I have uploaded a browser to Rapidshare.de ,
that I would propose as an official
K-Meleon0.9.5 - Release Candidate 1 .
It is basically only a security update to
GRE 1.7.12, keeping the old look, with
only a few additional features.
# Gecko 1.7.12 of nov/26th/2005.
# Pop-up bug fixed by inclusion of 2 files from earlier GREs.
# Additional Javascript button
# Translation macro
# Some search engines
# Mime Types Editor
# New Flashblock plugin by kko
# New SetDefault.exe by Alain
# Active X Support enabled, but only for Windows Media Player.
# Latest javascript bug of yesterday already fixed by added user_pref.
This 1.7 version should be an intermediate security step before
K-Meleon 1.0, based on 1.8/1.9, which Dorian will release in the
near future.
Please try my Release Candidate 1 and report possible problems.
Download at :
http://rapidshare.de/files/8881760/K-Meleon0.9.5-RC1.exe.html
or
http://rapidshare.de/files/8882153/K-Meleon0.9.5-RC1.zip.html
Press the button "FREE" at the bottom of the page (javascript enabled) ,
and extract the file into a fresh folder.
I think, that a security update is now over-due.
Please tell me what you think about that.
I have also posted that at the Developer's Forum.
NoScript could be added in a later version, because it is not yet
sufficiently tested.
Regards to all
Fred

Do we have permission to access sourceforge? So when the final 0.9.5 comes, we could put it on the sourceforge and also the main page of KM.

Hao

@Fred:
Looks like finished work to me.

perhaps also tell all via dev mail list.
since there are still members at official dev list.

p. s. maybe You did also post at dev list?
but smtp server of my provider is out of order - grumbel.


@Hao
IMHO: Offering finished things is a form of volunteering ; - )

You and Dorian should maybe officially inform remaining
official devs how far You are.

Maybe they do not come to forum often and do not know yet?


@ALL: I updated last official test page by Andrew Mutch a little:

http://home.htp-tel.de/sterntaler/test.html

Its uploaded - it can be used to test our new & updated browser generations.


And - Maybe someone has an idea how to organize tests.


It can be also of use for testing Your k-m - if something is
suspected to be brocken with it,
It is asking the browser with mostly valid (always functional) html 4
to do basic things.

Reason:
We sometimes have a problem with pages and wonder
whether it is the browser or the web page we just visited.
This test page is also intended for that.

If You find bugs in the page, things that can lead to missunderstandings
(i am not speaking English after all) or if You have html codes that You want
to have checked with the browser - I am open for suggestions via mail - or as
post in here.

best regards

p. s. I wanted to volunteer this to dev mail list this week end
- but my mail account does not work at the moment.

; - ) Maybe someone send me invitation to web mail account. ; - )

@Guenter,
Yeah. I might not make it clear what I meant. Just want to know who 's still in Dev. list here so could make changes to offical webpages. I do appreciate Fred's nice work towards the whole KM community. And when things get clear what we need to finish, we should be able to update KM 0.9 finally.

Hao

@Hao,
no guess - it is my fault if i did not get the meaning. I am not speaking English well.
Also Fred seams to have the same idea as me - about volunteering:

to offer finished work = is a good offer to do something : ))

- Have You got any codes for my page - that can test Dorian´s drag & drop fix?

You were the drag and drop afficionado after all.
best weekend.

@Guenter,
Very nice test pages. Currently, I don't have any drag and drop codes but I will try to get one for you. Cheers.

Hao

@Guenter,
For testing of drag and drop mozilla elements, you can see here:

http://www.walterzorn.com/dragdrop/dragdrop_e.htm

Haha, 0.9 to 0.9.5? Sounds like the version numbering scheme of another browser I know of... *cough*Firefox*cough*. ;-).

Brian

This version includes unnessessary files not used by K-meleon, such as msgbsutl.dll, a true candidate would not have these unecessary files and only replace the file necessary for K-meleon to work properly and would not have the compile xpt browser.xpt and would not use dll files msvcp70.dll and msvcr70.dll. Becuase K-meleon 0.9 was not built MS Visual C+ 7 (Visual Studio). A true candidate would made by K-meleon Development Staff instead of a third party developer. It just another beta version with a GRE 1.7.12 update not a true candidate release. The third party developer should have permission from the K-meleon Development Staff to call their release a candidate release.

You did not propose anything becuase when propose something you do not build it, You submit ideas, code, and fixes to the development staff and they submit the candidate release to K-meleon website. Also calling your release a candidate release confusing everyone becuase without reading your post people could believe that the development staff has finally released a new candidate instead of you releasing a pseudo candidate release.

@ George
You do not understand :
There i s no development staff.
We forum users prepare our own browser proposal for a security update
of the official version, that finally should be placed on the K-Meleon
download site, after being accepted by the administrators.
I think you would prefer to keep a browser, that has no security
update to GRE 1.7.12, for what reason ever. Do not worry about
a possible superfluous file, it will not cause any damage, but not fixing
real bugs waiting for an imaginary browser that never appears, would
be damaging. So instead of complaining, if people work on an up-date,
in there free time, and without getting any money for that, you
should rather help doing the job.
Fred

There i s no development staff.

Well technically at the moment there isn't per se, Ulf still remains as the "chief developer", but behind the scenes I am working on ratifying this situation. Magzilla (well that's his handle) has read my external forum postings inviting C++ developers to the project, and is at this very time learning how to build (as in properly build) K-Meleon with Mozilla code. Dorian has already pointed him in the right direction in regards to this as well. Add to that the email I've forwarded to Ulf recently and the prospects are looking brighter than they were previously.

A proper build done by a developer is a possibility now thanks to my leg work, and in the meantime the instructions are still on the Wiki on how the average user can update the GRE to v1.7.12 themselves (preferably with Brian Bruns updater).

So what's the rush otherwise?

I cannot understand, why we should not replace the completely
outdated official K-Meleon 0.9 by an updated 0.9.5, which has
a security standard of GRE 1.7.12 (the same as Firefox 1.0.7 has),
and that is otherwise practically unchanged. You cannot expect, that
a new user makes a download of an old browser, and then looks
for an updating exe, which might not even be a complete update
to 1.7.12. There is no reasonable cause to keep the old version.
Concerning a K-Meleon 1.0, based on Seamonkey, there is also
already an actually finished version with Dorians new kmeleon.exe,
so I cannot see a reason why you want additional development :
after a short testing phase Dorians version should be accepted
as the new K-Meleon 1.0 . It works flawlessly.
Life is not as complicated as it seems sometimes.
Regards
Fred

I'm now totally confused! Who has access to change pages on this website? I sure will be glad when there is a new version posted on the main page for download.

I am not missing the point becuase FRED did not say there was or wasn't development staff in the post. You are entirely missing my point only the K-meleon Developers can produce a candidate release and only the administrators place it on the K-meleon website for download. FRED can make suggestions, code, fixes, and builds. However, before it can be called a candidate release it must be sent to Kmeleon Developers for testing and building even if they are none and ratified by the administrators before it is placed on the K-meleon Website for download as a candidate release.

@ George
Because there was no developers staff for almost an year,
we forum people here have become the developers, nobody
else ever changed a bit of the browser, while Firefox went
from GRE 1.7.5 to 1.7.12 , fixing numerous bugs.
We offered continously the necessary updates with every
new Gecko. Now it is high time to replace the old 0.9 K-Meleon.
That is why we offer this version for download, for everybody
to test. Doing nothing is ihe other, easy possibility.
The words "Release Candidate" only signify, that this is
the version, that we finally propose as a replacement that is
long over-due.
Criticizing the choose of words that are used is totally
unproductive and only conceals the work, that must be done now.
Fred

I'm now totally confused! Who has access to change pages on this website? I sure will be glad when there is a new version posted on the main page for download.

Well AFAIK jsnj is the only person who can currently update the frontpage with any new information, but even he nowadays is mainly absent from the forums etc. Other than that well Ulf can, or Andrew Mutch can, but we all know that they are as far removed from K-Meleon as they possibly could be.

Which brings us back to why we wanted to form a council (or similar) not so long ago, so there was always going to be someone around when it came time for making changes to the website (administration wise), decisions regarding new K-Meleon versions, development testing coordination, and most importantly adding new K-Meleon versions to SourceForge. The council was the brainchild of Carson, but Carson left after Guenter opposed the idea. So without the council we are back to square one, and the situation is still the same as before. Even poor old Eyes-Only became frustrated with the situation and decided to leave too.

So apart from my own initiative to at least assemble a new development team (note not a council but just new developers), nobody else is doing much else to ratify the current predicament. And now I sense there is even opposition to what I am doing as well (not surprisingly). It's true that Dorian is doing a bit of K-Meleon work, but even he isn't inclined to step up and join the official developers, so even if he puts out a version worthy of being called K-Meleon v1.0, well there will still be nobody to include it on SourceForge as such.

I think that Ulf wrote in one of his latest posts in the
developers forum :
"I'll help if asked, but also think that "It's Your Browser"".
I understand this as that he would certainly help putting
new browsers on the download page, and Andrew would
certainly be willing to help too, even if he has other work to do.
jsnj would probably be willing to check the new macro parts,
there are not many new ones. Dorian has an inataller and has
already used it with the test version of his new KM 1.0, so
there would also be no problem to make installable versions.
Nobody expects immediate sensational new features, but
the browser must remain competitive in security matters.
Fred

Fred ,
I have been using your many versions of k-meleon for over a year and would like to thank you for what I consider to be the best browser available for my needs,however I notice that your latest offerings although superb have Active X enabled , I accept this is for Windows Media Player only but would very much like to disable it, despite my feeble attempts I have so far been unsuccessful your help would be most appreciated,thank you again for your excellent work.
Mike R.

@ Mike
The plugin for Active X Support is in the plugins folder (not kplugins).
It's called npmozax.dll, and you can simply delete it (or rename it),
to stop Active X Support.
Regards
Fred

Fred, haven't you tried my macro for checking.unchecking plugins ??

@Brian, You got a point there - maybe it should be called 1.7.12 or 1.07
after FF fashion ; - )
More serious - maybe we should be more conservative with numbers for the 1.7x
since we may want to update it more than once. Maybe 0.9.12? because we always updated and started with a version based on five (1.7.5)

@George; we have no active dev on list that can work with c and compile!
The ones that can, are only there because the Admin did not remove them after their resignation. And who says that we can not have our development Forum driven.& i feel the sparrow in the hand is better than the pigeon on the roof.

German k-m all THREE of them have 1.7.12 GRE, French also, Spanish also, Chinese also. Only the English version at sf is 1.7.5 GRE. This is embarressing.
I want it changed. Rather today then later.

Fred`s candidate is selected to contain nothing that has not been around since
April 2005 or longer - so i feel that it is solid workmanship and a good candidate
for update. I can say so because i also know to select such things for myself.

browser.xpt = a joined xpt file that contains all xpt needed for browser core,
joined xpt are slightly faster -

msvcp70.dll and msvcr70.dll are needed for active x to function....

ppl in forum have found from experiance that some files are missing in official k-m 0.9 - best example is mimetypes.xpt where someone forgot to include it and jsnj, alain, me ... tried to get the mimetypes editor working for 0.9 and failed. It was when Forum ppl started to work themselves and stopped waiting and calling for the devs that we became aware of certain things. How else, we use the browser every day and forum ppl combined had time to leave no stone unturned.

@Al, You made a good job with testing official browser - maybe You can join efforts with Fred. Did You look at my test page? is it ok? Any suggestions?

I trust that You would like an update too. So do i - only
I take what is to be had - because update is overdue.

Council: i prefer direct democracy - and called for a vote in devs mailing list.
& We have to find a procedure to integrate work from Forum anyway.

i much appreciate Your efforts to get outside help. Situation has improved.
Nobody has been unwilling to volunteer - we just volunteered by making things.

While You searched for outside help Dorian has made one version that is IMHO ready for testing and one version with real tabs that is not so far yet.
We also have new macros that are ready for testing.
We also have a chrome of about 400 kb for Dorians exe that is ready for testing ...
All volunteer work by ppl here from Forum.

So we already have the version that comes after updates. But this update
is needed because we want a piece of work that is made of tested components
and can be placed at porch with security fixes. Better today than tomorow.

At the moment Fred and others join their effort in forum to get the components working for a updated 0.9 version that comes after this. Hope you understand that.

Also: because GRE 1.7x. will be around long we must work out a procedure
that we can keep this workhorse issue ready and updated at the front porch
without the help of devs from outside.

If i have understood Ulf correctly - jsnj and Andrew have extended writing privileges. jsnj lives were hurricanes struck - but was back after that electicity outage.
Since jsnj must be asked anyway - and has the expertise to see whether this is good enough - why not ask him about it too - now.

i can not reach Andrews home page - can You try from Down under?
Mostly absent from Forum is euphemism. All officially engaged in 0.9 except
jsnj and You did not have time or desire to come here at all.

i do not understand what You are pointing at. Do You want to say ppl at
Mozilla.org do not compile their components properly? Who says that it is
not good and proper to take ready components? At the page of mozilla embed project they point at the fact that precompiled libraries are with all Mozilla.zip.

That what the dll in OS system and other software are for - they are prefabricated libraries. We only did not know that it was also with k-m. Only when the dll change too much k-m will not work with another version. This does not seem to be the case here?

If You think the changes are too big and we need a new compilation of k-m exe and k-m kplugin dll against new version of Mozilla 1.7.x? I understand that the new dev has a new GRE version compiled by Monday. We only want recompilation against new libraries that should be easy enough.

If that can not be done we start testing now and schedule deadlines for components to be made (so that they are also tested).

It can then be equipped with the work Fred did prepare for update
- this browser is very modular after all. I am sure Fred will not object to that.

@Mike this user_pref("security.xpconnect.activex.global.hosting_flags", 0);
disables it in case You want to keep it.

@Fred: maybe include into user js.

/* This package can use active x controls, to inactivate them set: */
# user_pref("security.xpconnect.activex.global.hosting_flags", 0);
/* 0 means no hosting of activex controls whatsoever */
/* further info in \defaults\pref\activex.js */

I have not installed Your package at this pc did You also include?
(docu from page were mozilla hosts the project)
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// By default the ActiveX support for K-Melon is a WHITELIST.
// Only a pre-installed Windows Media Player control is enabled by default. If
// you want to open up the plugin to other controls, read the instructions
// and sample prefs below to learn how to do it.


pref("security.xpconnect.activex.global.hosting_flags", 9);
pref("security.classID.allowByDefault", false);
pref("capability.policy.default.ClassID.CID6BF52A52-394A-11D3-B153-00C04F79FAA6", "AllAccess");
pref("capability.policy.default.ClassID.CID22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95", "AllAccess");


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// General hosting flags settings. Read nsIActiveXSecurityPolicy.idl in
// http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/find?string=nsIActiveXSecurityPolicy.idl
// for more combinations.
//
// Briefly,
//
// 0 means no hosting of activex controls whatsoever
// 13 means medium settings (safe for scripting controls and download / install)
// 31 means host anything (extremely dangerous!)
//

// pref("security.xpconnect.activex.global.hosting_flags", 13);


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Whitelist / Blacklist capabilities
//
// The whitelist and blacklist settings define what controls Gecko will host
// and the default allow / deny behavior.
//
// Note 1:
//
// The hosting flags pref value above takes priority over settings below.
// Therefore if the hosting flags are set to 0 (i.e. host nothing) then
// no control will be hosted no matter what controls are enabled. Likewise,
// If safe for scripting checks are (wisely) enabled, no unsafe control
// will be hosted even if it is explicitly enabled below.
//
//
// Note 2:
//
// Gecko always reads the IE browser's control blacklist if one is defined
// in the registry. This is to ensure any control identified by Microsoft
// or others as unsafe is not hosted without requiring it to be explicitly
// listed here also.
//


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// This pref sets the default policy to allow all controls or deny them all
// default. If the value is false, only controls explicitly enabled by their
// classid will be allowed. Otherwise all controls are allowed except those
// explicitly disabled by their classid.
//
// If you are writing an embedding application that only needs to run
// certain known controls, (e.g. an intranet control of some kind) you are
// advised to use the false value and enable the control explicitly.

// pref("security.classID.allowByDefault", true);


///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// Specify below the controls that should be explicitly enabled or disabled.
// This is achieved by writing a policy rule, specifiying the classid of the
// control and giving the control "AllAccess" or "NoAccess".
//
// CIDaaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-eeeeeeeeeeee
//
// You could explicitly ban a control (using the appropriate classid) like this
//
// pref("capability.policy.default.ClassID.CID039ef260-2a0d-11d5-90a7-0010a4e73d9a", "NoAccess");
//
// If you want to explicity enable a control then do this:
//
// pref("capability.policy.default.ClassID.CID039ef260-2a0d-11d5-90a7-0010a4e73d9a", "AllAccess");
//
// If you want to explicitly ban or allow a control for one or more sites then
// you can create a policy for those sites. This example creates a domain
// called 'trustable' containing sites where you allow an additional control
// to be hosted.:
//
// user_pref("capability.policy.policynames", "trustable");
// user_pref("capability.policy.trustable.sites", "http://www.site1.net http://www.site2.net");
// user_pref("capability.policy.trustable.ClassID.CID039ef260-2a0d-11d5-90a7-0010a4e73d9a", "AllAccess");
//

I'm with Guenter on saying we need an updated K-Meleon as soon as possible. If we listen too much to people who cames once a month to the forums and does not know basic things as the C+ developers lack we are going to stay all day discussing the same, because once concluded, this people will start again.

I'm afraid about including unneeded features. One of the best facts about K-Meleon, which IMHO makes it superior to Firefox, is it's light weight and low resources consumption. If we go to far we may build another Firefox. I think that the translation macro, Umlauts, and MIME types editor are enough for the 0.9.1 version.

Why the 0.9.5 numeration? What's wrong with the 0.9.1?

@Fred

You're doing an impressive work. Thanks. But I think you did forgot again to include the last Umlauts macro on you last version (I think this was forgotten because you did include it on a previous one). I hope this is not to be forgotten on the definitve version.

@Enaitz Jar - i agree we should nor add too many Xul things - native k-m macros or dll do not comnsume many resources - mimtypes editor - we need it - we wanted it
right at the time when 0.9 was made but nobody knew that the xpt was missing.

& i feel it is good to include active x support for media player... maybe we can also
add other things - but only via white list!

Thanks to both Fred and Guenter for providing me with the knowledge to disable the Active X plugin.
Kind regards to you both
Mike R.

@ Alain
I have unfortunately not yet tested your macro for checking.unchecking
plugins. I have been a bit busy during the last days.
Would you think, that it is important to include it already in a
possible K-Meleon 0.9.5 - RC2 version ? There are some, who
want only few changes, and already tested ones.
@ Enaitz
The Umlaut macro has only been forgotten, and should be
integrated. The few macros that are included already will
certainly have no effect by making the browser heavier, than
before.
I propose the name 0.9.5, because it suggests,
that after such a long time of no change of 0.9, there has
finally been taken an important step forward towards a true
actualization of this browser, and that the next step would be
a new 1.0 K-Meleon. I remember people blaming Firefox, that
it was still having a 0.7, 0.8 and so on, as they are low numbers,
while Internet Explorer was so advanced and modern,
because its number was already 6.0. Ridiculous but that is
how people see it.
@ Guenter
Yes, the instruction, of how to inactivate Active X Support
by user_pref("security.xpconnect.activex.global.hosting_flags", 0);
should be included in user.js .
The file activex.js, that I used contains already the
instruction page of how to enable or disable ClassIDs
and how security can be kept higher or less high
(while enabling Windows Media Player only seems for
me to be really on the safe side).
Regards to all
Fred

@Fred: plugin chooser by T.Kamachi?
- it has been tested both by alain and in ww.

else a toggle macro? - between 9 and zero
- that could be save ground.

also: default plugin pro?

but You are right most do not want many changes.
It is also that: this is probably not the last GRE update.
we may want other goodies for next time.


Numbers: - 0.9.7.12 then ; ) better then 0.9.5 and all forum knows why.

My question may sound stupid but, what's the difference on Media Player perform between Fred's last version and the only GRE updated versions? I've heard something about active X support but I don't know what's for. I use Media Player for listening to Amazon samples or listening the spanish radio online and works fine on my basic spanish K-Meleon version.

@Fred

I will sleep better now that I know that your improvements won't slow down K-Meleon, I really don't want another FF. About numbers, well IMO I think that 0.9.1 sounds better and is less tendent to confussion than 0.9.5, but if it's for some "marketing" reason it's OK by my side. It's ridiculous this fact about higher numbers = better technologies. If you think we should surrender to people stupidity, well let's do it :-)

PS. Why not K-Meleon 47.8.715? :-)

4711 then - smells better. or maybe 0.9.1.7.12?

we had more than only 5 GRE updates
except the one made big errors we had 6 (so 0.95 is modesty ; ) .
And first test version with 1.7.x GRE was a 0.8 with 1.7
- so 09.7.12 or 09.12 is not really wrong because they show GRE versions.