SeaMonkey 1.0.x vs 1.1.2

[R.N. Folsom]

I am now running SeaMonkey 1.0.8. I am happy with it and would stick with it except that 1.0.9 and 1.1.2 have some security bug fixes. So I need to upgrade.

I do know, from http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonk ... 2007-05-30 , that the SeaMonkey team "project team strongly urges users to upgrade to SeaMonkey 1.1.2," and that 1.0.9 is the last 1.0.x that will be released.

However, starting at http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/ , I can't find a list of feature-differences, and a list of remaining-bugs-differences, between 1.0.9 and 1.1.2.

I never tried 1.1.1 because somewhere there was a mention of a remaining bug having to do with window sizes being too small. And that was likely to affect me, because I use a laptop with a 15" UXGA (1600 x 1200 pixels), and in (Windows 2000) Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, the default 96dpi font size makes everything painfully small to read. So I run at 144dpi (150% of 96dpi). And if windows and dialog boxes aren't designed to scale to that, the text doesn't fit.

Now I can't find that window/dialog box size issue mentioned (as either fixed or not fixed) on
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonk ... gelog.html
or
http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonk ... ssues.html

It may be there; I'm saying only that I can't find it.

Given my inability to find the differences between 1.0.x and 1.1.2, and the window size issue, I am having trouble deciding whether to upgrade to 1.1.2, or to upgrade now to 1.0.9 and wait until later to upgrade out of 1.0.x into 1.1.x. If anyone reading this knows of a comparison table or list, and/or whether the 1.1.1 window issue got fixed in 1.1.2, please let me know.

Thanks.

Roger Folsom

[farFox]

I used to have 1.1.2 in the laptop; behavior was similar.
______________________________________________________
. . . . . . . SeaMonkey 1.5a . . . . . . . WinXP Home SP2

[R.N. Folsom]

farFox:

Thanks for those screenshots! Do they illustrate the window-size bug that I mentioned? If so, should I conclude that the bug has not been fixed?

In your increased text size screenshot, although the content text size increased, the title bar, menu bar, location bar, and buttons did not increase. That makes me think --- although I'm not sure --- that you increased the font size from within SeaMonkey (Edit, Preferences, Appearance, Fonts) rather than in Windows Display Properties, Settings, Advanced. Is that guess correct?

With text size increased, I note that the horizontal scroll bar is in the middle. And from the upper right corner of the window, I conclude that the window was maximized., so you could not enlarge it to make the horizontal scroll bar go away.

I don't remember ever having a horizontal screen bar show in a maximized SeaMonkey 1.0.8 window (although of course it may have happened without my noticing, or without my remembering it now). So that leads me to conclude that for now, I should upgrade to 1.0.9 instead of 1.1.2.

But for anyone reading this, I'm still interested in any comments anyone may have, including comparisons of what features (and possible bugs) 1.1.2 has added, compared to SeaMonkey 1.09.

Thanks again.

Roger Folsom

________________________________________________________________

P.S. to anyone and everyone: Apparently SeaMonkey 1.1.12 has some email issues, which (if I understand the threads linked below) are not in 1.08/1.09. I have no idea how widespread they might be. See
"Email performance change" at http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=545458
and
"SentMailError" at http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=559928

[farFox]

Thanks for those screenshots! Do they illustrate the window-size bug that I mentioned? If so, should I conclude that the bug has not been fixed?

I know nothing about that and any comment by me would be worth nothing.

you increased the font size from within SeaMonkey. Is that guess correct?

Yes, I increased text size by pressing Control +

With text size increased, I note that the horizontal scroll bar is in the middle. And from the upper right corner of the window, I conclude that the window was maximized., so you could not enlarge it to make the horizontal scroll bar go away.

The scroll bar appeared after the second Control +
When I then hit Control minus once, the scroll bar goes away.
The scroll bar is in the middle only because I tried to center the Message in the screenshot.

I just posted the screenshots to show there is no undue readability problem. IMO

===========================================
I tried to set my laptop to 1600x1200, to experiment. There is no way to do it; all to the good, keeps me out of trouble.

[R.N. Folsom]

farFox:

Thanks.

Despite my most recent edits (the P.S.) to my previous message, I may try 1.1.2 anyway.

As for setting your laptop to something other than its "native" resolution: I'm guessing that "upgrading" resolution may not be possible (and probably wouldn't give useful information for me if it were possible). But downgrading is possible, at least on my Dell laptops.

When first dealing with the "too small to read" problem, I somehow figured out how to downgrade its resolution below UXGA (1600 x 1200), but the results were awful (very rough edges to everything). So I put up with the very small print ("fortunately," I'm rather nearsighted without glasses) for several months, until I found the Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, font size setting. (Dell was no help, although that was more than five years ago when I got the first Dell laptop, and they may be better now.)

Roger Folsom

[farFox]

you won't have (very many) eMail issues if you use Thunderbird 1.5.0.12
imo

[BenoitRen]

That ThunderBird version is equivalent with SeaMonkey 1.0.9's mailnews.

Let's see, features...
-Tab Preview
-E-mail tagging
-Option to show remote content in messages from people in your Address Book
-Right-click in Bookmarks menu opens a context menu

I can't think of anything else. As for bug fixes, the "sidebar coming out of ****ing nowhere" bug has been fixed, but I don't know of anything else.

[R.N. Folsom]

BenoitRen:

Thanks. Since I don't have time to do any significant experimenting, I think I'll go with 1.0.9 for now.

Roger Folsom

[rsx11m]

I never tried 1.1.1 because somewhere there was a mention of a remaining bug having to do with window sizes being too small. And that was likely to affect me, because I use a laptop with a 15" UXGA (1600 x 1200 pixels), and in (Windows 2000) Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, the default 96dpi font size makes everything painfully small to read. So I run at 144dpi (150% of 96dpi). And if windows and dialog boxes aren't designed to scale to that, the text doesn't fit.

I had a problem with dpi settings on a Linux machine when switching from 1.0.8 to 1.1.1, which could be solved by entering the correct value in layout.css.dpi, and appropriately changed font sizes and dimensions of the menues and panes (it doesn't affect the content size which you keep setting within the Appearance settings). I'm not sure if the same behavior applies to Win2k, but it may be worth a try to see if it does something. This preference setting may not exist by default, thus you can create it as New/Integer in the configration editor.

[Philip Chee]

I never tried 1.1.1 because somewhere there was a mention of a remaining bug having to do with window sizes being too small. And that was likely to affect me, because I use a laptop with a 15" UXGA (1600 x 1200 pixels), and in (Windows 2000) Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, the default 96dpi font size makes everything painfully small to read. So I run at 144dpi (150% of 96dpi). And if windows and dialog boxes aren't designed to scale to that, the text doesn't fit.

I had a problem with dpi settings on a Linux machine when switching from 1.0.8 to 1.1.1, which could be solved by entering the correct value in layout.css.dpi, and appropriately changed font sizes and dimensions of the menues and panes (it doesn't affect the content size which you keep setting within the Appearance settings). I'm not sure if the same behavior applies to Win2k, but it may be worth a try to see if it does something. This preference setting may not exist by default, thus you can create it as New/Integer in the configration editor.

I have the same problem with my new notebook but I found layout.css.dpi doesn't work for Win32 platforms.

Phil

[R.N. Folsom]

rsx11m:

Thanks for inviting my attention to layout.css.dpi, and to the configuration editor, both of which I had never before heard of. Is Configuration Editor another label for "About: Config"? Or is it something in SeaMonkey 1.0.8 that I haven't noticed? Or is it something new in SeaMonkey 1.1.x?

Philip Chee's experience (message immediately following yours, and immediately preceding the message that I am now writing) is that layout.css.dpi doesn't work on Windows (32x; Mr. Chee apparently and I definitely have no experience with 64x versions of Windows).

Nevertheless, if layout.css.dpi did work, where would you put it? Would one use some sort of Cascading Style Sheet editor to use it? (I routinely use SeaMonkey Composer to make minor edits to HTML files, e.g. to a financial newsletter that comes with a fixed window width and consequently a very long skinny column, while I much prefer wrap-to-window, but I don't know anything about CSS). I ask because I'm trying to get straight where SeaMonkey puts various settings.

Thanks again for the information. Here's hoping I can use it someday!

Roger Folsom

P.S.: Now that I've read Philip Chee's message, I see that his layout.css.dpi link answers most of my questions above (especially my first paragraph), so there's no need to answer them again, unless you have some simple "big picture" overview perspective that I might find useful.

[R.N. Folsom]

I have the same problem with my new notebook but I found layout.css.dpi doesn't work for Win32 platforms.
Phil

Drat. But thanks very much for that information, because I won't wase time trying to learn how to use layout.css.dpi and how to make it work.

Thanks also for the layout.css.dpi link. As of now, it's way over my head, but I've bookmarked it for possible future use.

Roger Folsom

[rsx11m]

Thanks for inviting my attention to layout.css.dpi, and to the configuration editor, both of which I had never before heard of. Is Configuration Editor another label for "About: Config"? Or is it something in SeaMonkey 1.0.8 that I haven't noticed? Or is it something new in SeaMonkey 1.1.x?

Yes, they are the same. You can get into the configuration editor by typing about:config into the URL bar. There are a couple of other ways of setting the preferences, some advocate doing it in user.js rather than in the config editor to have a history of their changes and to be able to add comments.

Philip Chee's experience (message immediately following yours, and immediately preceding the message that I am now writing) is that layout.css.dpi doesn't work on Windows (32x; Mr. Chee apparently and I definitely have no experience with 64x versions of Windows).

Too bad, I was afraid that this may work on certain platforms only. Thanks to Philip for verifying that. It shouldn't make any difference between 32 and 64 bit versions, that's the same installer as far as I know. The dpi option was introduced in 1.1.x but, is merely a renamed 1.0.x preference. Another way to modify the appearance of the text in menues and panes is through userChrome.css, which should work on either version but may not resize the dialog boxes or overall spacing - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Pane_and_menu_fonts
There doesn't seem to be a good solution for this issue then ...

[Philip Chee]

Too bad, I was afraid that this may work on certain platforms only. Thanks to Philip for verifying that. It shouldn't make any difference between 32 and 64 bit versions, that's the same installer as far as I know. The dpi option was introduced in 1.1.x but, is merely a renamed 1.0.x preference. Another way to modify the appearance of the text in menues and panes is through userChrome.css, which should work on either version but may not resize the dialog boxes or overall spacing - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Pane_and_menu_fonts
There doesn't seem to be a good solution for this issue then ...

I still haven't found a total solution. But I'm using my NoSquint mod to make content area in SeaMonkey more comfortable to read. I actually ported this back some time back but never actually used it; but it's ability to remember your zoom settings automatically on a per site basis is now a lifesaver.

Phil

[R.N. Folsom]

. . . Another way to modify the appearance of the text in menues and panes is through userChrome.css, which should work on either version but may not resize the dialog boxes or overall spacing - http://kb.mozillazine.org/Pane_and_menu_fonts
There doesn't seem to be a good solution for this issue then ...

rsx11m:

Thanks very much for that link! I had started to draft a message asking that future SeaMonkey versions have a separate setting for the Help font size (it could be added to Edit | Preferences | Appearance | Fonts, on the first screen that comes up), and I still that would be a good idea. But for now, it looks like a way to do that likely is somewhere in that link, and in the links that it contains.

Roger Folsom