SillyDog701

[beanboy89]

Donzilla 0.6 PR1 looks good, even without Negative Modern. But I think i'd be a nice visual improvment if it could be properly applied. The new throbber is a good idea. Also, while on the subject of the throbber, the throbber tooltip displays "Go to the HardwareHacks 2000 home page," but when it is clicked, it redirects to home.netscape.com. When I strated Donzilla 0.6 PR1 with a new profile, the new start page appeared, a welcome change. The new about: page looks good, but I'd like to suggest, if possible, to display the UserAgent string of Donzilla in the About window, as Netscape and Mozilla do.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR1 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

Thanks for bringing the throbber text to my attention. I'll bet that the tooltip is using &vendorShortName; which I changed to HardwareHacks 2000 while I was editing brand.dtd and brand.properties I didn't know that it was in the throbber as well as everywhere else, but that'll be corrected soon. Also, I did try to put the useragent string in the about: page, but can't seem to find out how. Does anybody know, is the following JS code right:

Code: Select all

document.write(navigator.userAgent)

or am I missing something? I have no knowledge of JavaScript in the first place.
BTW, Negative Modern should be in place by PR2. IMO, nothing should be changed, besides bugfixes, between the course of a PR and a final, just to make sure that change works.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR1 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

OK, some of the latest info on Donzilla 0.6PR2:

* I've opted against using Negative Modern, even though I have modified the hell out of it, because upon constant use as I am, it is actually getting hard to read everything with the inbuilt color scheme. Maybe I'll include it, but the default theme will probably still be set to plain old Modern.

* Something very interesting: I got it (sort of) running the 1.7.5 GRE, which clears up a lot of security-related holes. Why the UA hasn't rebranded to show the 1.7.5 milestone or the 1.7.5 compile date is beyond me. I've only run into one major problem, and that's getting it to work with some Netscape-related entities down in the taskbar, which is showing toolbar-related XUL messages saying that entities weren't found. I'm guessing that I'll edit those extra My Netscape widgets and such out. I haven't checked in with Secunia's tests yet, but I will do that soon and see if everything indeed has been fixed.

* I was going to port this to Mozilla Suite when 1.8 actually released, but since that isn't going to happen, and because I've already got the latest 1.7 runtime working, I guess we'll stay on NS7.2 for awhile longer.

* Donzilla is now (mostly) XP-compatible. The Start Menu shortcuts to Donzilla, upon a new install, will show "Donzila 0.6PR2" and "Donzilla Mail" instead of their NS counterparts.

* Most of the NS proprietary junk, save for Help and AIM, are being removed to avoid some possible copyright issues.

The suite may be dead, but DZ is NOT being ported to a combination of standalone apps that I could somehow get to install. What would you rather, one easy-to-download suite, or a combination of Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Gaim, Nvu, mIRC, and whatever else to make up for what's been lost? I'd prefer the small and easy one.

I do have some plans to make a custom version of Thunderbird, possibly something like OutlooKiller or something, that would be designed as a sort-of replacement to Outlook (yes, Outlook, not Outlook Express). I don't see any Firefox-based idea yet, but who knows, if Firefox becomes so popular that I could benefit from a Firefox client alongside Donzilla, maybe I'll change my mind. Donzilla isn't going to be the only piece of software in the Hardwarehacks library, you know!

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR1 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

OK, some more progress today:

* The 1.7.5 GRE isn't stable enough running in this method yet to release it with PR2. I'll be moving this idea to the 0.7 milestone.

* The throbber doesn't stink anymore. I spent some time with Adobe Photoshop Elements, with an interesting organization scheme, where we see all frames of the throbber, the final throbber (at frame 7), and the splash screen where I'm pulling the images from:

And what of it all?

Yeah, I was expecting more too.

* The throbber text issue has been cleared up. Currently I've got it redirecting to the Donzilla start page, but I also could elect to have it redirect to the HH front page, or just remove &vendorShortName; from the throbber, put Netscape.com in its place, and have it redirect to Netscape's front page. Tell me what you think and I'll do it.

* Some plugin issues have been cleared up. Authorware, Shockwave are now back. The Office 2003 plguin has been added. QuickTime's plugin has been updated to 6.5.2 (even though it's still reporting 6.5.1 for whatever reason), and Adobe Reader's plugin has been updated to 7.0.

* Donzilla now supports a few new content types: MNG videos (video/mng), JNG images (image/jng), and VRML worlds (x-world/x-vrml). The new markup languages include WML 1, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3. WML 2.0 hasn't been included because the wmlbrowser does not yet have a compiled binary of the app with WML 2.0 support. The difference: image support.

There's only one more thing that needs to be fixed before a PR2 release, and that's the about: window. As beanboy89 suggested, it should report the browser's useragent on the page, but so far I can't figure out how to do so, because I can't seem to rip it off the real about: window (???). Once that single problem is cleared up, Donzilla 0.6PR2 will be out.

If I might speculate for 0.6 final a bit, I hope to have the Netscape installer working properly by that time, even though it doesn't seem like it will be easily possible without the CCK tool... Nevertheless, it will get done, whether it gets pushed back to 0.7, 0.8, or 0.9, but definitely not 1.0, it will be done by then.

Also, I've made a visual roadmap of where we'll be close to the 1.0 release. It's holefully going to look a bit like this (sorry for the parody on the Mozilla roadmap):

The most notable thing here is the introduction of a Thunderbird client running alongside Donzilla Suite, which I'll get into at a later date. You can see the gap between the 0.7 and 0.8 releases; this indicates the work that will be pending, after the visual presentation part of Donzilla is done, which will fix some bugs that have not been considered by the developers (take the row of Google logos, for example). Development will speed up in mid-June due to summer break, so I'll have plenty more time to work on Donzilla.

Anyway, with the possibility of a standalone Thunderbird app, at the moment such an idea would still be a bit cloudy, but chances are that at one point or another it will happen. The client would be designed as an Outlook alternative, that in addition to adding e-mail support, would add calendar support, notes, and whatever else is in Outlook (mind you, I haven't even seen Outlook since the brief period when I used Outlook 98). Around the time that Donzilla is about to go gold, the Thunderbird client will go into hibernation so that DZ Suite can be finalized. Once 1.0 is released and, if necessary, release bugs are cleared up in 1.0.1, Thunderbird will come out of hibernation and resume development. Before the hibernation phase of the Thunderbird client, I would at the very least like to have one or two milestones out so that we can get an idea of what functionality we will have.

If Firefox really does gain a ton of browser share at any time this year, I might go on and make the full set of standalone apps with HH functionality.

Sorry I made this post so long, I had a lot to say...

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

OK, since we're on a strict milestone schedule, here's PR2. New features include some resolved some more branding issues (more of its own thing than Netscape's). A preliminary implementation of the useragentswitcher extension is present, although I have decided that I'll save this feature for 0.7, and it probably won't be in there for 0.6 final. Probably...

Anyway, 0.6 PR2 finally decides to get VRML, MNG, Director, and Authorware functionality back in, since they were accidentally dropped in the 0.6 alpha build.

As of the moment, there are still a few branding issues that need to be cleared up that I am aware of. Here's a list of all that and when it will be fixed:

* The Netscape 7.2 Help Center. It speaks for itself. For the 0.8 and 0.9 milestones, these will be converted to the "Donzilla Help Center". The articles will not be the same, of course. So that means some people like Antony with the Netscape KB, Ramona with Netscape and Mozilla Solutions, and maybe Chris Ilias with his junk, should watch out for their content being 'borrowed'.

* The menu bars. The "Window" pane still displays a Navigator icon, that will probably be replaced with Donzilla's default icon (the lizard). Hopefully this will be fixed by 0.6 final. Also, in the "Help" pane, there are links to "What's New in Netscape 7.2", "Security Center", and "Feedback Center"; these will re-link to HH pages. This will be fixed by 0.8.

* In the Preferences pane, for Turbo mode, there is still a Netscape icon there, that needs to be changed. This will be fixed for 0.6.

* The NS taskbar (not the Windows taskbar) displays a Netscape icon. This will be fixed for 0.6.

* The Netscape registration wizard, NS Webmail, and NIM. This, for the most part, needs to be left alone, since you would be registering with Netscape. Perhaps I will make this say "Register Donzilla with the Netscape Network" instead. This is an 0.7 fix, mainly because I can't think of what to do in time for 0.6 final.

If there is anywhere else I should notice, please tell me.

Anyway, most of these objectives should be done on schedule, because Donzilla's organization system will soon be moved from some RTF documents detailing what I need to do over to Microsoft Project 2003, so everything will actually make sense.

BTW -- the Donzilla start page is a bit messed up at the moment, I accidentally deleted to make way for the new one, but accidentally posted a report on benign intracranial hypertension in its place. Most of it will be back soon.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[beanboy89]

Once again, nice job Don. The new Donzilla throbber looks very nice, but seems to be only in the Modern theme. The glassy Netscape throbber is still present in the Classic theme. Other than that, everything looks fine in 0.6 PR2.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

Hmm, I never even thought of the Classic theme. Time to add that to Project. I've decided that Classic will be finished hopefully 0.6, but might be pushed back to 0.7 if necessary.

Anyway, Project is being downloaded right now from Microsoft's website. Who would've guessed it's a 221MB download...

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[beanboy89]

There's only one more thing that needs to be fixed before a PR2 release, and that's the about: window. As beanboy89 suggested, it should report the browser's useragent on the page, but so far I can't figure out how to do so, because I can't seem to rip it off the real about: window (???). Once that single problem is cleared up, Donzilla 0.6PR2 will be out.

I spliced out some of the code from the Mozilla About page, and added it into the Donzilla about page. Specifically this code:

Code: Select all

<body>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<a href="&amp;vendorURL;"><img src="about:logo" alt="&amp;brandShortName;"
height="200" width="200"></a>
</td>
<td id="mozver">
<h1><a id="mozlink" href="&amp;releaseURL;">&amp;brandShortName; </a>
</h1>
<script type="application/x-javascript">
// using try..catch to handle empty useragents and other cases where the regex fails to apply
try {
document.getElementById("mozver").appendChild(document.createTextNode(navigator.userAgent));
document.getElementById("mozlink").firstChild.appendData(navigator.userAgent.match(/rv:([^;)]+)/)[1]);
}
catch (e) {}
</script>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Then, using Composer, I pasted the code into Donzilla's About window. It displays the Netscape Logo from [tt]about:logo[/tt] which should be changed with the branding. Also, more importanaly, the UserAgent is displayed, not once, but twice. This needs alot of cleaning, but I belive it can be done. I don't know very much about page coding, but it's a start.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

Wow, that's very nice. The reason it's showing &brandShortName; is because of two things: it's got the wrong DOCTYPE specified, instead of using the DTD containing the &brandShortName; entity, and you're using the & entity instead of just plain & (which is required for the entity functionality). But, either way, that's definitely going in. Thanks a lot!

BTW, the reason you have two UA strings in there is because I already had a script in there to do that, but it apparently doesn't follow the proper XHTML syntax and is ignored. Since you're probably using HTML and not XHTML in that page, and it appears to be working with straight HTML, you get two UA strings. I'll keep the one in the table but ditch the one under it. The logo will probably be replaced by the modification of the lizard that I'm using, probably a bit like the following, which I just pulled off Google and modified:

Of course, it won't be that big. I think that the Mozilla star in Mozilla distributions is 200x200 pixels, although I could be mistaken, could you give me the proportions? (I really need a control subject, I guess. Maybe I should go pick up a copy of 1.7.5)

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[beanboy89]

Of course, it won't be that big. I think that the Mozilla star in Mozilla distributions is 200x200 pixels, although I could be mistaken, could you give me the proportions? (I really need a control subject, I guess. Maybe I should go pick up a copy of 1.7.5)

Yes, the Mozilla star on the about: page is a 200x200 pixel GIF image.
BTW, Nice logo.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

OK, now I have a decent organization system in Project 2003, which is good. So, what better way to cash in on this investment than to make the progress public? By doing this, I'll be able to cut down on some of the excessive posting here. If you have Microsoft Project 98 or higher, you can download the project file containing the main goals for Donzilla up until it goes gold and take a look for yourself at the current progress. The file will be updated every time the project changes.

Download the project file.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6PR2 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

Well how do you like this: it's exactly midnight right now. And exactly at midnight, the split-second start of April 2nd, Donzilla 0.6 is out! Ah, it's been awhile since the last final release, eh?

Anyway, 0.6 Final solves a few branding issues in 0.6PR2 and lower. SVG support has been added and other various plugins were updated. The Classic theme now contains the updated throbber. Last but not least, Mail and Newsgroups now uses its own start page instead of the Netscape one by default (if you create a new profile or click the "Restore Default" button. Beanboy89's JS-Useragent code provided above still hasn't worked yet, so I don't know exactly what gives... Maybe, 0.8 for it?

OK, now that I finished typing this, it's actually 12:15 (whatever took me so long is beyond me)... You can download it from the usual place, the download link.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Al]

The google "G" still appears in the tools menu

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[beanboy89]

The google "G" still appears in the tools menu

Al, I belive that's a bug with the GoogleBar extension, not Donzilla.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.6 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)

[Don_HH2K]

Al,

I'm scheduled to fix that bug in 0.8. Milestones 0.8 and 0.9.x (there will definitely be 0.9.1, 2, etc...) are all scheduled to fix bugs of that sort. I've probably mentioned this before, but...

Donzilla's 0.1 and 0.2 were undisclosed (while I was working on them)
Donzilla's 0.3 to 0.5 worked on getting functionality where ot should be
Donzilla's 0.6 and 0.7 work on branding issues, like themes, throbber, etc...
Donzilla's 0.8 and 0.9 will work on some other issues, like the G rows, or some language pack issues that still reference 'Netscape'.
Donzilla 1.0 will be the good old, glorious (...right...) release version.

This should be an easy fix. My current plan is to just eliminate the 'G' logo altogether so we don't get that problem, but there's always the chance that I could find out why that's happening and resolve that, so you'd have one 'G'.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Donzilla/0.7PR1 (like Netscape/7.2; wml/1.3)