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Things you can do with a browser in 2020

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Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#361

Post by Nursie »

megablast wrote: post #119
masswerk wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While agree that most of these are highly invasive and certainly not a requirement, the Visibility API is actually a good thing. Apps which are running continuous scripts, like games, etc, may and should detect, when they are hidden (i.e. the tab they are in isn't the front most one) and pause. This is explicitely meant to preserve resources on the client machine and to benefit the user. On the other hand, there isn'…

I don't agree, I leave a video on, switch tabs to read something else, and now it stops. There is no way to get it to keep playing and switch tabs.

FYI there is a firefox addon to block the visibility API I can now listen to the UK PM's coronavirus update on my phone with the screen locked, or while looking up something else.

Whoever invented that API forgot whose client the browser is. Mine.

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#363

Post by oatmealsnap »

StefanKarpinski wrote: post #330
stickfigure wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of development effort, maintaining a browser fork that merely disables these features seems pretty easy. If you think users would prefer that, why not make one? I personally don't think it would take off, because I think most user attitudes range from "want these features" to "ambivalence". But if you're so certain, why not try?

Why does it require a fork? Having an advanced settings page with checkboxes for each of these web features seems straightforward and not overly confusing to normal users.

Pretty sure that exists in Firefox

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#364

Post by hombre_fatal »

pjmlp wrote: post #292
hombre_fatal wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No uBlock, no dev console, no network tab. Completely opaque. An install step just to order a pizza. Shareable URLs/deeplinks. It's a freak of luck that we have the web, an app environment with a built-in dev console and actual customization. Just think how much it contrasts with the black box of native apps and with what large companies actually want. I'm in no rush to throw it away.

Sorry, for a minute I though you were describing mobile browsers.

Mobile browsers are neutered but still way ahead of native apps on this spectrum.

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#365

Post by XelNika »

bobthepanda wrote: post #358
XelNika wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no real consensus. Try this site: https://contrastrebellion.com/

Sure, but there's a whole spectrum between slightly darker grey on slightly lighter grey, and straight up #FFF on #000 or vice versa. If I have to adjust my monitor brightness to be okay with reading something there's a major issue.

> If I have to adjust my monitor brightness to be okay with reading something there's a major issue.

Yes, but the issue is with your monitor brightness or your ambient lighting, not the content. I tune my monitor for use at night with the lights on and as a result, #000 on #FFF is perfectly comfortable at all times. There's rarely a good reason to use a PC in complete darkness and I can't think of any reasons to do it in your own home.

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#366

Post by noisem4ker »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #70
_bxg1 wrote: post #6

Worth noting is that "prefers-color-scheme" works in all major OSes at this point, mobile and desktop. If your site already has a dark theme, there is no reason at all not to be integrating it this way. Even if you don't have a dark theme already, it's a huge value-add..... (@dang?)

Fascinating, they're still Win95's ability to customize color schemes.

Even Windows 3 and possibly earlier editions allowed way more theme customization than a simple choice between light or dark.

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#367

Post by jsilence »

7786655 wrote: post #351
radarsat1 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mind the idea of notifications when I have a web page open in a tab. Like, sure if I receive a message while I'm looking at another tab, let me know! But I was a bit shocked to discover that I was getting notifications from sites that I did not have open, then I realized that when I register for notifications the browser will continuously poll that site in the background, no matter whether I've browsed to tha…

That's not actually how it works. What happens when you subscribe to notifications is that your browser gives the website instructions for it to send notifications to the browser vendor's notification service. Your browser only polls Mozilla's servers or Google's servers or Apple's servers and all notifications are relayed through that.

To me this sounds even worse.

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#368

Post by morninglight »

Some people want a laptop that can make waffles, wash and iron clothes, vacuum the carpet, paint walls, repair blacktop and work as a vibrator.

My needs are simple. I want a small, rock-solid, terminal that is dedicated to HIGHLY secure and federally guaranteed transactions on a publicly funded military grade network for: Banking, Bill Payment, Tax payments, Voting.

I do not want it to take photos, listen to me, show advertisments, play games, stream media, maps, start coffee machines, do email and chat, play audio/video files, draw graphics or change themes.

And any "browser" that can do these additional functions should be banned from connecting to the high security network under penalty of death.

Very simple.

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#369

Post by arendtio »

rkagerer wrote: post #28

As a user, so many of these I wish did NOT exist. E.g: Push Notifications, Banners, Web Share, Contacts, Page Visibility, Badging. Uncertain about USB, Bluetooth, Locks, Keyboard Lock, and Native File System. I don't want my browser doing those things.

For some things, it is not that simple. Let's take for example the Push API.

While there are very few web sites where you want them to send you notifications straight to your desktop, that API is also used to wake up your Service Workers, to let them receive information when they are not the currently active website and are therefore quite important to build things like chats or apps that sync over multiple devices.

AFAIK that Push API for Service Workers is not available on iOS yet, which is a major show stopper for Progressive Web Apps as there are many use cases where you would need something like that.

Re: Things you can do with a browser in 2020

#370

Post by arendtio »

asjw wrote: post #134
cj wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You consider them undesirable, but they are a critical feature for many applications. Specifically, chat. More specifically... support agents providing live chat support. (And for that matter, end users interacting via chat appreciate push notifications on reply) Without browser push notifications, there really isn’t a good alternative. The fact that opt in rates are close to 50% is probably a good thing! It means th…

Chat is probably one of the only functionalities that are still better served by an ad-hoc app If you need notifications, just use a native app (or even a web one wrapped in a native app) Anyway, most of these "features" are used because they are already there, remove them from the base install of the browser, distribute them as a plugin and make the devs consider that the feature could not be present and they will s…

This is not just about chat. Ever tried to build a cross-device synchronization without being able to push updates to clients? It sucks.

The user doesn't know that another user changed something until he opens the app and then the app has to fetch and integrate all updates since the last interaction with the app and the user has to wait until his app is ready.

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