NetSurf 3.2 released

[chris]

NetSurf 3.2 is primarily a bug-fix release. In addition to fixes, a disc cache feature has been added, and a little work has been done to improve CSS3 support. Several of the front ends have received quite a bit of attention, with new features and improvements; notably the GTK, AmigaOS and Framebuffer front ends. We recommend all users upgrade.

Download: http://www.netsurf-browser.org/downloads/
More information about NetSurf: http://www.netsurf-browser.org

[whabang]

How is Netsurf nowadays - is it good enough for general browsing yet? (I haven't tried it for ages, and I don't have a miggy atm.)

[wawrzon]

@whabang

you are probably referring to amiga version of netsurf. chris one is os4 exclusive, which probably would be best specified in an announcement to avoid confusion. the amiga version is here:
http://aminet.net/comm/www/NetSurf-m68k.lha
should be possible to try out under some sort pf uae as well. unfortunatelly im not that up tp date to tell how good it is.

[chris]

@whabang

you are probably referring to amiga version of netsurf. chris one is os4 exclusive, which probably would be best specified in an announcement to avoid confusion. the amiga version
should be possible to try out under some sort pf uae as well. unfortunatelly im not that up tp date to tell how good it is.

Actually the announcement was multi-format. You are correct that the "Amiga" version of NetSurf is for AmigaOS 4.0 and up, I probably should have mentioned that. The 68k version is an unofficial fork and not supported by the NetSurf development team, so has no place in this announcement.

It is possible to run OS4 Classic under WinUAE these days, so you could compare.

[whabang]

Actually, I was referring to Netsurf in general, not a specific implementation (I assume the rendering engine is the same for all forks and versions?).

[wawrzon]

Actually, I was referring to Netsurf in general, not a specific implementation (I assume the rendering engine is the same for all forks and versions?).

no, its not. netsurf has different frontends for different platforms. chris has programmed a native reaction one for os4 which is included upstream and therefore officially supported.
the amiga one depends on sdl framebuffer which is considered to be only a fallback implementation since it has limitations in comparison. afaik the autor of amiga 68k port is not as experienced a coder to provide a proper native renderer and therefore cant contibute upstream in order th have it officially maintained, but it seems he is overcoming the limitation of his port one by one, even though some might consider it hackery. just lately i read that the browser window is now dynamically resizeable, did not try it yet though myself.

[chris]

Actually, I was referring to Netsurf in general, not a specific implementation (I assume the rendering engine is the same for all forks and versions?).

It depends what you mean by "rendering engine".

The layout engine is the same on all versions, however the bit which puts it on the screen is platform specific.  For the AmigaOS 4 frontend, this uses graphics.library for drawing lines and things (with support for palette-mapped screenmodes too) and BulletAPI (diskfont.library) for text. Images that aren't in formats that NetSurf supports natively, are loaded using DataTypes.

The end result looks pretty much the same on all platforms if you ignore the GUI elements.  Have a look at the screenshots on http://www.netsurf-browser.org.

As for whether it is good enough for general browsing, I use it as my primary Amiga browser as it is so fast.  Javascript support is very primitive at the moment, so pages that absolutely require Javascript won't work, but the majority of sites I visit are fine.

[whabang]

Yeah, I meant layout engine, sorry. I realize different front-ends have different limitations.

[mulder77]

I need some advice here.

I try to run Netsurf 3.2 on a pretty initial OS 4.0 system.
The binary gets loaded, but nothing happens.

Am I missing any dependencies? SnoopDos wasn't of any help, at least I didn't see anything missing.

[chris]

I need some advice here.

I try to run Netsurf 3.2 on a pretty initial OS 4.0 system.
The binary gets loaded, but nothing happens.

Am I missing any dependencies? SnoopDos wasn't of any help, at least I didn't see anything missing.

Hey Mulder, I haven't tried NetSurf under 4.0 for a very long time but AFAIK it should still work.

If you run it from the command line with:
NetSurf -v *>ram:ns.log
You'll get a log file created which might give more clues. If you post here or email it to me I'll see if I can figure out why it's not working.

I have a feeling some of the font names changed between 4.0 and 4.1 so it might be as simple as that.

[mulder77]

I gave it a try, but unfortunately "netsurf -v" doesn't show any output.
Also tried your command line with redirection to an file, which is empty afterwards.

[chris]

I gave it a try, but unfortunately "netsurf -v" doesn't show any output.
Also tried your command line with redirection to an file, which is empty afterwards.

It's possible that the release builds have logging disabled. Download the latest test build from http://ci.netsurf-browser.org/builds/amiga/ and try again.

Or it's failing before logging anything....

edit CI build #2118 has the logging start earlier, so you might get something out of that one.

[mulder77]

1     WBL                ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 2     WBL                Open       NetSurf                     Read    OK  
 3     WBL                ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 4     WBL                Open       ELF.LazyBinding             Read    Fail
 5     WBL                ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 6     WBL                ChangeDir  OS4uae:                                
 7     NetSurf            Open       CON:64/48/800/200/NetSurf/A Read    OK  
 8     NetSurf            ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 9     NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 10    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:AWeb3                              
 11    NetSurf            Open       window                      Read    OK  
 12    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:AWeb3                              
 13    NetSurf            Open       browser                     Read    OK  
 14    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:AWeb3                              
 15    NetSurf            Open       program                     Read    OK  
 16    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:AWeb3                              
 17    NetSurf            Open       nocookie                    Read    OK  
 18    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:AWeb3                              
 19    NetSurf            Open       network                     Read    OK  
 20    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:AWeb3                              
 21    NetSurf            Open       gui                         Read    OK  
 22    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:AWeb3                              
 23    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 24    NetSurf            Open       TZONE                       Read    OK  
 25    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 26    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb                                
 27    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb/system                          
 28    NetSurf            Open       LOGWARNINGS                 Read    OK  
 29    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb/system                          
 30    NetSurf            Open       LOGINFO                     Read    OK  
 31    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb/system                          
 32    NetSurf            Open       LOGERRORS                   Read    OK  
 33    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb/system                          
 34    NetSurf            Open       ATTACHMENTDISPLAYTIME       Read    OK  
 35    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb/system                          
 36    NetSurf            Open       ATTACHMENTDISPLAY           Read    OK  
 37    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb/system                          
 38    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:usb                                
 39    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 40    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:Sys                                
 41    NetSurf            Open       wbconfig.prefs              Read    OK  
 42    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:Sys                                
 43    NetSurf            Open       input.prefs                 Read    OK  
 44    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:Sys                                
 45    NetSurf            Open       locale.prefs                Read    OK  
 46    NetSurf            ChangeDir  Env:Sys                                                              
 104   NetSurf            ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 105   NetSurf            ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 106   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/speedbar.gadge Read    Fail
 107   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/speedbar.gadge Read    Fail
 108   ramlib             Open       CLASSES:gadgets/speedbar.ga Read    OK  
 109   ramlib             ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 110   ramlib             Open       ELF.LazyBinding             Read    Fail
 111   ramlib             ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 112   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 113   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 114   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/radiobutton.ga Read    Fail
 115   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/radiobutton.ga Read    Fail
 116   ramlib             Open       CLASSES:gadgets/radiobutton Read    OK  
 117   ramlib             ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 118   ramlib             Open       ELF.LazyBinding             Read    Fail
 119   ramlib             ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 120   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 121   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 122   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/getscreenmode. Read    Fail
 123   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/getscreenmode. Read    Fail
 124   ramlib             Open       CLASSES:gadgets/getscreenmo Read    OK  
 125   ramlib             ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 126   ramlib             Open       ELF.LazyBinding             Read    Fail
 127   ramlib             ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 128   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 129   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 130   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/fuelgauge.gadg Read    Fail
 131   ramlib             Open       LIBS:gadgets/fuelgauge.gadg Read    Fail
 132   ramlib             Open       CLASSES:gadgets/fuelgauge.g Read    OK  
 133   ramlib             ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 134   ramlib             Open       ELF.LazyBinding             Read    Fail
 135   ramlib             ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 136   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 137   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 138   ramlib             Open       LIBS:arexx.class            Read    Fail
 139   ramlib             Open       LIBS:arexx.class            Read    Fail
 140   ramlib             Open       CLASSES:arexx.class         Read    OK  
 141   ramlib             ChangeDir  Env:                                    
 142   ramlib             Open       ELF.LazyBinding             Read    Fail
 143   ramlib             ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 144   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 145   ramlib             Open       NIL:                        Read    OK  
 146   NetSurf            ChangeDir  Work:ns2118                            
 147   NetSurf            ChangeDir  OS4uae:                                

Closed SnoopDos log at 15:41:35

[mulder77]

Still no output with -v, but SnoopDos has some Fails now.

[chris]

Still no output with -v, but SnoopDos has some Fails now.

I'm missing all the OpenLibrary() calls, which are the most important ones.  None of the fails look particularly relevant.

Do you have a version of Snoopy which works with OS4.0?  That tends to work a lot better than SnoopDOS - unfortunately it's locked to specific DOS versions though so you'd need the right one.

At least we've proved that it is failing before it starts running, which probably means libauto isn't opening something (I thought that gave error output, but maybe it doesn't).  I know libauto isn't recommended these days, so I'll see about opening everything manually myself - I know none of the OS4.1 libraries are actually required, so I can tell it to open the old ones, if that's what the problem is.