sometimes i feel i miss it enough to try to make X API <-> Win32 COM ShellAPI gate app :-)
Open Opera
Whether there can be source code Opera open?
I cannot comment
I cannot comment on any such plans.