Otter Browser and QupZilla - Javascript JIT enabled

However, I’m aware that !Store has limitations in terms of presentation, and agree that the catalogue could benefit from “recently updated” or “recently added” filters.

Or simply the date of the upload in new column of the software list…

!Store’s software management is designed to be cross-machine, so that you don’t end up with different reports on different systems (particularly important on commercial applications, so you don’t end up buying an update twice)

I can understand recording and tracking the purchasing of updates centrally, exactly for the reason you state…

…but surely tracking version numbers of downloaded software (which is subtly different to tracking purchases) doesn’t make sense cross-machine. Something downloaded on one machine might not have been fetched/downloaded/installed on another?

There isn’t a standardised way of RISC OS apps reporting version number though

There doesn’t need to be. When you click the big friendly download button and Store does its thing, it also knows several pieces of information at that point in time – the application name and the version number.

Really, all it would take is to stuff that info someplace as, I dunno, a CSV file? Then upon starting Store, it simply loads the information and does a simple match between what’s been recorded on the user’s machine against the most recent database update.
As for matching, generally the version numbers are in the form xx.yy with maybe a letter or some other junk at the end. You shouldn’t even need to attempt to parse the version – a string compare (it’s written in C, yes?) ought to tell that “1.23b” is greater than “1.23a”.

The vision for !Store was always that users should be trusted to install, move and muck around with their software as they saw fit,

Yeah, it’s quite a bit friendlier than Packman in that regard … yes, I know I can tell Packman where to put stuff, but it’s more convoluted than “here’s a zip, draggy-droppy the app within”.

(unless a package manager is used to store that info separately – rather “un-RISC OS”)

What’s “un-RISC OS” is having managed packages at all. :-p
<snark>I mean, if we’re going to go there, please let me ask: why didn’t Archive/Drag’n’Drop ever come with a floppy disc taped to the front?</snark>

Of course, then we need to figure out if this should be “since last use” or “since last logon” or “last 30 days” etc….

If you decide not to remember what was downloaded locally (but you really ought to)… Support all three and let it be user configurable (including the number of days). It’s actually not that difficult – just convert the dates of things (software updated, last browsed, last logged in) to Julian date, and then it’s a dead-simple maths operation to work out whether or not to highlight something.
Today’s Julian date is 20138 or 58987 (depending on whether or not you’re using the modified version). Plenty of info online – it’s used by astronomers, teletext PDC, mainframes…..

The catalogue changes with every app update,

???
The server side catalogue changes with every update, sure. But this isn’t really relevant.

On the application (client) side, the catalogue changes with respect to when it was last synchronised. I, for instance, haven’t started !Store in a while so it’ll be a couple of weeks (or more) out of date.
Old catalogue…new catalogue…what’s different between them?
[might also be a good way to highlight stuff that’s new]

Or simply the date of the upload in new column of the software list…

This probably ought to feature somewhere in the app info window, however having an upload date requires the user to know when they downloaded stuff. I, for one, do not. I cannot offhand even tell you the exact date when I last updated, say, Manga. That’s why I write “Version” files. So I can go read that. ;-)

We design computers and software to make stuff simple for us.

If I download… wasn’t there a railway signal program? I don’t have internet on the LAN (outdoors again with the tablet and phone as a hotspot, thank god it’s not raining!) to check, so I’ll just call it !Signals.
So, I download Signals, right? Last Saturday. The Store app can make a note of the fact that I downloaded this program, version 1.23 and did so on 2020/05/16. This is completely separate to whether or not I’m logged in, it’s commercial, I paid for it, etc etc. All it needs to record is “this version of this app was downloaded on this date”.
Two weeks later (ooh, in the future!), I start the Store app. It updates the catalogue as is normal. Heigh-ho, one of the things that it knows I have downloaded has been updated. It’s Signals. It’s now at version 1.25. Better highlight that so the meatsack staring at the screen can begin drooling.

This is purely a client side activity. It has nothing to do with whether or not you’re signed in, whether or not you’ve paid for anything. It’s simply recording what was downloaded on that machine and indicating when there’s something that’s been updated since the version downloaded. Nothing more, nothing less.

The vision for !Store was always that users should be trusted to install, move and muck around with their software as they saw fit,

Using PackMan doesn’t stop you mucking about with stuff either. It’s only if you update it that it may loose some of your mucking about or not update it if it’s moved. I’m not sure this is any worse than dragging it from a zip somewhere else or over your old version.

Yeah, it’s quite a bit friendlier than Packman in that regard … yes, I know I can tell Packman where to put stuff, but it’s more convoluted than “here’s a zip, draggy-droppy the app within”.

!Store is friendlier as there’s an extra step or two in PackMan, it’s not that much worse though.

• Pick what you want, click install. If you want to install lots at once just keep picking them.
  *Then there’s a window you can draggy-droppy where you want each app to install. But if you’re happy with the default location, you don’t even have to do that.
• Click a button and it downloads it and installs it for you.

I’d venture to say it’s even easier if there are any dependencies or for updating something you’ve already installed. However I’m biased as I wrote/maintain PackMan.

I’d venture to say it’s even easier if there are any dependencies or for updating something you’ve already installed.

I’m old school. Dependencies should be included (if not an expected part of a modern setup – I’d include RDSP but not CLib, for instance), and upgrading ought to be a “drag on top”.

However, I fully accept that this method ought to be considered broken when it comes to SharedLibs and the ported stuff, as the sheer size and amount of things makes the old way somewhat less than feasible…

…and may even lead to cases where libraries end up being supplied alongside apps because… :-p

Uh-huh, while Store is friendlier for finding and installing an app, PackMan is friendlier for coping with multiple installs at the same time (and tracking where everything is). I recall ages ago that I ticked a bunch of things and it just got on and did it. Put some stuff in weird places ($.Apps.Utilities for example) but that’s partly my fault for not telling it otherwise. ;-)
So I guess there’s no “better”, just slightly different behaviour and which one is more useful at any given time depends upon two things -

1. what you’re wanting to install
2. what manager actually has the program you want (!)

I’ve bundled all the updates for Otter Browser into one zip file available here. Otter browser itself is still the same version.
Some of the libraries have been updated to fix a few issues.

JPEG images should now always display instead of showing a place holder.
A banner now displays when starting Otter Browser to give an indication something is happening.
For RISC OS hardware with RGB displays the system variable Qt$NoRedBlueSwap is set automatically.
No longer pauses/times out when fetching web pages.
SVG support is enabled in Webkit so inline SVG should display.

If you already have Otter Browser installed it’s probably a good idea to back everything up first.

Nice! Thank you for the update. I like the Otter banner it certainly fulfills the start-up requirement.

On my Pi3B with the 31-May-20 ROM the colours don’t look quite right, I’m assuming it has something to do with the QT$NoRedBlueSwap configuration.

PS I renamed the old version and copied, updated everthing else…

On my Pi3B with the 31-May-20 ROM the colours don’t look quite right

The Qt$NoRedBlueSwap is getting set when it shouldn’t be. There’s a small update here. Just drop the contents of the zip over the !Otter-browser folder. Next time you run it the colours should be correct.

It worked! Thank you…

10/10 ;-) the BBC’s website looks good on RISC OS!

Thanks a lot. The Bundle is working really better.

Any small problems with SVG’s. Will not double. Have wrote any lines here.

Otter actually starts up quite quickly (although the display isn’t too pretty). Unless I’m missing something though, you can only have the window full screen or the default size.

You can change the size of the window by shift-dragging the bottom right corner. This only seems to work at the intial stage before the browser opens.

What is the best way to get a URL into Otter?
Neither Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop works.

duplicate post – not authorized to delete

but authorised to edit, so you could just delete the content using backspace and replace with “duplicate post, please ignore/delete” thus giving explicit permission to Dave, who does have the authorisation, to actually delete it!

Just an observation which may be useful to anyone in future.

What is the best way to get a URL into Otter?

Create a text file and save it as textfile/txt. Then click File→Open and load the text file into Otter browser. The text will be display in a new tab. You can now copy and paste the text.

What is the best way to get a URL into Otter?
Neither Copy and Paste or Drag and Drop works.

May not be the best way but my Form Filler application Form Filler can send the output of a button to the URL bar in Otter.

So copy the URL you want paste it into one of the buttons of Form Filler and save it, then place the cursor in the URL bar of Otter and press the right button.

http://kevsoft.co.uk/

You can change the size of the window by dragging the bottom right corner. This only seems to work at the intial stage before the browser opens.

Holding down the shift key and holding the left mouse button while moving the mouse allows the window to be resized.

Holding down the shift key and holding the left mouse button while moving the mouse allows the window to be resized.

Thanks thats generic, but explains why it worked from the bottom right corner!

There’s an updated download of QupZilla available here.
It’s the same version as before. It now displays a banner on start up and for RISC OS hardware with RGB displays the system variable Qt$NoRedBlueSwap is set automatically.

The rest of the required resources are contained in the Otter Browser download zip. See the !ReadMe in the zip for installation instructions for the resources if you don’t have Otter Browser already installed.

Ok, installed, including the bit about !Otter which i already have installed, but now get the following as previously reported.

Unable to allocate memory for shared library
Unable to allocate memory for shared library
SCSI::HardDisc4.$.Apps.!Qupzilla: can’t load library ‘libicudata.so.52’

I also get:

Unable to allocate memory for shared library
Unable to allocate memory for shared library
ADFS::Elesar.$.Net.!QupZilla.qupzilla: can’t load library ‘libcudata.so.52’

Unable to allocate memory for shared library

The file !Boot.Choices.Book.PreDesk.DALimit is restricting the Shared Library dynamic area to 128MB.
Edit the file and change it from this,

SYS “OS_DynamicArea”,8,128*1024*1024,128*1024*1024,128*1024*1024

to this

SYS “OS_DynamicArea”,8,256*1024*1024,256*1024*1024,256*1024*1024

Thanks Chris thats sorted it.

Bye the way – do any of these browsers work on the Iyonix ?