Fatal's Journal

5 wishes for future Opera browser

Thursday, July 26, 2007 9:25:46 PM

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In answer to 5 wishes Opera tag game started by Daniel Goldman.
I was tagged by Eddie Lopez from Usability blog.
5 wishes as user
  • cross-platform profile sync (bookmarks, news feeds, contacts, blocked content, etc.)
  • better news feeds (folders, folder views, trash can)
  • give more focus to Opera mail (don't forget to add ability of removing attachments)
  • undo closed window or undo tabs from closed window(s)
  • improved Notes (rich text, pictures, date stamp, sorting, integration of Notes and some blogging systems??)

5 wishes as web developer and web designer
  • native developer tools
  • better source viewer/editor
  • fix all known bugs in CSS 2.1
  • support parts of CSS 3: border-radius, selectors, multiple backgrounds, RGBA, box-shadow
  • XSLT document() function

5 wishes as Opera fan and tester:
  • better icon (logo of Opera browser, not company)
  • better update system
  • open or half-open bug tracking system (ability to see at least your own submissions)
  • better handling of needed but not presented plug-ins
  • "I prefer ergonomics over being a populist platform." Eddie Lopez' wish #4
    Don't move tab bar to "correct" place by default please!

Extra wishes as user
  • fit to width, zoom, encoding in per-site prefs
  • better sessions management
  • saving files with original filename, not 8.3 DOS format
  • based on Notes basic PIM
  • Unified meta-data interface from non-tropo's wish #2
  • Tabs grouping
  • improved Bookmarks (option to store textual content of a page inside bookmark, and this should be searchable)
  • contact managment with views instead of folders (so I can have contacts in multiple groups without having to copy them)

Next in line
I would like to see 5 wishes from these guys:

New "beta" Ask and AllTheWeb block OperaOpera Mobile got some Russian press

Comments

ChristianResearchWizard Saturday, July 28, 2007 1:26:54 AM

You provided 4 really nice lists. I don't quite understand three of the entries as I think this already works in Opera. I suppose I just misunderstood what you really want and I'd be interested in your ideas:

  • improved Notes (..., date stamp, sorting, ...): date is displayed on hover, sorting is possible by adding a View button on the panel - both could be improved of course
  • saving files with original filename, not 8.3 DOS format: do you think about saving webpages (with images = all resources)? They are saved with longer names for me. Or do you think of the cached files? There is information about the used (main html) cache file in the Info panel - the other files should be added and the links be clickable (I think Opera works on this)
  • improved Bookmarks (option to store textual content of a page inside bookmark, and this should be searchable): You can add text to properties (or within details when adding) of bookmarks and quicksearch (e.g. in panel) displays according matches. Or would you like automatic saving of all the text on the bookmarked page? This would most probably have a very bad style when displayed. Or do you want to add the words on a page to an index so the search for any word on the page would display the according entry, although you'll not find the word itself in the bookmark properties?

FataL Saturday, July 28, 2007 6:15:24 AM

Thanks for comments!
About saving with 8.3 DOS format:
I have asked Tim Altman about this issue:

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.


Got an answer in Tim's Opera Bits v4:

I asked about this internally a while back, as I'd prefer Opera save MHTML files with an .mhtml extension, rather than .mht. The Desktop Team prefers to continue to use the 8.3 format for filenames (maximum eight characters in filename and three characters in extension) because a) IE does and b) some programs still can't handle long filenames.


I was dissapointed with this answer and replied:

At least "a" not true. Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0 write long filenames. As for "b" I don't think there should be any significantly important application (if any) these days to stay with 8.3 anachronism. Anyone still use apps for Windows 3.1?! I hope that in a close future I will not need other browser just to save web page with some meaningful filenames for images.


Tim replied that than I should fill out bug report. So I did, but don't remember bug number.
That's all the story. smile

FataL Saturday, July 28, 2007 6:27:34 AM

As for saving textual content inside bookmark...
Sometimes when I bookmark some important page (for example rare tip) I copy text from page and paste it to Description field of bookmark. But it will lost all semantic (lists, headers, etc)
What I would like to see is an check box in Bookmark dialog, when checked Opera than supposed to save and attach the bookmarked page.
As option at least make Description field to accept simple rich text, so I can save some text with formatting.

MisterNobody Monday, August 13, 2007 4:22:06 AM

Here you are!
http://my.opera.com/Mister%20Nobody/blog/2007/08/13/5

Sergii ProsianykMongoose Friday, September 7, 2007 8:06:18 AM

My answer

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