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Archive for the ‘Important’ Category

The status of TBZoom, TB Properties, and TBExtInt

Monday, January 18th, 2010

Heads up.

TBZoom will be fading out soon. With it, I will also be removing TB Properties. And before you grab onto your nearest email client to write to me, hear me out first.

Though don’t freak out when you hear me say “removed” in this post*, I mean it will no longer appear on the download page on ThunderBrowse.com. You can still download it here, but I offer no support for it.

TBZoom

TBZoom did a great job. It was supposed to allow the zoom manager from TB2 work for ThunderBrowse tabs, and it did so perfectly.

However, in 3.2.8, I added support for the TB3 zoom manager (in TB3 tabs). Because of this, TBZoom really isn’t needed as much as it was before. This doesn’t mean I’ll be removing it completely, it does mean that I will be removing it from update cycles. TBZoom will not be updated anymore because it doesn’t really need to be. It’s legacy software for Thunderbird 1.5-2.0.

TB Properties

* This one will completely die.

Now, with that aside, I will be stopping TB Properties support, remove it from AMO, delete its entry from the download page here and leave it only downloadable via the GS! Networks Project page. Why? Because MOST of the software on that page is BETA\ALPHA\EXPERIMENTAL.

I also don’t use TB Properties. And it’s more likely that if I’m not using it, I probably won’t be updating it. Several people have informed me that it broke their context menus on Thunderbird 3 when they tried to use it. Do note, that TB Properties is not supported for Thunderbird 3, and I take no responsibility for the fact some of you modified the code and the software stopped working. TB Properties had a moderate run, but it’s really just a sloppy hack.

TBExtInt

In addition, I will not be supporting TBExtInt. You might have realized this already. I’m going to make this official by saying that TBExtInt will not be further developed. It too was a rush job and does not reflect the quality of software that I normally strive for. It was an experiment and it’s results were mixed. I wished for better but I didn’t get what I thought I would.

In the end, TBExtInt became more of a burden than a solution. I learned a bit from it, I’m glad I didn’t spend a lot of work on it.

TB Noscript

A side note on Noscript, as I mentioned when I first wrote it, I won’t be continuing it. It was for fun to play around with some settings. By no means did I mean to make it a legitimate product. It was a small side project. As such, I was surprised when a lot of people downloaded it. I really wish that the real NoScript worked in Thunderbird, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Posted in Important, News, TB Noscript, TB Properties, TBExtInt, TBZoom, Thunderbird, Updates | No Comments »

New Tab System/3.2.7 FINAL

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

New Tab System

I’ve been upgrading the New Tab System for awhile now. The biggest thing is removing the hook to the main messagepane. What it will do is essentially make ThunderBrowse only work within ThunderBrowse’s TB3 tabs but no other tabs.

This is basically the options you’ll get:

TB2 like tabs
TB3 tabs with a urlbar in the messagepane
TB3 tabs with no urlbar in the messagepane or in emails.

These options make up a new tab in the settings window called “Tabs”, where you’ll be able to make a decision on which tab system you want to use.

Releases (3.2.7)

This next version will also probably be the first version with TB3 Tabs to release on AMO. That’s right, I’m going to push the new tabs build to AMO (after some more fixes).

Left Click Worries go bye bye

The other thing I’m improving is open links in new tab feature. I’m going to add some sort of domain check that will filter links that are not from the same domain into other domains. If a URL link is not from the same website you are currently on, it will open in a new tab.

For example:

You have some google.com search results. The search results have a link to wikipedia. The wikipedia link will open in a new tab because it’s not google.com. Back on google.com, you click for the next page of results. That page is hosted on google.com. The url opens in the same tab.

Everything in a list

This is what has changed since the last version:

Fixed RSS Header links
Improved Left click handling
TB3 tab systems and loads of tab handling improvement
Bug fixes from when last updating ThunderBrowse to TB3
Getting ready to push the TB3 tabs build as a release rather than a beta
Fixed gloda search results not displaying the message body
New settings window stuff
Easy styling support that allows themers to add support for ThunderBrowse in their theme.
Replaced the New Tab icon to one that looks way better
Added Postbox Support

When does it come out?

The new version has a bunch of strings that are going to need to be translated, so the new version won’t be out until the locales have been completed (or when I drop the hammer on localization and release it as is).

While this is being translated, I plan to try to add support for Postbox into this new build. The tabs build has been going with no Postbox support and I want to try to add it before 3.2.7 releases.

3.2.7 will have support for Postbox (however, it cannot use TB3 tabs).

Posted in 3.2.7, Announce Versions, Beta, Important, Milestone 1: TB3 tabs, News, Summer of Funding, Thunderbird, Updates | 1 Comment »

ThunderBrowse 3.2.6.3

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Facepalm moment!

I had totally forgotten that I didn’t update some of the language files in 3.2.6.2 so some of the other languages will see error messages in the GUI. I thought I didn’t have any new strings, but it turns out I did (one I added a long time ago).

Sorry about the confusion and thanks to all the recent donors to the project (it really means a lot to me)!

Update on the Summer of Funding:

Currently we are half way to the first milestone, Thunderbird 3 Tabs. Can’t wait!

Posted in 3.2.6, Announce Versions, Important, Milestone 1: TB3 tabs, News, Summer of Funding, Updates, Upload Notices | No Comments »

SoF: Thunderbird 3 tabs

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

And here is the announcement for our when we hit our first milestone in Summer of Funding! This feature will be developed and a beta will release when the first $200 dollar milestone is hit.

The first milestone will implement TB3 Tabs!

ThunderBrowse using TB3 Tabs Mockup

Many users have asked me for this feature, and I’ve long said that it’s a total maybe. I’m not super fond of TB3 tabs, but I’d be happy to add such a feature. I’ve done some research and it’s totally possible for ThunderBrowse to use the native Thunderbird 3 tabs. However, adding the feature in would require a lot of work.

Here’s what implementing Thunderbird 3 tabs would change:

(more…)

Posted in 3.2.7, Important, Milestone 1: TB3 tabs, News, Site, Summer of Funding, Updates | No Comments »

Introducing ThunderBrowse’s Summer of Funding

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Can you guess where I got that title?

I graduated from high school recently, and I’ve already been approved to my dream college. The problem is that college is expensive and in this world, you have to make money by working.

This means I don’t have time to keep developing my freeware projects anymore as I have to focus on paid work instead.

But I love working on ThunderBrowse because it’s something new and I love helping people. I hope that you guys can help me too.

The truth is that I don’t get paid to work on ThunderBrowse. Ads pay out once every eight months and I only get about $100 dollars (ads pay near to nothing [it's such a ripoff]). I also don’t get many donations on behalf of the project.

The thing is that I have lots of great ideas for features to add to ThunderBrowse, many of them that you guys, the community, have suggested that I add. With college approaching, I need to be focusing on paid assignments.

But you can help, and this is where Summer of Funding comes in.

What is Summer of Funding?

ThunderBrowse Popup Window

Summer of Funding is a little of experiment that I want to try with the users of Thunderbird and ThunderBrowse in general.

Users can donate money that will support the continuation of ThunderBrowse development and help me pay part of my college tuition for the first year.

I’m going to set up a milestone system, so that whenever the monetary amount hits a milestone, I’ll start working on a new feature that will greatly improve ThunderBrowse.

I’ve yet to decide how exactly new features will be chosen for each milestone (milestones are every $200 dollars [thus there are 5 milestones]) but most of these features will be ones that are most requested. I might put up a poll to decide what gets worked on next.

3.2.7 will be the last version that will have anything new or big in it as I’ll not be available to work on ThunderBrowse during college. If you really want to get some new and improved features and fixes added, then help me out!

How can I help?

You can donate to the project. Currently, we accept payment via Paypal (you can pay with your credit card [you do not need an account with paypal to donate]).

Click here to donate to the ThunderBrowse project.

(more…)

Posted in 3.2.7, Essays, Important, News, Press, Site, Summer of Funding, Updates | 6 Comments »

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