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The KHTML library (as wrapped by KFM) was surprisingly usable back in the day on Linux. But who'da thunk it'd turn into one of the most important pieces of code in the world? Congrats to all involved.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surprise, I would hope. :) And lack of recognition, I suppose.
Don, i am trying to understand why you (not you in person but Apple) went the open source route for safari but not for itunes etc. Can it be that, at that moment when you made the decision, web sites 'made for internet explorer', were too many. And you wanted the rendering engine on Mac to be widespread by getting from and giving to an open source project.
Remember, Safari is not open source. Only WebKit is.
Just watched the Keynote announcement of Safari and I finally understand what 'Snapback' is (was?) I have been using a Mac since 2005 and never figured out what it did, then I stopped noticing it was even there.
I understood what it was but I also never used it. It sounds useful, but somehow isn’t for some reason, at least that’s the case for me. I wonder whether there were ever any number of people who really used the feature.
That also goes to show that just having a useful feature isn’t enough.
I think the problem with the feature is that it isn’t useful often enough. The common case when looking at search results is to open a page, see that it isn’t the right one and go back. So just hitting the back button once is quite often all that’s needed.
Sometimes you will click through several pages before you notice that what you found isn’t quite right, but I would guess that in a majority of cases you will notice that immediately. Which means that just hitting the back button just works in a majority of cases and the Snapback function doesn’t provide any additional savings.
Moreover, the back button is probably the single most used UI element in a web browser, so everyone is really used to using it. Switching to something else that does something similar in some situations but you are not used to is a painful transition.
Also, the back button degrades gracefully: Just slamming on it until you are back where you want to also works. It might take a little more time, but it works.
So in summary, the Snapback function is only rarely actually useful compared to the back button, and if it is the back button requires only a little more effort but also works. That’s why I think it doesn’t really work.
it not so fast as chrome, not have so many productive add-ons as chrome and firefox, not so flexible and customizable as firefox, not so open and powerful as firefox.
Just watched the Keynote announcement of Safari and I finally understand what 'Snapback' is (was?) I have been using a Mac since 2005 and never figured out what it did, then I stopped noticing it was even there.
Too late! The feature was removed (I think quite some time ago). Ok, admittedly it’s still there in the menu, but no longer given any space in the UI. I understood what it was but I also never used it. It sounds useful, but somehow isn’t for some reason, at least that’s the case for me. I wonder whether there were ever any number of people who really used the feature. That also goes to show that just having a useful…
hardly using safari. it not so fast as chrome, not have so many productive add-ons as chrome and firefox, not so flexible and customizable as firefox, not so open and powerful as firefox.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. 2003 - Safari launches. 2013 - a salvo of blogs is fired. I'm thinking either an NDA just expired or a lot of folks are feeling nostalgic about the 10 year anniversary.
Neither, really. It's mostly because I retired.
So; what do you plan to do? A relaxed retirement? Occasional contracting? A startup? Open source? Quiting programming forever and travelling? Something a lot more reasonable than this false dichotomy?
The KHTML library (as wrapped by KFM) was surprisingly usable back in the day on Linux. But who'da thunk it'd turn into one of the most important pieces of code in the world? Congrats to all involved.
Speaking of which, how is the KHTML (not webkit) code now?
It has a link to this post http://blogs.kde.org/node/1001 from 2005 saying there isn't much hope.
It would be nice to have a 2013 update.