Notices

Out of curiosity, do you think that the problem (mentioned earlier) with ignoring most of keys mapped to hardware keyboard is fixable in Qt Components Hildon, or is sitting outside API's of those classes?

/Estel

I imagine the problem is with how QApplication handles those key events, so it will hopefully be fixable in Qt Components Hildon by getting access to the QApplication instance and installing an event filter on it. On the other hand, it may be necessary to subclass QApplication and re-implement its event handling, in which case it might be better handling it on a per-application basis (at least temporarily, I think in either case sending a patch upstream is the ideal solution for something like this).

Sorry if this has been reported already:

1. updating to 0.7.0 using HAM didn't work at first (QML browser failed to update). After retrying, the download size was 0 kb, but the update succeeded.

2. some of the bookmarks imported from microb are file:///opt... instead of http://...

3. tapping the drop down down arrow next to the address bar will pop up the screen keyboard, if the physical keyboard is closed. This makes it impossible to select one of the previously visited web pages (of course, one can pull out the physical keyboard).

If I may steal the thread for just 1-2 messages...does the above imply everybody is going Thumb? It's hard to deduce that just from going through the Thumb thread (for less than an hour). CSSU Stable is dying?

Again, pardon the off-topic.

Eh?

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...09#post1438109

Yes, it is OT.

To bring it back to the topic... I've finally played with QML Browser this week and I must say I really like it. It is amazingly fast, compared to anything else. Yes, including MicroB! I even set it up as a default browser for a while instead of MicroB (only the icon in home screen though, not in a sense of what default browser launches when you click on a link in an email etc). Eventually I reverted back to MicroB for a few small niggles that should not take too much to iron out. Once that is sorted, I see no reason not to switch to QMLB permanently.

Here are my observations. Sorry if I repeat what has already been mentioned, it is easy to get lost in the thread and in my own thoghts.

Pros (in no particular order):

1. Speed. Shocking as it sounds, QML Browser is even faster than MicroB!
2. Familiar UI. Based on MicroB, except the icons look better
3. I don't know how it is possible, but the rendering, especially on low zoom levels, looks sharper than MicroB.
4. The choice of search engines, with the option to add more. Love it!

Cons (in decreasing order of severity):

1. Non-persistent cookies. No matter what I tried (closing windows in specific order etc), the next time I visited TMO, I had to log in again. This is unacceptable and was for me the #1 reason for rolling back to MicroB.
2. Cursor up, down, left and right in an edit box does not just move the cursor, it also scrolls the window. With or without Shift. I know it has been mentioned, I just want to remind you that this is a serious drawback and the reason #2 for my rolling back to MicroB.
3. Swirl to zoom in is so slow and jerky that it took me a few hours to realize it works at all. I actually wanted to report that it doesn't. I have not yet managed to see swirl to zoom out working.
4. Double tap to zoom works but zooms too much and the last letter or three do not fit the screen so I have to scroll around.
5. The occasional crash. Seemingly random, on operations like opening a new page and trying to scroll down. Repeating the same action does not always result in a crash.
6. Following some links is inconsistent with MicroB. For example, most links in TMO open a new window in MicroB but open in the same window in QMLB.
7. Bookmarks get shifted around each time I visit them. The most recently visited one goes to the top. I find that annoying and would prefer them to stay in one place. Ideally manually sorted, but if that is difficult to achieve, then either alphabetical or sorted by creation time, not by the last visit time.
8. The URL line in bookmarks is too prominent. It should be printed in a smaller font, like in MicroB.
9. It would be nice to have a slightly different icon from MicroB. Especially for the likes of us who like to evaluate QMLB and have both icons on home screen (where only the icon is shown, but not the app name).
10. The history list is updated with every visited page. It might be considered a feature, but it does not fit the way I think about the browsing history. Most browsers seem to agree with me: they update the history with only the URLs that the user typed explicitly. Following a series of links is a transient operation and yes, one should be able to traverse back and forth through it, but it should not go in the main browse history. (But when the user starts typing something in the address bar, matches from both the typed and visited URLs should be shown, as most browsers do nowadays. Aren't I difficult to please )

Some of the bugs have already been mentioned and a fix promised, so as I said, sorry about the repetition. OTOH, it might be useful as a reminder Some posters mentioned other bugs too; I have either not noticed them or they do not bother me.

Overall, a very good job! Having tried all alternative browsers available for my beloved N900, including those available through Easy Debian, and always rolling back to MicroB, QML Browser is finally the best candidate for a real replacement. Well done!

sixwheeledbeast's "yet" suggested the possibility of it dying. But thanks for the link.

Now for some OT (on topic ):

One "pro" for me is that it is more mouse-friendly than microb. Meaning, if you're using an external mouse, you can click on links. In the bookmarks screen, though, the mouse cursor disappears when hovered over the links. So it's not as usable as in Opera, but it's better than microb.

Mine isn't even showing an icon in the programs screen (I'm forgetting what that screen is called in Maemo). More precisely, it's showing a generic blue square icon, the kind you get after installing anything with HAM before you reboot.
It is showing a globe icon identical to microb on the home screen.

Agreed with a lot of other items on the list, e.g. history, swirling and crashes.

FWIW I also have the generic blue square in the application manager screen.

Have you two rebooted since installing and still get the blue square icon? I don't remember rebooting though and I get a globe icon, same as MicroB.

One thing I nearly forgot. Not hat it bothers me, it's just a curiosity. With multiple browser windows open, when I close one, I sometimes get this effect:



Maximizing and re-minimizing the window repaints it correctly.

Not a problem for me, more like a bug report.