
Mozilla Firefox 2 for RISC OS
=============================

http://www.riscos.info/index.php/Firefox

August 2009
RISC OS Release (Work in Progress)
Peter Naulls
peter@chocky.org

For discussion of Firefox 2 for RISC OS, riscos.info mailing list is suitable
and is more likely to be responded to than anywhere else:

http://www.riscos.info/mailman/listinfo/gcc

Please also see bug reporting guidelines at the bottom.

About RISC OS Firefox
----------------------

Firefox was ported to RISC OS to fill the requirement for a comprehensive
browsing solution.  Based upon the original Mozilla and Netscape work, Firefox
is potentially able to access almost any website, and is one of the most widely
used browsers.  Its open source nature means that anyone inside or outside
RISC OS development can update it.  These features made it an ideal choice for
porting to RISC OS.

Firefox was ported to RISC OS by Peter Naulls under the Unix Porting
Project (now part of riscos.info) as part of a programme of bringing
Unix programs to RISC OS in order to fill gaps in the application space.
Firefox was only possible at all because it built upon work by the GCCSDK
team with GCC and UnixLib and current work by the project such as the ChoX11
library.   And of course, the many subscribers to the project who made it
financially viable.  Thanks for supporting the future of RISC OS.

The ongoing development is only possible with donations to the project.
See http://www.riscos.info/index.php/Donations for more details.


This Version
------------

This version is suitable for the following RISC OS systems:

IYONIX pc, A9, Omega, VirtualRPC (StrongARM edition only).  It is not suitable
for RiscPCs or older RISC OS machines due to the use of half-word instructions.
See instead the RiscPC version.


Changes
-------

Work in Progress (Oct 2009)

Upstream update to ongoing Mozilla 1.8 branch, post 2.0.0.20

 - Nominal upstream version of 2.0.0.22pre
 - Rewritten graphics engine for RISC OS to increase speed and
   memory performance
 - Native scrollbars

Release 8 (Aug 2009)

Upstream update to last 2.0.0.x release.

- Update to 2.0.0.20
- Some of the libraries weren't compiled with optimisation, hindering performance


Release 7 (Dec 2008)

Upstream update and minor bug fixes.

- Update to 2.0.0.18:
  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0.0.18/releasenotes/
- A timing issue was fixed, which means caret flashing/animated
  GIFs now work properly, and some operations are more responsive.
- Fixes so that the package works with RiscPkg.


Release 6 (May 2008)

This is an upstream update only.

- Update to 2.0.0.14:
  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0.0.14/releasenotes/


Release 5 (April 2008)

This is an upstream update only.

- Update to 2.0.0.13:
  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0.0.13/releasenotes/


Release 4 (Feburary 2008)

This fixes minor issues with the previous release.  The code is otherwise the same.

- Some widget handling fixes promised in the last release didn't make it, these
  are now included, and some additional debugging is disabled.
- There were some issues with the packaging process which meant that the wrong
  name was in the RiscPkg information.  Unfortunately, RiscPkg still doesn't
  like the resulting package much.


Release 3 (February 2008)

This is a bug fix release only.  There are no other RISC OS-specific enhancements.

- Update to upstream Firefox 2.0.0.12 (from 2.0.0.1), see:
  http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/2.0.0.12/releasenotes/
  and older URLs.  This means many security and stability fixes.
- Build with GCC 4.1, but converted to AOF using new tool.  Since dynamic
  linking is not yet production ready, ELFLoader is not required for this
  version.
- Fixes situation of not being able to start Firefox at all on many systems.
- Iconbar quit performs proper shutdown sequence.
- Removes "mystery" 1x1 pixel window.
- Fixes vanishing panes in some tab closing combinations.
- Fixes bookmark handling.
- Work around for odd spacing in some menu items until keyboard shortcuts are implemented.
- Possibly some incidental speed improvements.


Release 2 (December 2006)

- Firefox becomes the first RISC OS GCC 4.1 application released
- RISC OS Menus and iconbar icon enabled, although functionality is incomplete
- !UnixHome not used any longer - preferences stored in standard RISC OS
  Choices directory - Choices:Mozilla.Firefox
- Handling of multiple windows fixed - this was causing Firefox to mysteriously
  exit at times, particularly those with pop up windows like banking sites.
- Updated to the upstream 2.0.0.1 version.


Release 1 (November 2006)

- First release of version 2 of Firefox for RISC OS


I just want to run it
---------------------

Merge these with your !System:

Tinct
  http://www.tinct.net/download/tinct_013.zip
SharedUnixLibrary
 http://www.riscos.info/downloads/gccsdk/sharedunixlib/sharedunixlib.zip


Running First Time
------------------

It takes longer the first time due to creation of profiles.  Please be
patient before the first window opens.  There is a desktop refresh which
I was not able to fix for this release.


Reporting bugs
--------------

I would much prefer you *didn't* report mis-features, things you'd
like to see, and any odd behaviour.  This might seem unhelpful, but chances
are, I already know all about it, and extra emails will not help.

I would like to hear from you only if you have a crash that is repeatable.
Please send me !Firefox.stderr and precisely what sequence of actions
is required to repeat it.

The most obvious list of mis-features is listed below.  Just because I
didn't list it, doesn't mean I don't know about it:

 - RISC OS Menus

   Not perfect, and doesn't include keyboard shortcuts.

 - RISC OS Scrollbars and fullscreen toggle button

   Making proper use of RISC OS scrollbars is a surprising amount of
   work.  I expect that to be done for some future release.

 - Root certificates and SSL sites

   For technical reasons, it is not yet possible to support the
   mechanism used to access the Mozilla root certificates.  That means
   that you will be asked to verify the identity of https:// websites.
   This works in a test shared library version, but that is not yet
   stable.

 - Speed

   This version is faster than the 1.5 versions for a variety of
   reasons, but there is still much that can be done.  However,
   I expect the current performance will be satisfactory for many
   users.

 - Unicode characters

   This version will only display 7-bit ASCII characters.  Anything else
   is shown as a question mark.  I expect to use the same font engine
   in use by NetSurf in a future release.

 - Plugin support

   There is no RISC OS plugin support in this version.

 - Spellchecker, extensions, printing, other stuff.

   Use at your own risk.


Troubleshooting
---------------

You might have problems starting up, especially if you had an aborted
start up from a previous version.  In this case, I recommend you
delete Choices:Mozilla.Firefox and try again.


