NetSurf 2.8 Released

[Michael Drake]

The NetSurf developers are happy to announce NetSurf 2.8. This release
contains many bug fixes and improvements.

It is available to download from http://www.netsurf-browser.org/

Binaries are available now for both RISC OS and AmigaOS 4.

We plan to make binaries for other platforms available soon.


NetSurf 2.8 adds support for frames and iframes on all platforms, MIME
type sniffing, and a new image cache. Image decoding can now be deferred
until images are required, for more optimal resource use and faster page
load times.

A more detailed and complete list of changes is given below.

NetSurf is a multi-platform web browser for RISC OS, UNIX-like platforms
(including Linux), Mac OS X, and more.

Core / All
----------

* Added rudimentary support for CSS :before pseudo element.
* Improved vertical layout of boxes and margin handling.
* Optimised layout engine not to calculate word widths it doesn't need.
* Optimised layout and redraw of pages as their images fetch.
* Simplified internal character in string location.
* Improved internal content management.
* Fixes to build system.
* Cleaned up image content handlers.
* Simplified internal content redraw interface.
* Simplified status bar text.
* Improved content handler initialisation.
* Improved scrollbar widget.
* Fixed direct dragging of scrollable boxes in HTML.
* Improved fetch option handling.
* Optimised treeview layout.
* Improved default cookie manager view.
* Added support for iframes.
* Added support for frames.
* Improved drag handling.
* Fixed text selection, search, and widget rendering in HTML redraw.
* Made page text search support more robust.
* Improved HTTP authentication header parsing.
* Removed plotter table global.
* Removed current browser global for redraw.
* Updated PNG handler for recent libPNGs.
* Refactored HTTP handling utilities.
* Improved handling of mouse input for text selection.
* Fixed stopping of active HTML content fetches.
* Fixed GCC 4.6 build warnings.
* Disallowed self-importing of CSS contents.
* Made download handling more robust.
* Simplified bitmap management.
* Improved handling of HTML font tag's size attribute.
* Added support for content type sniffing.
* Added an image cache, for managing decoded image reuse.
* Fixed handling of zero-length documents.
* Improved handling of memory cache sizes.

* Hubbub library (HTML parser):
+ Fixed build with GCC 4.6.

* LibCSS library (CSS parser and selection engine):
+ Improved build tree cleaning.
+ Fixed build with GCC 4.6.
+ Added support for selection of page-break properties.
+ Optimised style selection.

* LibParserUtils library (parser building utility functions):
+ Changed build to require iconv by default.
+ Support Byte Order Marks in UTF16 and UTF32 streams.

RISC OS-specific
----------------

* Improved Adjust double-click handling in treeviews.
* Consolidated content handlers for ArtWorks, Draw, and Sprite.
* Removed redundant code specific to old RISC OS frame implementation.
* Removed redundant code specific to old RISC OS iframe implementation.
* Updated for new frame and iframe support in core.
* Updated to handle new interface to core redraw functionality.

GTK-specific
------------

* Made new window open showing homepage, rather than current page.
* Fixed compatibility with latest GTK API.
* Updated to handle new interface to core redraw functionality.
* Updated for new frame and iframe support in core.

AmigaOS-specific
----------------

* Improved font handling.
* Improved text charset handling.
* Added support for user defined DPI setting.
* Improved image handlers.
* Improved MIME type handling.
* Primitive plugin content support.
* Added support for additional mouse buttons.
* Updated to handle new interface to core redraw functionality.
* Improved handling of tabs.
* Improved toolbar button availability.
* Improved download window.
* Improved context menus.
* Updated for new frame and iframe support in core.
* Added a splash screen.
* Improved support for entering exotic characters.

Mac OS X-specific
-----------------

* Removed dependency on Xcode installation for MIME mappings.
* Accept URLs as arguments to binary.
* Fixed build.
* Fixed local directory listing display.
* Improved Apple image handler.
* Added view source functionality.
* Fixed crash due to broken certificate bundle path.
* Added quarantine attributes to downloaded files.
* Added NetSurf to 'Open with' menu for HTML files.
* Updated to handle new interface to core redraw functionality.
* Updated for new frame and iframe support in core.

BeOS/Haiku-specific
-------------------

* Reduced debug output.
* Updated resources.
* Updated to handle new interface to core redraw functionality.
* Updated for new frame and iframe support in core.

Atari-specific
--------------

* Improved rendering.
* Implemented treeview support.
* Added Hotlist (bookmarks) feature.
* Simplified scheduler.
* Improved support for local files.
* Updated to handle new interface to core redraw functionality.
* Improved window resize accuracy.
* Ensured window title is converted to local encoding.
* Updated for new frame and iframe support in core.

Framebuffer-specific
--------------------

* Improved portability.
* Updated to handle new interface to core redraw functionality.
* Fixed to handle no configured Cookies file location.
* Updated for new frame and iframe support in core.

Also included are many smaller bug fixes, improvements and
documentation enhancements.

--
Michael Drake (tlsa) http://www.netsurf-browser.org/

--
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