Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Discussion of features in Seamonkey
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Pim
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Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Pim »

Lots of features in SeaMonkey are hidden behind about:config settings. For example, the browser only supports the new html5 <picture> element if you set the dom.image.picture.enabled setting to true.

Now my question is, is there a list somewhere of all settings like that? I want to be able to enable all the cutting edge features that I can.

My goal is to score as high as possible on the https://html5test.com/ website.
With a new profile, SeaMonkey 2.33.1 scores 431 points, but by setting a number of settings with "enabled" in their names to true, I managed to crank the score up to 499.
The problem, however, is that I don't know what the vast majority of these settings does, so I don't dare enable them in my main profile!
Groetjes, Pim
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Philip Chee
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Philip Chee »

There is no definitive list since there is no centralized control. Developers working on a particular feature e.g. <picture> may want to hide their in-development code behind a pref until it's production ready. Or they may not. It's up to them modulo their managers/module owners.

Phil
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Pim
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Pim »

Many of these things are working already; it's just a case of the browser being overly cautious and not enabling them by default.
For people who don't mind tinkering with their about:config a bit, here is a list. First, if you inherited the profile from an older version of the browser, it's possible that some settings have the previous values, which don't match those of a new profile. So check these first.

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about:config entry                 what it does                  html5test score
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dom.image.picture.enabled          <picture>                                 10
dom.image.srcset.enabled           srcset attr                                5
geo.enabled                        location-aware browsing ¹                 15
layout.css.ruby.enabled            ruby annotation                            3
dom.gamepad.enabled                gamepad control ²                          2

¹ Note that this enables websites to request your physical location, which may constitute a privacy risk. You are always asked for confirmation; the website can't retrieve your info without your permission. Then again, if Google or Facebook find out where you are, who knows where their knowledge might end up. Use with care.

² Gamepad control seems to exist only on some platforms; this scores 2 on some machines, while it doesn't on others (using the same SeaMonkey version), even hough none of the machines actually have game pads.

If you've done this (or if you have created a fresh profile), SeaMonkey 2.35 will score 467 on the html5 test site.

Then there are these settings you can enable, which will also increase the score, even if you might not need them during normal browsing.

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about:config entry                 what it does                  html5test score
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
canvas.hitregions.enabled          Hit testing support                        1
dom.w3c_pointer_events.enabled     Pointer Events                             5       
media.track.enabled                Audio/Video track selection                4
media.webspeech.synth.enabled      Speech Synthesis ³                         2
media.webspeech.recognition.enable Speech Recognition                         3

bringing the score up to 477.

³ Speech Synthesis doesn't seem to work in all circumstances. Need some more testing.

And some settings that I don't know enough of to say if they are security or privacy hazards. If you want to use these, note that you do so at your own risk. I am not responsible for what happens to your computer.

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about:config entry                 what it does                  html5test score
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dom.experimental_forms             <input type="date/time">                   8
dom.fetch.enabled                  Fetch API                                  6⁴
dom.serviceWorkers.enabled         Service Workers                           10
dom.webcomponents.enabled          Custom elements, Shadow DOM, HTML imports  8
media.mediasource.enabled,      ⎫
media.mediasource.youtubeonly,  ⎬  Mediasource ⁵                              2
media.mediasource.whitelist     ⎭

⁴ Only on http://beta.html5test.com; not yet implemented on the main site

⁵ media.mediasource.youtubeonly and/or media.mediasource.whitelist (which may or may not both be present) need to be false in order for media.mediasource.enabled to be recognised on the html5test site.

The score will then be a whopping 505!

But like I said, the score seems to depend on the hardware used. In a virtual machine that doesn't have hardware 3D support, the score is only 412 by default and 485 at the highest. So your mileage may vary!
Last edited by Pim on September 5th, 2015, 5:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
Groetjes, Pim
Michael REMY
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Michael REMY »

it would be very good and very handfull to have a view, 2 colum side by side of the feature enabled, and the feature desable.

and (main need) a colum date header of activation (or desactivation).
so every user could have a super view of features history changes.
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Pim
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Pim »

You mean the date the user last flipped switches, or the date the feature was added to SeaMonkey?
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Thomas.Weber
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Thomas.Weber »

btw, shouldn't be "Speech Recognition" YES in html5test? i always get a NO.

media.webspeech.recognition.enable;true
media.webspeech.synth.enabled;true
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Pim
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Pim »

Speech recognition once worked, at least according to HTML5test, but it no longer does. Apparently they're testing in a different way now.
There are other things that do work now though; maybe I should update this post.
Groetjes, Pim
Thomas.Weber
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Thomas.Weber »

i can't get over 516 points currently.

sure, it this is more a fun thing than anything else...
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Pim
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Pim »

Are you using special extra software? Many of the items on that site seem to require stuff such as specialised video drivers installed.
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Thomas.Weber
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Thomas.Weber »

what site? https://html5test.com ?

nope, this is on a crappy i5 notebook with nothing special at all. i don't think firefox itself has to offer much more currently.
516 points is with firefox 52, btw. you won't get there with older versions.
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Pim
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Pim »

OK. Now two years after my first posting, lots of things have changed. Some features are enabled by default, while some other features turn out to have been disabled by default, and now require a setting set to true to re-enable them.
So here's a new list of about:config settings. Note that with the number of different versions of SeaMonkey available now, it's difficult to make one list that is applicable to all. So some settings will not exist on your copy, others will have no effect - the feature may be always-on by the time you read this, or it may work only in the newer Nightly builds, or it may have unwanted side effects; I cannot test on all platforms. Sorry. Again, use at your own risk!

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about:config entry                       what it does       html5test score
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
canvas.hitregions.enabled                Hit testing support             1
dom.details_element.enabled              details, summary element        1
dom.dialog_element.enabled               dialog element                  1
dom.experimental_forms                   input type=date, time           8
dom.forms.color                          input type=color                3
dom.forms.datetime                    ⎫  
dom.forms.datetime.others             ⎬  input type=month, week etc     12
dom.forms.datetime.timepicker         ⎭
dom.fetch.enabled                        Fetch API                       6
dom.gamepad.enabled                      Gamepad control ¹               2
dom.image.picture.enabled                picture element, sizes attr    10
dom.image.srcset.enabled                 srcset attr                     5
dom.input.dirpicker                      Directory upload support        1
dom.moduleScripts.enabled                ECMAScript 6 Modules            3
dom.push.enabled                         Push Messages                   2
dom.serviceWorkers.enabled               Service Workers                10
dom.w3c_pointer_events.enabled           Pointer Events                  5
dom.webcomponents.customelements.enabled Custom elements                 4
dom.webcomponents.enabled                Shadow DOM, Imports             6
full-screen-api.unprefix.enabled         Full screen support             5
geo.enabled                              location-aware browsing        15
layout.css.ruby.enabled                  ruby annotation                 3
media.dash.enabled                       MPEG-DASH                       0
media.eme.enabled                        DRM support                     0
media.mediasource.enabled                Media Source Extensions         5
media.mediasource.enabled,            ⎫
media.mediasource.youtubeonly,        ⎬  Mediasource ²                   2
media.mediasource.whitelist           ⎭
media.track.enabled                      Audio/Video track selection     4
media.webspeech.synth.enabled            Speech Synthesis ¹              2
media.webspeech.recognition.enable       Speech Recognition ¹            3
webgl.enable-webgl2 ³                    WebGL 2                         5

¹ This feature seems to depend on the hardware and/or software platform; it scores points on some machines, but not on others using the same SeaMonkey version. The why is not clear yet.

² media.mediasource.youtubeonly and/or media.mediasource.whitelist (which may or may not both be present) need to be false in order for media.mediasource.enabled to be recognised on the html5test site.

³ Before rv:53 (SM 2.50) use webgl.enable-prototype-webgl2 instead

The bad news is that at this moment, the maximum score will only be 495 on the latest SeaMonkey release, 2.46. Not sure why that is lower than the 505 I found two years ago. Have things been disabled in the browser that were enabled then, or has the calculation used on the html5test site been changed?
Anyway, on the latest nightly build (2.52) I can get up to 519. But naturally that may change at any moment.
Groetjes, Pim
Thomas.Weber
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Thomas.Weber »

not sure about SeaMonkey, but in Firefox some settings don't make sense when enabling them manually.

dom.forms.datetime

is an example. you'll get the score in (currrent) Firefox v52, but in fact it does NOT work, it simply isn't fully finished.
barbaz
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by barbaz »

Thomas.Weber wrote:not sure about SeaMonkey, but in Firefox some settings don't make sense when enabling them manually.

dom.forms.datetime

is an example. you'll get the score in (currrent) Firefox v52, but in fact it does NOT work, it simply isn't fully finished.
SeaMonkey has the same backend as Firefox. Stuff like that should generally be the same in both browsers.
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Pim
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Re: Is there a list of "enable-able" features?

Post by Pim »

Input type="datetime" is only supported in Gecko version 54 and up, sorry. So that would be the Firefox Developer Edition.

See CanIUse. For some reason, the MDN page isn't updating.

Also, I don't know why the setting is spread out over four separate about:config settings (dom.experimental_forms, dom.forms.datetime, dom.forms.datetime.others and dom.forms.datetime.timepicker), but you do have to set all four of them to true before they will work properly.
Groetjes, Pim
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