The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera Web browser

Opera Mail just grew up. A lot. During the past two years, the Opera Mail team has been working feverishly to improve robustness, stability, performance, and user experience. The results of our labor will soon be available in the final release of Opera 9.5 (previously referred to by the code-name "Kestrel"). Check the full changelog (once available) for the list of changes since 9.27. Below are some additional notes that didn't quite fit in the changelog:

Known Issues

• On the initial check after upgrading, all deleted feed items still available in feeds will be redownloaded. In other words, if a user performs an upgrade installation all old feed items will be downloaded again and marked unseen. Since feeds generally contain about twenty-five items, this won't be too bad, but it's probably still worth preparing for. A user with existing feed items could, for instance, label them or add them to a filter to keep track of them, then press the Update button in the Feeds view (Feeds > Read Feeds) to force updates for all subscribed feeds. Note that it's possible to get never-before-seen feed items in addition to redownloaded feed items, so users should take care when deleting apparently redownloaded feed items. Feed items that have been downloaded with a previous install, but have not been deleted should not be duplicated.
• The Check/Send button no longer changes into a Stop button during server communication. Users that have customized the toolbar won't get the new button and the old button will permanently be stuck at Stop. Reset the toolbar to fix the problem.
• The Delete button has gone through some changes, so users should make sure they reset their mail view toolbars. If not, it's possible that messages may be inadvertently deleted when trying to undelete messages from, for instance, the Trash view.

What to Expect when Upgrading

The process of upgrading from previous Opera releases is straight-forward. On the first start-up after installation, Opera will notify the user that the mail database needs to be updated. During this process, Opera Mail will not be accessible. The update generally goes quickly, upgrading several thousand messages per minute. When the upgrade process is finished, the user will need to restart Opera before Opera Mail is accessible. After restarting Opera may take a long time to start up, sometimes in excess of thirty minutes. This is a necessary part of the upgrade process, so don't interrupt it!

Note: Once this process begins, Opera Mail can no longer be downgraded! Users should create a backup of their Mail directory before upgrading.

Attention POP users: If users with POP accounts set to "Leave messages on server" empty their trash, Opera will delete the trashed messages on the server. Users can disable this behavior by setting "Permanent delete=0" for the relevant account in accounts.ini. Also, there's no longer a warning when disabling "Leave mesasges on server": all messages on the server will be deleted automatically.

More information about some of the behind-the-scenes changes in Opera Mail will be available in the coming weeks.

Two days ago, we announced we had achieved 100/100 on the DOM portion of the Acid3 test. Later that evening, a bug was found in the Acid3 test itself. The bug was fixed and the WebKit team announced that they had achieved 100/100 on the DOM portion of the test and they had pixel-perfect rendering, making them the first to achieve two of the three pass conditions (congrats on that, by the way!).

Today, we'd like to announce the same. We have achieved 100/100 with pixel perfect rendering:

This screenshot is copyright Opera Software ASA and released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Windows and Linux users may test this out themselves by downloading the GOGI build available from the Opera Labs. A note about these builds: GOGI, short for Generic Opera Graphics Interface, is a tool our Core team uses internally to develop our cross-platform/cross-project code. It has a very simple UI, which is nothing at all like Opera for Desktop. It is in no way meant to replace Opera for Desktop and we don't expect to duplicate any GOGI features in Opera for Desktop. It also lacks some security features, and thus we recommend that it not be used for regular surfing. Furthermore, please don't file bug reports about problems you find in GOGI.

Now, WebKit and Opera have reached the same point and have the same challenge: optimize enough to run test 26 in 33ms.

At the beginning of March, the Web Standards Project (WaSP) released Acid3, a web standards spot-checking test. As with Acid2, the goal of the test is to improve interoperability between web browsers. The Acid3 test consists of 100 DOM sub-tests, which assess a browser's support for DOM, CSS, SVG, and ECMAscript, as well as some rendering tests. To pass the test, a browser must render the test pixel for pixel identical to the reference rendering, pass all 100 DOM tests, and animate the test smoothly. So far, Opera is the only browser to pass all 100 DOM tests (more on that in a bit). Information about the pass rates for browsers is available in Wikipedia's excellent article about Acid3.

While browser vendors implement the same web standards, their implementations are sometimes incompatible due to bugs, different interpretations of the standards, or missing functionality. Incompatible implementations increase the development time and decrease the innovation of web sites/applications. Thus, the WaSP Acid tests establish a compatibility baseline that web developers can count on during development. That is, once browser vendors pass the tests.

As with the Acid2 test, the Acid3 test should not be viewed as a race. It's all about improving interoperability and making the Web a better place. If only one or two browsers pass the test, the test isn't a success and the Web can't improve. It's important that all major browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari) pass the test. The Acid2 test was released in April 2005, yet three years later only final releases of Opera and Safari pass it. That means web developers still can't rely on the functionality in Acid2 as a baseline. It'll probably be at least two or three years before the functionality tested it Acid3 can be used as a baseline.

Opera's Progress on Acid3

At Opera, we rely on web standards to allow us to render live web sites correctly. Interoperability allows us to use a different rendering engine, yet render web pages the same as other browsers. That's one of the reasons we've put a lot of focus on the Acid3 test since it was released:

• Opera's latest final public release, 9.26, scores 46/100 on the test and has some significant layout problems
• The initial alpha of Kestrel, released in September 2007, scores 58/100 on the test and has some small layout problems. At that point, we had not done fixes specifically for the test, which is a testament to the rendering engine improvements in Kestrel
• Our latest snapshot release scores 77/100 and has some small layout problems
• Our latest internal build (screenshot below) scores 100/100 and renders the test almost perfectly! We have some work to do still, but we expect to have that taking care of shortly. UPDATE (2007-03-27): a bug was found in the Acid3 test, which may affect our pass rate

This screenshot (and the screenshot it links to) are copyright Opera Software ASA and released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

This is the first time a screenshot of GOGI, our internal testing platform, has been released publicly. Core developers and testers use GOGI for their development, so they have a platform-independent setup. Also, Core testers do regression testing in GOGI before Core fixes are released to the Desktop Team build. That said, Kestrel may not pass the Acid3 test, even if internal builds do. Some of the internal fixes are experimental and they need regression testing before they can become part of a Desktop release. We hope to have a public test build within the next couple weeks that passes the test.

As Opera Software's lead QA for Opera Mail, I get a lot of opportunities to analyze the communication between IMAP clients and servers. Gmail is by far the quirkiest and most troublesome IMAP implementation I've seen to date. Gmail's own documentation describes how clients must work around the deficiencies built into their implementation. I understand that Gmail's IMAP implementation is still in beta (a Google norm), but some of the basic design choices are at the heart of the problem, which leads me to believe they won't be changing. These decisions are anti-IMAP (even the IMAP spec. author finds Gmail's IMAP disappointing) and cause Opera users headaches. Here are some of the specific problems:

• Gmail's labeling system could integrate marvelously with IMAP clients if only it used IMAP keywords. Instead, IMAP mailboxes are used to represent labels. All messages (sent and received) are always available in the "Gmail/[All Mail]" mailbox, so any time a message is labeled, a duplicate message is added to the label's IMAP mailbox. IMAP clients then receive several copies of the same message, none of which integrate with the client-side labeling system. If Gmail had instead used IMAP keywords, only one message would be needed and integration would be seamless.
• Gmail doesn't allow users to change mailbox subscriptions. Unsubscribing from label mailboxes is a sensible work-around for the above design deficiency, but it's inexplicably not allowed.
• Gmail doesn't handle standard IMAP flags, such as "\Deleted", "\Answered", and "\Recent". For instance, instead of intelligent handling of "\Deleted" flags in the web interface, users are required to use a variety of work-arounds to mimic the functionality already built into the IMAP protocol.

In addition to the unfortunate design decisions listed above, Gmail's IMAP implementation has a number of bugs:

• Gmail encodes message headers containing Slavic characters (at least) incorrectly when clients download only message headers. Headers are encoded correctly if a client downloads message bodies and headers together.
• Gmail sometimes sends malformed BODYSTRUCTURE responses (often used to determine the number and size of attachments to a message before it's downloaded).

To their credit, Gmail has already fixed another bug (in the STATUS command response) we reported to them. I hope they rethink their design decisions and fix the remaining bugs soon, enabling a seamless web interface and IMAP client experience. Otherwise, the burden falls on IMAP clients to implement hackish work-arounds for Gmail, rather than relying on open standards.

Special thanks to Arjan van Leeuwen for investigating many of these issues.

I've been tagged! Rowan Mulder wants to know what five things I'd like to see in Opera. The tagging game began with Daniel Goldman (see his post for the rules) and I'm going to go ahead and tag Timothy Luoma, Rijk van Geijtenbeek, Eirik Stavem, Allan Clements, and Ian Hickson.

Picking out five things I'd like to see in Opera is actually a bit tricky for me. I spend a lot of time listening to what others want in Opera. Often when I talk about what I want in Opera, I'm just echoing what I've heard from others. After some thorough brainstorming, I hope I've filtered off the bias and will present a list that's truly my own. Since I have a unique perspective as an employee, I've bent the rules a bit and included some things that I think (and hope!) Opera Software as a company could do better in the future.

And without further ado, five things I'd like to see in Opera:

• A better icon - Really, Opera's icon isn't very good. There are a number of design problems with it and it really can't compare to its competitors.
• A publicly accessible bug tracking system - Opera's users are awesome. They tirelessly figure out problems on web sites and find ways to reproduce really odd issues. To get the most out of their expertise, it makes sense to make the Opera Software bug tracking system publicly accessible. Our users are one of our greatest assets and I know that'd be thrilled to help kill some bugs.
• Better changelogs - When an Opera user takes the time to report a bug, the least Opera Software can do is inform them it's been fixed by listing it in the build/release changelog. Changelogs typically include less than 10% of the actual changes, though many are included in blanket statements like "improved stability".
• Opera Mail as a separate application - Opera Mail gets no respect, even less than the Opera browser. Opera Mail in Kestrel is leaps and bounds better than Opera Mail ever has been and it's going to get even better in Peregrine. I already use Opera Mail as if it were a stand-alone application, but few users probably know how to do so. Thus, I'd like Opera Software to release Opera Mail as a standalone application so others will be able to experience its greatness!
• Developer tools - One of the best ways to get more users to use Opera is to fix web site problems. One of the best ways to fix web sites problems is to provide superior tools for developers. If developers developed their web sites using Opera, then fixed the problems they find in other browsers, Opera would work out of the box. I think one of the main reasons that Mozilla and Firefox caught on is because it was early-on the defacto geek/developer browser. Those geeks/developers made their web sites work in Firefox, then spread the word and now Firefox has 10+% market share, while Opera is still hovering in the single digits.
• Bonus: Extensions - Face it, the Opera browser can't please every user. Opera Software can try to find the right balance between features and clutter, but I think that's a losing battle. What's the answer? Extensions. Let users make, rate, and install the features they want. Let users take the Opera browser to places Opera Software never imagined. They already try to do so now with various skins, toolbar setups, and hacks. If Opera Software gave them the right tools, the possibilities are almost endless. Extensions will also open the door to features from third-parties, such as the Google Toolbar and applications like RoboForm. I really want to see how much better Opera could be if the Web could apply their talent to it.

Note: The opinions expressed here are my own and are not meant to represent my employer, Opera Software.

It's been almost two months since Tim's Opera Bits v5.0, so let's get into it:

1. Opera Desktop 9.20 was released last week. 9.20 includes Speed Dial, a quick way to access the sites you visit most, and supports a Developer console. See the press release for more details.
2. The final version of the Internet Channel developed by Opera Software for the Nintendo Wii was also released last week. The Wii contains the most advanced rendering engine publicly available from Opera Software. See The Rendering Engine for the Wii for more details.
3. An experimental release of Opera Desktop with video element support is available from the Opera Labs for y'all lucky Windows users. This release has native support for the Ogg Theora video codec, which powers the video element. See the April 13, 2007 post at the Opera Labs for details.
4. Don't like Opera's built-in spelling checker? You've got a few options: OSpell (my pick) and Spell Check for Opera (via Daniel) use Opera's User Javascript feature to implement spelling checks.
5. The Nintendo DS browser developed by Opera Software will be released in the US on June 4, 2007.

That's about it. Got a question you want answered in the next Tim's Opera Bits? Ask away in the comments!

The final version of the Internet Channel developed by Opera Software for the Nintendo Wii was released last week and is available as a free download via the Wii Shop Channel. Our press release includes screenshots, a feature overview, and a tutorial video. And remember, it's only free through the end of June 2007.

The rendering engine used by the Internet Channel is the most advanced rendering engine publicly available from Opera Software. It's newer, less-buggy, and more featureful than the rendering engine in the just released Opera Desktop 9.20. If you recall point #2 from "Tim's Opera Bits v5.0", I explained that Opera 9.20 is using the same rendering engine as 9.0 with only very important bug fixes included. Opera 9.0 stopped taking in regular bug fixes in around June 2006. Since then, all the bug fixes have gone into a code branch for Kestrel, the next major update to the Opera Desktop browser. It may be months before Kestrel is publicly available, but lucky you, the Internet Channel already includes many of the bug fixes and features that will eventually be available in Kestrel!

New to the rendering engine used on the Wii is support for more CSS 3 selectors, partial text-shadow support (colors aren't correct), and many, many bug fixes (including the infamous rounding error on large values). These changes are just a preview of what you can expect from Kestrel. Current internal builds of Kestrel fix the text-shadow problems, implement even more CSS Selectors, and fix even more bugs. There are plenty more nice additions, too.

It's time once again for Tim's Opera Bits, the periodic posts that bring together Opera Software news from across the Internet. Without further delay, here's what's happening:

1. Opera Mini 3.1 is out and about. This release mainly contains bug fixes, but also adds support for managing your newsfeeds. Get it while it's hot!

2. You may recall that Opera 9.0 is code-named Merlin. Recently, the Desktop Team announced the code-names for the next two major Desktop releases, Kestrel and Peregrine. Merlin, Kestrel, and Peregrine are all names of falcons, in case you're wondering. There's a few more details about the names in the announcement post.

   Each release since 9.0 (including the forthcoming 9.2) has been based on the same code branch with only very important changes included from our development code branch. See, we stopped taking most bug fixes into Merlin back around June 2006 in an effort to improve stability and meet our deadlines. Meanwhile, we've continued to add features and fix bugs in both the rendering engine and Desktop-specific functions. All of those rendering engine changes will be included in Kestrel, though some of the changes in the user interface will have to wait until Peregrine. Of course, we'll be able to include even more rendering engine changes by then, as the work never ends.

   And just what rendering engine changes am I referring to? David Storey has already provided details about several of the changes in his post, Upcoming CSS3 support in Opera. David lets us know that Kestrel will have support for many more CSS3 Selectors, as well as the text-shadow property. Rijk was good enough to make a screenshot of Opera's forthcoming text-shadow support and include a few more details. Additionally, some more of Opera's bugs have been squashed, including a long-standing rounding problem, various XSLT bugs, SVG problems, and a whole lot more.

   And what of the user interface changes? One of our major initiatives for Kestrel and Peregrine is improving accessibility. As such, Opera will again include screen reader support in Kestrel for the first time since Opera 7.0 was released. Charles McCathieNevile has more details about this support in his recent blog entry, Speaking out.... We have a lot of work to do in this area, but things are progressing nicely. Everything may not be finished in Kestrel, but I hope it will be.

   Let's not forget about our beloved Opera Mail. Opera Mail will finally have a new indexing back-end, which will fix the long-standing problem with index and search corruption. We've also spent some time on our IMAP and POP back-ends, adding in some more user-requested functionality. Opera Mail is now faster and more efficient than ever before. A heap of user interface improvements are planned, but it's not clear if they'll be included in Kestrel, Peregrine, or later.

   Note: I should mention that the exact version these features will be available in is tentative. This is our current plan, but plans change.

3. Johan Borg, the Desktop team project manager, let us know that the next weekly build will include a new feature never before seen in a Desktop browser. Many have tried to guess the new feature in the comments to the blog post, but no one has even come close.
4. This Thursday, Jon von Tetzchner, the CEO of Opera Software, will be chatting live via IRC at 5pm CET. That's 11am on the East Coast of the USA. Stop by #webapp on irc.opera.com for a chat.
5. Opera on the Wii ain't just for browsing. Daniel Goldman posted a letter from a father whose children were using Opera on the Wii to play educational games. It's great to see our products helping children get interested in learning.
6. Lawrence Eng, a Market Researcher for Opera Software, wants to know Why is it important that more people know about and use Opera? There are a lot of great responses in the comments to his post, so check them out. As for me, Opera makes my life easier because I can browser faster (not just load web pages faster, but accomplish my task more quickly) and easier. I want everyone to have that convenience.

7. Daniel Goldman let us know about WiiMinder, a web site that adds tabbed browsing to Opera on the Wii. It's a very interesting concept and the user interface is pretty nice. However, it caused a number of glitches when I tested it for a bit, including zooming out randomly (usually while scrolling) and going back in history for no apparent reason. I do applaud them for their efforts, as their UI integrates seamlessly with the browser.

   While testing, I quite enjoyed playing Missile 3D over at WiiCade. Opera brings a whole 'nother level of gaming to the Wii by allowing Flash-based games. Plus, you can watch Homestar Runner on your TV. Strong Bad e-mail!

8. Last but not least, the next DC Metro area meet-up is next Wednesday, February 28th. We'll meet from 7pm to 9pm at the Panera Bread in Silver Spring. More details are in the original blog post. If you're able to join us, you'll get to see me demo that new feature Johan talked about on the Desktop Team blog! I hope to see you Wednesday!

That's about it. I'm interested in answering some more of your questions again in the next Tim's Opera Bits, so please leave them in the comments. Until next time, take care and happy browsing!

PS: This is my first post written while using MarsEdit, a blogging client for Mac OS X. It's pretty nice, but doesn't really enhance by blogging experience. Plus, it can't handle Drupal's input formats or categories. Back to using Opera's notes feature for backups....

Welcome to the fourth edition of Tim's Opera Bits! A lot has happened since the last update, so let's get right to the news:

1. We released Opera Desktop 9.1 with fraud protection/anti-phishing. This release includes fixes for a couple security issues, so please update. There're a lot of other changes and fixes in there too.

2. We released Opera Mini 3.0, 3.01, 3.02, and 3.03! That's a whole lotta Opera Mini. New in 3.0 is RSS/Atom support, photo uploads, and secure browsing. But don't take my word for it, try it out yourself! Or, check out the Opera Mini simulator and Daniel's video demos of Opera Mini.

   I tried out Opera Mini for the first time back in April when I had free data access with my new mobile phone plan, but since I work at home and don't get mobile service in the house, I decided to stop the data access. I ended up realizing how much I could have used it this Thanksgiving while travelling throughout New England, so I recently signed up for a new data plan for my moblie. Since, I've used Opera Mini while standing in line, while waiting for a movie to start, and to search Amazon.com while shopping for movies at Borders. It's been a great help.

   Here are some usage tips:

   • Don't browse and drive. It's very naughty. Not to mention dangerous and illegal. And distracting.
   • Turn off images. Pages load significantly faster and you usually don't need them. You'll also save a bundle if your data plan has usage restrictions (like mine).
   • Share your browser.

   Anyway....

3. We released a trial version of Opera Wii. Of course, you'll need a Wii to use it. You should totally get one, too, since they rock! They're still pretty scarce, though.

   Fortunately, Opera Wii is free through the end of June. That should give you plenty of time to pick one up. Oh, and the final should be released toward the end of March.

   PS: Opera Wii passes the Acid2 test. Sweet!

4. We released a preview of forthcoming developer tools. These tools will find their way into a future Opera release in some form, so we'd appreciate your feedback. Thank you and happy developing!
5. We released... a whole lot recently. We're glad that's over. Opera 9 got a great review over at MacWorld and Opera's CEO, the venerable Jon von Tetzchner, was interviewed by the Tech blog at SciFi.com about the silliness that is .mobi. There should only be one Web, people. Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, and Opera Wii all work with the existing Web. There's no reason things shouldn't continue that way.

Take a deep breath. Good. Now, the fun stuff. In the last issue, I asked y'all if you had any questions about Opera Software. I got some great questions, so here come the responses. Keep in mind that opinions expressed are my own and don't necessarily represent my employer, Opera Software.

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:

1. 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.

2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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!
5. 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!