Classilla: A Secure browser for Classic Mac OS

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kikkoman
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Post by kikkoman »

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!! 8O >=')
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Over on 68Kmla, the author of Classilla wrote:

"Just a heads-up: Classilla 9.0.4 (assuming I don't have a total meltdown and my MDD build system is still chugging) should be out November 1st. This is not a huge leap forward but there are still some significant layout, JavaScript and security updates. However, I'm being bitten by a serious deficiency in the repaint code for OS 9 in Mozilla which was never fixed xx( (I have a test case for the interested which will work fine on OS X 1.3.1, but not OS 9 1.3.1, Classilla or WaMCom), and this kiboshed a big layout update I was hoping to land. I haven't figured this out yet, and I don't want to delay the release until I do, so I'm shipping the old layout engine with some fixups -- more on that later. One of those fixups is for this very site, and while it doesn't fix the rendering 100%, it makes it useable.

And, I do have an on-topic surprise for you guys which I successfully got to build on my PowerBook. Now to update it to its latest source (about 25% done) and then I'll have done my part for the 68K community :) It's not Classilla, but I think you'll enjoy it. 8-)"
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Here is the biggest obstacle to overcome in Classilla development:

http://code.google.com/p/classilla/issues/detail?id=65

"Essentially we cannot make any major updates to the layout engine without
fixing this bug."

Please help!!
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

The Classilla roadmap was updated to say that the next version of the browser will be released on March 15:

http://code.google.com/p/classilla/wiki/Roadmap
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Classilla 9.1 has arrived a bit ahead of schedule:

http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/releases/
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cherwally
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Classilla plugin database ready!

Post by cherwally »

===Classilla Plugins Page===
Image
http://cherwally.webs.com/Classilla/Plugins.html
  • * I have built the databse of all plugins I know.
    * Direct download links to the each entry.
    * All plugins are latest version available on Classic.
    * Contact form on the page.

Submit me any new found or created plugins,
so I can add them to the database!
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

That's wonderful, Cherwally. Thank-you!
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Meanwhile, here's a note that the Classilla developer left on System 7 Today:

"I actually do have, in a partially working form, a System 7 browser. It does not support CSS yet, though it has some hooks for it, and I have to fix its inline image support. And that's all I'm going to say about that right now. I do intend to get it to a releaseable state, and it is written in a language that is freely available and easy to modify. The CSS support, however, will be a little different than people expect, because reflow sucks on 68K. More about that when my brain has finished the needed gyrations to put code to keyboard."

http://forums.system7today.com/viewtopi ... sc&start=7
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Here's a development note posted on 68kmla:

"I do have some new news to report: I just pulled the switch on the new JavaScript interpreter in my internal build. There are still some glitches, but the SunSpider benchmark dropped from 31 seconds on the 1.8GHz build MDD to 16 seconds -- half the execution time! Also, eBay now works right. I'm ironically enough having some trouble with unresponsiveness in Facebook -- this might not be JavaScript but could be weirdness with XMLHTTPRequest, so I have to go through that code as well. But even as it is now, Facebook actually works, somewhat. And remember that Mozilla uses JavaScript as glue code just about in everything, so the whole browser is faster.

Btw, this improvement is "only" with SpiderMonkey, the pure C implementation. I'm not sure if I can wring TraceMonkey into Classilla, but if I can, hold onto your hats -- performance could shoot up another full level with that. There is a PPC nanojit but I'm a little leery on whether CodeWarrior can digest it.

Also, this is a major internals change and I bet there will be regressions I haven't noticed yet. But 9.2 is on the horizon!"

http://68kmla.net/forums/viewtopic.php? ... 9&start=25
Amade
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Post by Amade »

Classilla 9.2 is here!
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Wonderful! Here's the text of announcement:
Classilla 9.2 is out today. After some consideration, there may be a gap where
I won't have time to work on it for awhile, so I'll release what I have since
it's mostly workable even though it is kludgey (remember, it *is* alpha-level
software).

As promised, Classilla 9.2 rewrites JavaScript completely and the SpiderMonkey
interpreter it uses is almost exactly the same as Mozilla Firefox 3.0.19.
This literally cuts its benchmark time in half (the 1.8GHz dual G4 build host
reduced SunSpider from 32 seconds with 9.1 to 16 seconds with 9.2; the quad
G5 in Classic went from 25 seconds to 12 seconds [for comparison, Firefox
3.6.3 on the same machine with TraceMonkey is 4.6 seconds]). It also repairs
almost all of the outstanding crash bugs, meaning JavaScript should be a lot
more stable on sites like Blogspot and iFixit.

What is only partially updated in this version is the Document Object Model,
which connects JavaScript to layout. I did do some minor updates to fix
regressions (i.e., pages that used to work with JavaScript on, but didn't
after the new interpreter was switched on), particularly for Flickr and
jQuery, but DOM and layout are inextricably linked and significant updates
can't be done without updating the other. I'm planning to do a comprehensive
rewrite of layout and DOM, like JavaScript, in 9.3 -- that was too much to
do in this version.

That means the full benefit of the new interpreter unfortunately is not
completely realized in 9.2, but here is the result of my testing on a few
high profile sites:

iFixit doesn't crash anymore.

Wikipedia's new default skin now almost completely works (I haven't really
stress-tested article editing however). The disclosure arrows also work,
which didn't in 9.1.

Amazon still works, though it always treated Classilla as a basic browser
in any case and still does.

Apple's pages almost completely work. (There is also a layout update relevant
to that; read on.)

The New York Times almost completely works, whereas in 9.1 you couldn't
even click on links with JavaScript enabled.

eBay mostly works. The menus now reappear and My eBay also mostly works,
although I can't get feedback to show up still.

Google treats Classilla as an advanced browser now, and the search page
comes up with the enhanced AJAX search box. The side bars also open and
close. I still don't recommend using a custom user agent though with it.
Maps only partially works; I still recommend using their Basic HTML
version. Calendar and Docs still hardly work at all. Gmail is about the
same, but Groups is a lot faster now.

Paypal mostly works, though layout all-stop is still needed for the main
page.

Flickr still works (I didn't test uploading, I don't have an account),
though it is slightly slower.

Twitter almost completely works, but it is glacially slow. That said,
Camino 1.6 is also really slow with Twitter, so this may be a really tough
nut to crack with the code at my disposal. I still recommend the mobile
version.

Facebook appears to work, and no errors appear, but clicking on many
tabs doesn't do anything (at least you can log out and get to the
[worthless] privacy settings). The Touch Facebook (touch.facebook.com) does
almost completely work, even slideshows (!), though you will need to
Command-scroll (see below) through the feeds. I still recommend the mobile
version.

Yahoo! partially works, though using the search tabs doesn't seem to do
anything different, and Yahoo! Mail is very slow with JavaScript on (but
then, it didn't work at all before, so ...). I still recommend using
Yahoo! with JavaScript off. Sorry, Chuck :-(

The Wall Street Journal has more elements that work, and runs faster,
but the article strip at the top of the page still doesn't work and
some elements ignore clicks.

CNN is about the same. NewsPulse still has a lot of layout problems. Most
articles still render pretty well.

Fox News is about the same and still has a lot of layout problems. I still
recommend reading Fox News with JavaScript off.

Low End Mac still works fine ;-)

As you can see from that, the improvement is more evolutionary than
revolutionary, but hopefully you will see similar improvements on the
sites that you visit.

There are also a couple minor layout updates. The most important one is
a change to the way certain floated elements handle their overflow, which
changed in 9.1 and caused a number of sites like Google and Twitter to
show "ghosted" or doubled images. On Apple's site it was particularly bad
because if you clicked on the ghost, the browser would get confused and
then *no* link worked (you had to reload the page). The old 1.3-descended
Clecko just can't handle the combination, so there is a tweak in layout
to disable this particular layout structure.

This fixes Apple, Google, Twitter, yFrog and a crapload of other sites, but
has the downside of causing the browser to believe a handful of pages are
wider than they actually are. Unfortunately 68KMLA forum threads and other
phpBB threads that use that skin are one of those handful. The page will
still look and work fine, but scroll slower.

So enter the other layout tweak: Command-scrolling. In 9.1 I added Use
Slow Scroll for pages where the regular fast scrolling broke (this should
be fixed when the new layout lands ... I hope). Because this is inconvenient
to run back and forth for single pages, 9.2 allows you to hold down the
Command key as you scroll, forcing Classilla to use an alternate scrolling
method. If the page uses fast scrolling and fragments, hold down Command
as you scroll or mousewheel, and Classilla will slow scroll until you release
Command. If the page is one of those few affected pages and uses slow
scroll even when it doesn't have to, hold down Command also as you scroll,
and Classilla will fast scroll. I know this is kludgey, but at least it's
better than nothing, and the best I can do right now. You can still click
on Use Slow Scroll to make the setting sticky.

Finally, all-stop. In 9.1 I added Cmd-Period for cancelling layout if it
hung up on a bug, and I expanded that in 9.2 to a couple other places that
seemed subject to freezing. The OS 9 list also really liked the idea of
having Cmd-Period cancel scripts, which was a suggestion someone sent me
anonymously via Report-A-Bug. This *isn't* as clean, because the script may
have partially installed event handlers or other hooks that may cause the
current appshell to act weird as there is no code for them to run. If you
cancel a script, you should close that window or tab, and reload it with
JavaScript off just to make sure weird things don't happen. If JavaScript
is off, you don't need to worry about that.

Also:

- Theming is specifically supported, and you should get an error now
if you try to theme without software installation on (Brian Deuel).

- I changed the way plugins are enumerated. This should help Alex with
SIDPlay (let me know).

- A couple more crash bugs found and countered, in printing and mailnews.

- New easter egg.

I am not so interested in what doesn't work as in what *used to work* and
doesn't now. Those regressions I want to fix in 9.2.1. Also, I plan to
redo the NoScript front end as Script-B-Gone in 9.2.1 and put an end to
the NoScript whitelist not updating or remembering once and for all. While
a full NoScript is not possible because Clecko lacks the needed XUL
controls, I do want to significantly improve it since I also rely on it.

Anyway, forgive the sawdust and I hope you find 9.2 useful.
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Post by PeterHolbrook »

How many "easter eggs" are there? I'm only aware of about:mozilla and about:classilla, which is quite funny. Are there any others?
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

A few notes were posted over on 68kmla:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php? ... 6&start=25

"Just an update. I posted this to the OS 9 list also, but in short, 9.2.1 is coming along. I plan to have most of the regressions the new JS interpreter introduced knocked out (that aren't in layout, that is), and several other bugs repaired ranging from nuisance to serious.

Apart from some token new things, however, the only major new difference in 9.2.1 will be Script-B-Gone. This is a front end to NoScript that hopefully will once and for all stomp out all those complaints I could never confirm about the whitelist getting stale, or entries you put in it not sticking, and so on. Script-B-Gone implements a shadow list and has NoScript modify that, and then consistency-checks the shadow list and the capability list (the list actually doing the work) constantly as you surf. If sites are missing, it fixes the list up off the shadow list and logs it so I can debug the problem.

Script-B-Gone also includes a wizard for quickly adding sites to the whitelist. Right now you have to enter everything manually, but with SBG, when you click on the NoScript icon, SBG appears instead as a modal dialogue and offers to add all scripts from the page domain (default), only the page host itself, everything on the page, or let you manually control NoScript like before. For most sites, enabling JS is two clicks: one for SBG, one on OK. Since the overlay popup NoScript normally uses is not supported by Classilla's XUL, this takes its place. I also cleaned up the sort in the NoScript window so finding sites and removing them is easier."

Click through for more and for some information on future releases.
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Classilla 9.2.1 has been released!

Here's a description:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14181

There are some downloads over here:

http://www.classilla.org/releases/
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

A short word about upcoming Classilla releases:

"I'm still working with the translators on Classilla 9.2.2 (which will be mostly a localization release). The next feature release is 9.3 and its layout overhaul, which is still on schedule for early next year -- TenFourFox is slightly delaying this, but fortunately 10.4Fx is now mostly on autopilot since we cleared the beta 7 hurdle."

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=14181
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

A new Classilla!

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15719

"Classilla 9.2.2 is released, after much delay. As previously noted, this is
a bugfix rollup only except for its big new feature, which is language
packs. This version includes Japanese and German, and we're planning for
Italian with 9.3.0. If you are interested in becoming a translator, please
see Classilla issue 151. Please treat the translations as "beta," and a big
thank-you to our community translators who worked very hard on them.

This version also includes several security fixes, including a patch revoking
the notorious certificate set from the Comodo break-in (see issue 158), a
fix for certain other SSL certificates, repairs for Script-B-Gone bugs, and
several interface problems.

9.3.0 is the big one and I hope to have that ready for Q3, but this will hold
the fort for now."

http://www.classilla.org/
kikkoman
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Post by kikkoman »

This is excellent.

But I still wonder how areas such as Unicode (displaying the proper text characters and symbols), Flash, Java, and Javascript will be approached and ultimately handled (if at all possible).
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

It works with Gmail. I don't know about Google Docs...
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ClockWise
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Post by ClockWise »

Classilla 9.2.3 has been released.

"Classilla 9.2.3 is released, after a long (and partially unexpected) hiatus.
Like 9.2.2, this is a bugfix release, but there are several important fixes.

Chief amongst them is a mitigation for recurrent crashes with certain
JavaScript DOM manipulations. This should significantly improve the stability
of the browser at the cost of some additional memory usage during complex
layouts.

This version also blacklists DigiNotar certificates to protect the user, and
has fresh SSL roots. It has also been audited for the Rizzo-Duong SSL attack.

Finally, there is a performance adjustment to use a faster method of time
computation. This code is run very frequently in the browser, so this should
make overall operation more smooth.

There are some other miscellaneous fixes. You can get it, as always, from

http://www.classilla.org/

Starting in 9.3.0, we will start the transformation towards encouraging
mobile content. More about that soon."
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ClockWise
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Re: Classilla: A Secure browser for Classic Mac OS

Post by ClockWise »

Classilla 9.3.1 has finally been released:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19491
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ClockWise
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Re: Classilla: A Secure browser for Classic Mac OS

Post by ClockWise »

While I was away traveling, a new version of Classilla was released!

Here's a link:

http://code.google.com/p/classilla/downloads/list

Author says:

"Classilla 9.3.2 is released. Due to several large regressions in 9.3.1, I
decided to keep the scope of this release small to stabilize the base.

In this release, Byblos' reliability has been further improved and it is now
able to rewrite style sheets as well. You can also generate fallbacks so that
mail.google.com can be handled one way, but everything else *.google.com can
be handled another.

This release also fixes a long-running bug going back to WaMCom where cookies
with far-future dates overflowed the 32-bit signed classic Mac time value.
This probably fixes a lot of complaints with shopping carts and site logins,
though the key here was one of the reports had a particularly easy to debug
shopping cart system and the cookie log clearly showed the issue for the
first time. I did a minor overhaul of the cookie system at the same time.

This release also fixes the Turktrust intermediate certificate issue where
mis-issued intermediates could be used to enable man-in-the-middle attacks.
This is also being repaired in TenFourFox 17.0.2. libpng is also updated to
fix several security and stability problems.

Regressions repaired include an issue with cursor keys in text boxes being
ignored and Cmd-clicking certain links wouldn't open a new window (this was
repaired by a user submission -- you too can contribute), both caused by
security updates in 9.3.1, and an issue where Byblos caused spurious dialogue
boxes if you downloaded HTML (such as saving a web page to disk).

There are other minor but important custodial changes. Hopefully this will
give everyone a stable base to update to, and the security rollup will
continue with 9.3.3.

As usual, the release is tested on the MDD G4 (9.2.2), Twentieth Anniversary
Mac (9.2.2), TiBook G4 (9.2.2), Power Mac 7300 (9.1) and, of course, my
trusty PowerBook 1400 (9.1) -- http://www.floodgap.com/iv/1758

http://www.classilla.org/ "
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cherwally
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Re: Classilla: A Secure browser for Classic Mac OS

Post by cherwally »

===Classilla Plugins Page===

Image

http://cherwally.webs.com/Classilla/Plugins.html
As far as 21 July 2015, Classilla is at version 9.3.3
I just added a new "plugin"/helper for YouTube

YTBfC 0.63 (YouTube Browser for Classilla)
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