top 5 things i would like to see in opera
Friday, 20. July 2007, 21:46:10
Right - so they waited until I was back from vacation to start a new meme and tag me. But first of all and of little interest to anybody reading this - yes, I had great fun on vacation up north.
And now about the top 5 things I would like to see in Opera. There are many wishes I have, and every single thing I would like to see in my browser of choice I do always discuss internally at Opera - so this list will not be too new to people knowing me and working with me.
One more note: these are the top five things I would like to see - I am aware that these are not things everybody would like to see. And since I am working on UNIX, my wishes are extremely UNIX centric. You have been warned.
The wishes:
And now with some more details:
1. a query interface
Today there is a gap between GUI and CLI that I simply do not understand: the two interaction methods do not exclude each other, and recently there are several attempts at rediscovering the powers of CLI in graphical UIs. Query interfaces are in use in several desktop environments and in specialized applications. Time to see them available in Opera too.
2. better integration with the available UI "toolkits"
I often think that besides the Qt UI we have today, I would like to see a GTK UI, "pure" X and… why not? ncurses and CLI… depending on the context you are using your browser in. (For those that have some doubt understanding a CLI for a browser, give a look at edbrowse).
3. true multi-window support
Today you can open windows of a session only on one display - but I might be wanting to check my mail at home without quitting the running session when I ssh into my machine, or I would like to quickly write a mail while working on another DISPLAY, just by opening a new compose window on :1 in the session running on :0, write, send - done, without needing to switch to the other DISPLAY, or worse even, without having to quit Opera on :0.
4. tagging
…of mails, of bookmarks, of pages, of tabs, of windows - I want to tag (and have Opera automatically tagging) everything, and I want to be able to access the information I'd thus be able to link together.
5. dynamic session management
Session management in Opera is extremely primitive. Kestrel sees some neat improvements, but a true dynamic management of open tabs and windows is still on my wishlist. I want to be able to access tabs, windows and groups thereof (tags) as simply as I am viewing access points in Opera Mail - and I want management of this as transparent and "automatic" as accesspoints work today.
I'll also keep the game going and tag in turn
jax
ResearchWizard
Rijk
Moose
howcome
And now about the top 5 things I would like to see in Opera. There are many wishes I have, and every single thing I would like to see in my browser of choice I do always discuss internally at Opera - so this list will not be too new to people knowing me and working with me.
One more note: these are the top five things I would like to see - I am aware that these are not things everybody would like to see. And since I am working on UNIX, my wishes are extremely UNIX centric. You have been warned.
The wishes:
- a query interface
- better integration with the available UI "toolkits"
- true multi-window support
- tagging
- dynamic session management
And now with some more details:
1. a query interface
Today there is a gap between GUI and CLI that I simply do not understand: the two interaction methods do not exclude each other, and recently there are several attempts at rediscovering the powers of CLI in graphical UIs. Query interfaces are in use in several desktop environments and in specialized applications. Time to see them available in Opera too.
2. better integration with the available UI "toolkits"
I often think that besides the Qt UI we have today, I would like to see a GTK UI, "pure" X and… why not? ncurses and CLI… depending on the context you are using your browser in. (For those that have some doubt understanding a CLI for a browser, give a look at edbrowse).
3. true multi-window support
Today you can open windows of a session only on one display - but I might be wanting to check my mail at home without quitting the running session when I ssh into my machine, or I would like to quickly write a mail while working on another DISPLAY, just by opening a new compose window on :1 in the session running on :0, write, send - done, without needing to switch to the other DISPLAY, or worse even, without having to quit Opera on :0.
4. tagging
…of mails, of bookmarks, of pages, of tabs, of windows - I want to tag (and have Opera automatically tagging) everything, and I want to be able to access the information I'd thus be able to link together.
5. dynamic session management
Session management in Opera is extremely primitive. Kestrel sees some neat improvements, but a true dynamic management of open tabs and windows is still on my wishlist. I want to be able to access tabs, windows and groups thereof (tags) as simply as I am viewing access points in Opera Mail - and I want management of this as transparent and "automatic" as accesspoints work today.
I'll also keep the game going and tag in turn
jax
ResearchWizard
Rijk
Moose
howcome
WIDGETIZE
Non-Troppo # 20. July 2007, 23:28
My meta-data interface is akin to your GCLUI ;-) And we both realise the value of page management, though I run with a few hundred less pages than you normally... :-P
Claudio Santambrogio # 21. July 2007, 20:21
Moose # 22. July 2007, 12:51
-- discontinuation of the pikendroid and better portability of layers on top of core <fer-shizzle/>
-- ex mode, shell integration therein, completion, and access to internals from there & other viish interface elements
-- qt-free, X opera with no loss of skinnability
-- cascade in dialogs & action parser logical enhancements
-- a Michelle Pfeiffer easter-egg
M.
Non-Troppo # 23. July 2007, 20:16
_Grey_ # 25. July 2007, 14:23
Christian # 27. July 2007, 10:21
http://my.opera.com/ResearchWizard/blog/a-game-of-opera-tag-5-things-i-d-like-to-see-in-opera
Your #4 reminds me on my thoughts about Labels everywhere (with label = tag)
And what the heck is pikendroid? Some artificial fish?
Claudio Santambrogio # 27. July 2007, 10:40
Originally posted by ResearchWizard:
almost…
Soleen # 31. July 2007, 17:32
I am using opera on solaris and linux in DWM: (suckless.org). This is a tiling window manager keyboard command driven one, there is not need to use mouse for WM operations usin this DWM. Opera is about the only app, that I am using that requires me to use mouse. But one reason is the bad designed websites, another reason opera does not have a query interface.
Khaled Khalil # 31. July 2007, 17:59
for the momment you can just get control of new pages like google calculator: "g 4*8/sin(2*pi/3)", or even more by adding yubnub as a search and start using it ("yubnub sudoku -level 2" for example), but controling opera itself through commands would be another thing, IMO nice accessible way.
2) -1, i really miss opera when i am obliged to work on text mode, but as long i am running in Xwindow i prefer if opera is completely in its own interface (i.e. every single dialog like open/save file)(may be that's what Moose meant by qt-free ?). i find current (since v7 i think) opera's interface is the best i ever used.
3,5) +1, "Session management in Opera is extremely primitive" !, on the other side i find it the best of all browsers i used (most of them doesn't recognise sessions at all), but i agree there is a lot opera can provide.
@Moose, how you dare to cricize pikendroid ? don't know it is the most beloved feature users like ?
me for example, i knew opera when i was searching for a browser that support pikendroid.
Claudio Santambrogio # 31. July 2007, 21:16
Moose # 22. August 2007, 12:58
Btw, in welsh it's pronounced as 'doom'. Not sure what that implies
Montys # 19. December 2007, 20:44