Techcable

  • Aug 1, 2023
  • Joined Dec 14, 2021
  • 9 discussions
  • 24 posts
  • 0 best answers
  • 64 points
  • Steps to reproduce:
    Go to https://www.informit.com/search and enter something in the search bar.

    Safari does not appear to behave in the same way. Disabling unlock origin and adding compatibility mode doesn't help.

    Expected behavior:
    I expect to see all 10 results, not cobbled together as one.

    Orion, OS version; hardware type:
    Version 0.99.124.4.1-beta (WebKit 616.1.14.11.1)
    M1 MacBook Pro, 2021 (macOS Ventura 13.4.1 (c) build 22F770820d)

    Image/Video:

    This should have 10 entries (and it does in Safari).

    Here is a link to the corresponding HTML (as a Github gist):

    https://gist.github.com/Techcable/a08ef9b9b8605e53a44c1c68cd851799

    I also see this error in the console:

    • Vlad replied to this.
    • Since I originally wrote this post, I have found an alternative for bookmark sync. I now use raindrop.io to sync my bookmarks across all my browsers.

      It has extensions for Orion, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. It also has mobile apps for iOS/Android, a web interface, and a desktop app.

      This has mostly mitigated the issue with cross-browser bookmarks and has allowed me to use Orion as my primary browser on my MacBook! 🎉

      The built-in functionality to migrate bookmarks from Firefox -> raindrop missed some things, so I did have to write a custom script to migrate correctly. However, aside from that, things are working flawlessly now 🙂

      Hopefully, this can help someone trying to work across multiple browsers. Although I still think it would be very nice if this issue could be fixed (especially the history problem). It is encouraging that Firefox sync has an API 🙂

      • Vlad replied to this.
      • Steps to reproduce:
        Today I tried to download the raindrop.io extension from the Firefox addon store: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/raindropio/

        It says "You need an updated version of Firefox for this extension" (see below for image).

        I assume this is indicative of some deeper problem. Luckily, the chrome extension store does not give the same message so I can try that...

        Expected behavior:
        Should install correctly in either store.

        Orion, OS version; hardware type:

        • Version 0.99.124.1-beta (WebKit 616.1.10)
        • macOS Ventura 13.4 build 22F66
        • M1 MacBook Pro 2021, 17-inch

        Image/Video:

        • Steps to reproduce:
          Don't know exactly how.

          Here is the traceback/apple stall report: github gist

          Here are the tabs I had opened and some recent history (was checking out build systems):

          Looks like some sort of deadlock :/

          Expected behavior:
          Should not stall.

          Orion, OS version; hardware type:
          Orion version: 0.99.122-beta
          OS version: Ventura 13.1
          Hardware Type: M1 Macbook Pro (16 in.), 2021

          Image/Video:
          N/A

          • Vlad replied to this.
          • Steps to reproduce:
            Start writing a reply to a GitHub issue. Drag and drop a PNG image into the reply.

            Instead, Orion opens a link to the local file and replaces the GitHub page (in my case file:///Users/nicholas/Pictures/Screenshots/example.png).
            You can hit the back button and go back to the Github page, but the screenshot still isn't updated

            Expected behavior:
            Github issue should upload and be inserted into the comment.

            Firefox and Safari both work correctly here.

            Orion, OS version; hardware type:

            Version 0.99.120.1-beta (WebKit 614.1.20)
            MacBook Pro (macOS Monterey 12.6 build 21G115)

            Image/Video:

            • In my experience PDFJs has excellent performance. I find it consistently less laggy and more responsive than Orion's builtin PDF viewer.

              You can investigate performance with the example viewer here.

              According to the FAQ, performance is more dependent on file complexity/size than the number of pages. Not exactly sure why this is 🤷

              Not only is PDFJs more feature rich, I also find it more robust. It avoids some bizarre freezes I've had with Orion's builtin pdf viewer. Not sure if Safari has these issues with its pdf viewer. Its been so long since I used that.

              The PDF viewer is one of the reasons I still keep Firefox as a secondary browser. When I'm working with a lot of pdfs, I'll start moving tabs from Orion to Firefox just to take advantage of Firefox's better viewer.

              As a bonus, switching to PdfJS would also resolve the find text in PDF feature.

              NOTE: I've tried using the PDFJS Chrome Extension for this, but unfortunately Kagi doesn't seem to support it (doesn't process the URL correctly).

              • This is a mismatch in features between Orion vs. Firefox & Chrome.

                It could be a considered a feature request or a bug (lacking parity with Firefox/Chrome), depending on your point of view.

                Expected Behavior

                When I right click on a selected portion of text, Firefox brings up a dialog including an option to "print selection" (I have highlighted this option in red). Chrome has a similar feature.

                Choosing this option in Firefox brings up the following print preview, that only includes the text I selected 😃

                Orion

                Unfortunately, when I right-click a similar portion of text in Orion, Orion is missing the "Print Selection" option đŸ˜Ļ

                Safari also appears to be missing this feature (of course Orion is so good, I haven't opened plain Safari in forever 😉 )

                Context

                I use this today to out individual messages onto pieces of paper (despite being a programmer, I also like pencil-and-paper guy).

                It's useful with PulseSMS or various other message portals with a web UI.

                • Steps to reproduce:
                  Open a PDF using the in-browser viewer.

                  Use command-f to begin a search.

                  Type something in the search bar.

                  No search results (web pages work fine).

                  Expected behavior:
                  Searches should work the same in PDFs as they do in webpages.

                  Orion, OS version; hardware type:
                  Orion: Version 0.99.113.2-beta (WebKit 613.1.12)
                  MacOS Monterey 12.3.1

                  M1 MacBook Pro

                  • Yes. I use this for Discord (sometimes) and PulseSms (https://pulsems.app) all the time.

                    Using Orion pinned tabs are much lighter than Electron/Firefox, but unfortunately lack of notifications make them very hard to use.

                    Some users rely on web notifications a lot, so this seems like a fairly serious regression to me ☚ī¸ .

                    I think this was working in Orion a month or two ago, so this is not just a missing feature but a regression.

                    • Vlad replied to this.
                    • Vlad

                      In Safari, Right clicking and choosing "Save linked file as" does not change the default download location.

                      In Safari:

                      1. Download a zip file by clicking on it, putting it in the default location
                      2. Downloaded a zip file to a custom location (like the desktop) by right clicking and choosing "Save linked file as"
                      3. Downloading the file a third time correctly puts it in the default location (again)

                      Firefox does not giving you an option to download to a custom location 😉

                      • Steps to reproduce:

                        1. Set default download locations to $HOME/Downloads
                        2. Go to a file you want to download. Say https://github.com/facebook/zstd/archive/refs/tags/v1.5.2.tar.gz
                        3. Verify that it goes into $HOME/Downloads
                        4. Download another file, hit save as and save in Documents or Pictures or something
                        5. Download a third file without selecting save as (picking default location). That file will save in the previously selected folder for "Save As", and not in the global downloads folder

                        In fact, if you restart Orion and look in the preferences, the default download location in settings will have changed to the explicitly specified . So in my case it would be $HOME/Documents instead of $HOME/Downloads ☚ī¸

                        Expected behavior:
                        Using Download As or Save As should only set the location for that one specific file. The default location should remain as whatever I configure (in my case $HOME/Downloads) unless I explicitly change the settings.

                        In other words, overriding with "Save As" should only change that specific file location, not the default downloads locations.

                        Orion, OS version; hardware type:
                        Orion: Version 0.99.111-beta (WebKit 613.1.12)
                        MacOS Monterey Version 12.1
                        MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)

                        • Vlad replied to this.
                        • Vlad

                          Firefox also has something similar with their about:performance tab.

                          I don't know if WebKit gives you this information nicely or if you will have to somehow extract it yourself 🙁

                          • Just so you know, signing up for a Grammarly account is free. The paid option is separate.

                            It's the sign in feature specifically that's not working. You can sign up for an account for testing without paying anything 😉

                            • gp

                              Maybe based on your points here, service workers should last "longer" than after the tab closes? How should Orion ensure websites can't choose to run forever for tracking or other nefarious purposes?

                              For the service workers to persist, these tabs would have to be enabled manually. They are basically like pinned tabs, except they have the option to run in the background or a separate window.

                              Take a look at pinned tabs for helping avoid unintentionally closing your discord tab - maybe that could be adapted to do what you need?

                              Yes. I use pinned tabs in Firefox. This is very similar to what I want, except I would also like:

                              1. Option to run in a separate window
                              2. Option to run in the background (keep running but no visible tab) in a separate window or available in the background.
                              3. Low-battery mode specificalaly for these tabs
                                • I don't know the specifics, but basically, I want them to just be normal tabs, but with low-battery life tweaks and different UI. Battery life is very important to me 😉
                              • Cannabat
                                Wow these look amazing 😮

                                I'm thinking something like this but maybe more lightweight & integrated into Orion.

                                Also, Firefox's "pin tab" feature is nice.....

                                • Electron apps are infamous for being resource-intensive. They use noticeably more RAM and battery than their corresponding website versions (especially Electron vs Orion).

                                  As a particular, on any given day, the 12-hour battery consumption of Discord is about 2x that of IntelliJ (a java-based IDE) and 4x that of Firefox or Orion. It is consistently in my "Apps using significant battery consumption". Across all platforms, Discord's RAM consumption rivals Firefox and IntelliJ.

                                  I am aware that Discord is a particularly bad example. However, other Electron apps like Spotify, VS Code, and Mailspring display many of these tendencies too 🙁

                                  For Electron apps that have web versions (Discord/Spotify), Progressive Web Apps serve as a potential alternative to their Electron versions.

                                  They offer:

                                  1. Shared resources with the main browser process
                                  2. Background service workers & notifications
                                  3. Seperate windows, able to be minimized indepedentently of the main browser

                                  However, as I understand it, progressive web apps have to be enabled by the website author themselves. Discord has chosen not to do that.

                                  What would be absolutely amazing, is if we could have some of these PWA features enabled for normal sites 😀

                                  In particular, I would like to have Discord enabled in the background (in a separate user-visible window) and specifically instructed to use low battery mode (independent of the main browser)

                                  A lot of this is probably hard. I'm basically asking you to make Orion support "background sites" as an alternative to Electron. Something like Progressive Web Apps, even for websites that weren't designed for it in the first place 😮

                                  However, think of the potential! Even if users don't choose to use Orion as their main browser, they are almost certain to be tempted by this feature. Who in their right minds wouldn't want a lighter alternative to Discord & Spotify? 🚀

                                  This can probably be split up into several different steps. Most of these don't have to be done in any particular order:

                                  1. Beginning to isolate certain (user-requested) sites from others.
                                    • Maybe not full separate windows, but at least make the "Low Battery Mode" website per-site 🙂
                                  2. Support for service workers. Firefox has these, despite not supporting PWA in full.
                                  3. Support for running these sites minimized, visually separate from regular tabs
                                    • The UI of "closing discord" should be separate from "closing a tab", even if the implementation is the same 😃
                                    • I close tabs aggressively, but I often have to be careful not to close the discord tab
                                  4. Supporting some subset of PWA features, even if the site wasn't designed for it (Desktop Notifications?)
                                    • In particular, PWA requires service workers even when the website is disconnected and off. I'm suggesting never actually closing the underlying tab, just hiding it from the user. This would allow the regular notification API to work even without a background service worker (I'm looking at you Discord)

                                  I've mentioned Progressive Web Apps support, but really this is somewhat of a different feature.

                                  Unlike PWA support, the implementation of this feature doesn't really have to be separate from that of a regular tab. The main request is a change in UI.

                                  These sites could be preconfigured in preferences, the only real requirement is that they have

                                  1. Independent "Low Battery Mode"
                                  2. Closed independently of regular tabs (visually in the background while semantically still a tab).

                                  This wouldn't be a full-featured alternative to Electron or PWA, but it would significantly improve the UI (and resource usage) of using website apps like Discord & Spotify.

                                  Let me know what you think 😃

                                  • One of the reasons this is important to me is because of the resource consumption of Electron apps.

                                    I feel that having PWA support would make Orion a usable alternative to Electron apps. A particular feature I would like is enabling "Low Battery Mode" specifically for the progressive web apps (separate from the main browser).

                                    What would be really amazing is if we could enable some of these UI changes for normal sites, even if they've chosen not to support PWA (like Discord).

                                    I've made a more specific proposal in a separate issue, to have "isolated background sites" (Or: Progressive Web Apps for all)

                                    • Vlad replied to this.
                                    • Yes. I've downloaded "Grammarly for Firefox" from the firefox store, but the login doesn't work properly. Basic suggestions work, but it doesn't detect my account.

                                      I click "Log In" and it redirects me to a page where I'm already logged in (but the extension doesn't pick up on it).

                                      • Vlad I only seem to see the "Send Report to Apple" dialog. How do I access the Orion crash reporter to send reports to you?

                                        • Steps to reproduce:
                                          I'm not sure I can reproduce it, but I believe one of the tabs I had open was https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/convert/fn.identity.html

                                          Here's a gist with the crash report:

                                          Expected behavior:
                                          Not crash

                                          Orion and macOS:
                                          Orion Version 0.99.109-beta (WebKit 613.1.12)

                                          MacOs Monterey 12.1, Apple M1, Macbook Pro 2021

                                          Image/Video:
                                          <paste or drag and drop to upload images or videos (up to 20MB)>