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Topic: Questions to the Developer (Read 37176 times)

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #25 –
Quote from: Belfrager on

Quote from: Frenzie on

Quote from: Belfrager on

For the terms I see in these threads about Otter browser, I suppose it doesn't work in Windows...

You can try it out in Windows using the precompiled binaries here.

"Precompiled binaries"... is that a name to call to a software? :)
Thanks Frenzie.

I remember now how at first glance I failed to find Linux binaries. I only saw Windows exes.

Otter is at the stage where it should be made more broadly available, like Softpedia or Download.com. It's been ages since I visited those sites, because for a long while I already have everything I need, but I imagine the sites are still around and there might still be people eager to try stuff out.

You'd also accumulate some third opinions this way. In the description it would be best stated that the idea is to re-create Opera somewhat, not to innovate in any random direction.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #27 –
@ersi, it would be best to wait for first beta, when more features will be ready.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #28 –
Quote from: Emdek on

@ersi, it would be best to wait for first beta, when more features will be ready.
Yes, when it can be called internet suite, not a mere browser :)

By the way, based on what will you implement the email component? On FF's Simplemail extension? Or will you tailor together something unique?

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #29 –
@ersi, email client for sure won't be ready in time for first beta, so suite won't be correct term yet. ;-)
I'm still evaluating best solution for email client, some were listed here:
https://github.com/Emdek/otter/issues/37
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #30 –
Might be worth mentioning on http://alternativeto.net as well when it's ready for more publicity.

One big question for me: is Otter planned to support only Chrome-compatible extensions and thus to be unable to block YouTube ads even with AdBlock [Plus] installed? That would be sad, as Opera Presto v12.16 is still perfectly capable of giving me a 100% clean YouTube experience.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #31 –
@donjoe, content blocking will be built-in and should come much sooner than extensions (hopefully in time for first beta).
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #32 –
Quote from: Emdek on

@donjoe, content blocking will be built-in and should come much sooner than extensions (hopefully in time for first beta).
Will it be like in Opera? (right-click / Block content)

Opera gathered the blocked addresses to a text file. Will it be the same?

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #33 –
Quote from: ersi on
Will it be like in Opera? (right-click / Block content)

Should be doable.
Quote from: ersi on
Opera gathered the blocked addresses to a text file. Will it be the same?

That's not decided yet.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #34 –
Quote from: Emdek on
@donjoe, content blocking will be built-in and should come much sooner than extensions (hopefully in time for first beta).
There's only so much one could do with the built-in content blocking, I see it more as a nice-to-have compared to ad blocking extensions. I don't remember ever being able to block in-video ads with it, so I don't consider it a solution for YouTube. The only solution I know for YouTube is AdBlock Plus, and that one only works for me on Opera Presto and Firefox so far.

LE:
OK, just tested it in Opera v12.16: you can definitely not clean up YouTube using the built-in content blocking functionality - it just hides the whole video player if you try, it can't detect pre-roll video ads, nor can it detect overlaid banners that sometimes show over the video.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #35 –
Quote from: donjoe on
I don't consider it a solution for YouTube. The only solution I know for YouTube is AdBlock Plus, and that one only works for me on Opera Presto and Firefox so far.
In Presto I use this one https://addons.opera.com/en/extensions/details/youtube-adsfree/ and normal native content-blocking. Has been perfectly adequate.

I suppose when you have a way to identify the addresses that push the ads into the video, blocking those addresses the normal way should work, no?

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #36 –
The fact that the same people who make the AdBlock Plus extension work fine in Firefox and Opera Presto can't make it work reliably on Chromium-based browsers tells me the problem is a bit more complicated than identifying and blocking some URLs.


LE:
Apparently the Chrome-compatible version of AdBlock Plus can block in-video ads just fine, but only in browsers using the newer "Pepper" Flash plugin developed by Google in collaboration with Adobe and available exclusively in Chrome installations (or as a separate install for Linux via this workaround). The problem with the "Pepper" Flash plugin is that it's still very buggy, e.g. the current version insta-crashes every time I try to watch any twitch.tv stream (though it works fine with YouTube and allows AdBlock Plus to block all ads like it's supposed to). So it would seem that if Otter provides support for Chrome-compatible extensions in the future and if Google fixes its "Pepper" Flash plugin, it will be possible to have proper video ad blocking in Otter just like in Opera Presto.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #37 –
@donjoe, it all depends how these ads work, as long as requests go through instance of *NetworkAccessManager* then they could be blocked.
Possibly these extensions use other methods, like JavaScript.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #38 –
Considering the updated information in my previous post, I'd say they're using the Flash plugin itself. Or maybe I've got this all wrong and it's the JavaScript that's fetching the data and Flash that's only used to display it. But then ad blocking may be oriented toward blocking the display phase and not the download phase, because it's generally more reliable to prevent something from being rendered than it is to keep up with continuous changes that might be made easily to the JavaScript that fetches the data.

I don't know, I'm just speculating. :) What's important is that I now have reason to think everything will be fine in Otter if it supports the Chrome-compatible version of AdBlock [Plus] and the manual replacement of its Flash plugin with the newer "Pepper" Flash plugin.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #39 –
@donjoe, Pepper (PPAPI) should be available for QtWebEngine (Blink), other engines do not support it yet.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #40 –
Quote from: ersi on
An otter:config page would be nice as a perfect mirror of otter.conf

This is a repeated request in this forum now. I made a Git ticket too https://github.com/Emdek/otter/issues/245

Edit: and it was locked immediately, because the page is there. This raises the question: How to make things that should be obvious in fact obvious?

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #41 –
@ersi, maybe some kind of documentation for end users?
It's too early for that but for sure it would be useful.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Error 4 and Error 8

Reply #42 –
Code: [Select]
Error 4
Socket operation timed out


Code: [Select]
Error 8
The specified configuration cannot be used.


Error 4 probably means the network cannot be reached.

What does Error 8 mean?

Edit: And it's a nasty error. When Error 8 happens, it renders the tab unusable. Keyboard shortcuts cease to function. Refresh does not reach the address in the address field, and enter in the address field takes you to bookmarks. A workaround that seems to help is to clone the tab.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #43 –
@ersi, is it reproducible?
I haven't seen that one.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #44 –
Not sure how to reproduce Error 8. The day I reported it, it occurred repeatedly in conjunction with general network problems I had.

I use Otter as a session storage for a bunch of work-and-hobby-related webpages that I frequent. I mean, I have some twenty tabs open in Otter and I use "continue previous session". So, when I have poor access to network, a bunch of pages times out with Error 4. When I reported it, Error 8 also occurred at one particular address repeatedly.

I think the address was Vivaldi.net. Vivaldi forum used to have a bunch of issues with logging in and staying logged in. Otter does the best work logging in and staying in there, but then one day, if I remember correctly, internet was shaky and Error 8 occurred at Vivaldi.net.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #45 –
@ersi, thanks for details, I'll try to find some information about this one after beta.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #46 –
I should say that I have not cleaned my profile ever since I first installed Otter. I am not a good software QA assistant in this sense. I use software for my own selfish purposes, not methodically debugging. When testing and reporting issues, should we try a clean profile too? Or is your development method such that a clean profile is irrelevant?

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #47 –
@ersi, in most cases it shouldn't matter, and if it matters then you can simply temporary rename otter.conf or use fresh profile (--profile switch).
Also it could be a good idea to allow to run it in mode that doesn't write to disk at all.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.

No monthly releases for Arch any more?

Reply #48 –
I have been waiting for the Arch release that used to be there at every turn of the month. What happened this July? AUR still holds 0.9.01

Re: Questions to the Developer

Reply #49 –
@ersi, beta 2 got rescheduled to August due to amount of unresolved issues assigned to this release.
Nadszedł już czas, najwyższy czas, nienawiść zniszczyć w sobie.
The time has come, the high time, to destroy hatred in oneself.