amaya 4.2 reviewed

I realize that this version is a bugfix of the most annoying 
errors that hamper progress in evaluating SVG, MathML,
 and annotations which are three leading edge areas of research.
Thus I will only send my 'bug' list and not 'wish' list for added stuff.
Most of these bugs are in simple display of older elements.
I see that thin table borders are a bit nicer and that one can
now insert/select in forms without being in edit mode   so 
a couple of things on my list are gone.   But the list is long
and hope some can be addressed in the first trimester release!
jr ---  off the air till new years.

Some areas that are still causing problems within Amaya 4.2
    (December 21, 2000) from my viewpoint [Windows 98 BINARY):

Startup Sequence or Initialization
S1] The toolbar with the STOP icon should be displayed and enabled
    earlier in the startup sequence.  At present, if one has a startup
    or home page on the internet and there is a service problem, there
    are situations where the display hangs up searching for a site but
    with no STOP or 'breakout' method available.
    TEST: by removing cable connection and starting browser with home
    page on the internet.
S2] Cached files are used without checking to see if it is current.
    A simple timestamp check should allow changed files to be loaded
    over the cached ones. I suspect a check is being done but on 
    a greter than condition rather than a NOT EQUAL condition. This
    is important if an isp has not set its clock correctly.

Table Display -- http://www.cgocable.net/~jrussel/am_table.htm
T1] Thin table frames (border="1") do not have the proper 't' and
    'x' elements which cause broken lines. Using border="2" displays
    ok but this is not the ideal solution to the problem.
T2] If align="center" is used within a table element
    (a deprecated attribute in this case), it is interpreted as
    an instruction for the cell entries as well.  This is incorrect!
T3] Table cell border properties are not observed correctly
    when frame and rules attributes included. Test using my sample
    file and compare the display with that of MSIE 5.
T4] If a table has no height= attribute, the height is computed
    by the browser. If a table declares height=   then ????
    Most browsers will check 'set' value against needed and use
    the maximum of the two.
    Amaya uses the height setting to be consistent with the img
    height attribute which normally scales image to the speced height
    but this leaves problems if speced is less than needed TEXT.
    If there is no specification on how to handle this conflict,
    it would be easy enough to err in favor of the user by:
    a] setting height to default value
    b] resetting height if height= attribute used
    c] computing what is needed to prevent outside of border material
       (this routine is already there for no height speced)
    d] comparing needed to height 
    e] using the maximum of the two values  NEEDED and HEIGHT
       This routine would work whether or not height was speced.  
       and would prevent out of box messages in most cases!
    TEST: by using the sample file.
T5] The rowspan attribute causes cell data to be placed below bottom
    of the container. See am_table.htm for results.
T6] Tables become confused if stacked more than two levels down.
    TEST: by viewing 'http://www.bahnhof.se/~chimbis/tocb/links'
    where text is printed outside their associated box.
T7] Errors in mathematics during table construction that are editor
    detectable, should be flagged to user.

Form Display/Action -- http://www.cgocable.net/~jrussel/formtest.htm
F1] Fieldset doesn't draw container box and legend doesnt title box.
    This is important for visual look of form to client.
F2] Size = x is not acted upon which yields awkward screens.
F3] Tab button does not move focus of cursor from entry to entry.
F4] Disabled form entry areas are still able to be used.
F5] Pressing reset clears radio buttons but does not clear checkbox.
F6] Alignment of adjacent buttons is incorrect when combo of list
    and image button captions used.

Other Display Problems -- 
http://www.cgocable.net/~jrussel/am_dsply.htm
D1] CSS1 property font-family does not include correct renderings for
    the generic fonts 'cursive' and 'fantasy'.
D2] CSS1 property text-transform is not functional.
D3] When lists are included in blocks that are centered, the
    list bullets are not centered but the text is.
D4] Unbreakable strings are broken (with hyphens added) whenever the
    window is narrower than the string.  This is in contrast to action
    of other browsers and leads to unusually displays in some table 
    situations. Fixing the document width and forcing scrolling seems
    more appropriate.
D5] The default img size is too small. This results in unnecesary
    screen redraws on common screens like 'http://www.w3.org/History'
    which uses icons on each line that is a file.  
D6] Images are not floated correctly although this is part of
    HTML 4.0 specification.
D7] CSS stylesheet rule rendering is incomplete. Two to note are
    colors and line positioning. The www.w3.org/Style/CSS page
    is a great demo.  Observe the heading on a variety of browsers.
D8] Many color-picker selected colors do not look like the ones
    displayed in the picker swatches. This is 256 color mode related!!

User Interface Problems
U1] The move one page up/down scroll selection may not be adapting
    to screen size.  This is most noticable in the Show Source
    window.  For 800x600 main window, this results in jumps that do
    not retain one line of last screen (for continuity) and even
    more extreme, for 640x480 main window, lines are skipped entirely
    when paging action selected.  Algorithm must take into account
    the number of lines displayed! I didnt check horizontal scroll
    but this may have similar problem.
U2] After scrolling to bottom of document, scrolling up to top
    overscrolls on many documents using an image watermark 
background.
    And scrolling down overscrolls on some documents using an image
    watermark background.
U3] The scroll bars can't be pulled to the very bottom or right edge.
    No information is lost but this is untidy.

Printing Difficulties
P1] Amaya deadlocks during printing when document contains
    the following style attribute:
    <h2 style="page-break-before: always;">The Title</h2>
    If the style attribute is removed, printing works ok.

Keyboard Shortcuts
K1] Standard shortcut nomenclature should be used in menus.
    For example Alt + P  instead of Alt p    and
    Ctrl + Enter  instead of Ctrl Return. 
    NOTE: I can't find Return key on a standard keyboard ;-]
  
Compose Function
C1] Creating a soft hyphen adds a &173; to the document which
    will not pass some validators.  Should use &shy; instead.

Address Dialog
A1] Currently  www.w3.org  will not get a page from the web
    (needs http:) but \temp\foobar.htm will get one from local drive.
    Either the default mode should be switched around so that
    http: is assumed (to coincide with other browsers) or that
    the service MUST BE declared (which is Amaya like solution).


John Russell, VE3LL@RAC.CA
http://www.cgocable.net/~jrussel
Mystery readers may want to click on DOROTHYL
Some areas that are still causing problems within Amaya 4.2
    (December 21, 2000) from my viewpoint [Windows 98 BINARY):

Startup Sequence or Initialization
S1] The toolbar with the STOP icon should be displayed and enabled
    earlier in the startup sequence.  At present, if one has a startup
    or home page on the internet and there is a service problem, there
    are situations where the display hangs up searching for a site but
    with no STOP or 'breakout' method available.
    TEST: by removing cable connection and starting browser with home
    page on the internet.
S2] Cached files are used without checking to see if it is current.
    A simple timestamp check should allow changed files to be loaded
    over the cached ones. I suspect a check is being done but on 
    a greter than condition rather than a NOT EQUAL condition. This
    is important if an isp has not set its clock correctly.

Table Display -- http://www.cgocable.net/~jrussel/am_table.htm
T1] Thin table frames (border="1") do not have the proper 't' and
    'x' elements which cause broken lines. Using border="2" displays
    ok but this is not the ideal solution to the problem.
T2] If align="center" is used within a table element
    (a deprecated attribute in this case), it is interpreted as
    an instruction for the cell entries as well.  This is incorrect!
T3] Table cell border properties are not observed correctly
    when frame and rules attributes included. Test using my sample
    file and compare the display with that of MSIE 5.
T4] If a table has no height= attribute, the height is computed
    by the browser. If a table declares height=   then ????
    Most browsers will check 'set' value against needed and use
    the maximum of the two.
    Amaya uses the height setting to be consistent with the img
    height attribute which normally scales image to the speced height
    but this leaves problems if speced is less than needed TEXT.
    If there is no specification on how to handle this conflict,
    it would be easy enough to err in favor of the user by:
    a] setting height to default value
    b] resetting height if height= attribute used
    c] computing what is needed to prevent outside of border material
       (this routine is already there for no height speced)
    d] comparing needed to height 
    e] using the maximum of the two values  NEEDED and HEIGHT
       This routine would work whether or not height was speced.  
       and would prevent out of box messages in most cases!
    TEST: by using the sample file.
T5] The rowspan attribute causes cell data to be placed below bottom
    of the container. See am_table.htm for results.
T6] Tables become confused if stacked more than two levels down.
    TEST: by viewing 'http://www.bahnhof.se/~chimbis/tocb/links'
    where text is printed outside their associated box.
T7] Errors in mathematics during table construction that are editor
    detectable, should be flagged to user.

Form Display/Action -- http://www.cgocable.net/~jrussel/formtest.htm
F1] Fieldset doesn't draw container box and legend doesnt title box.
    This is important for visual look of form to client.
F2] Size = x is not acted upon which yields awkward screens.
F3] Tab button does not move focus of cursor from entry to entry.
F4] Disabled form entry areas are still able to be used.
F5] Pressing reset clears radio buttons but does not clear checkbox.
F6] Alignment of adjacent buttons is incorrect when combo of list
    and image button captions used.

Other Display Problems -- http://www.cgocable.net/~jrussel/am_dsply.htm
D1] CSS1 property font-family does not include correct renderings for
    the generic fonts 'cursive' and 'fantasy'.
D2] CSS1 property text-transform is not functional.
D3] When lists are included in blocks that are centered, the
    list bullets are not centered but the text is.
D4] Unbreakable strings are broken (with hyphens added) whenever the
    window is narrower than the string.  This is in contrast to action
    of other browsers and leads to unusually displays in some table 
    situations. Fixing the document width and forcing scrolling seems
    more appropriate.
D5] The default img size is too small. This results in unnecesary
    screen redraws on common screens like 'http://www.w3.org/History'
    which uses icons on each line that is a file.  
D6] Images are not floated correctly although this is part of
    HTML 4.0 specification.
D7] CSS stylesheet rule rendering is incomplete. Two to note are
    colors and line positioning. The www.w3.org/Style/CSS page
    is a great demo.  Observe the heading on a variety of browsers.
D8] Many color-picker selected colors do not look like the ones
    displayed in the picker swatches. This is 256 color mode related!!

User Interface Problems
U1] The move one page up/down scroll selection may not be adapting
    to screen size.  This is most noticable in the Show Source
    window.  For 800x600 main window, this results in jumps that do
    not retain one line of last screen (for continuity) and even
    more extreme, for 640x480 main window, lines are skipped entirely
    when paging action selected.  Algorithm must take into account
    the number of lines displayed! I didnt check horizontal scroll
    but this may have similar problem.
U2] After scrolling to bottom of document, scrolling up to top
    overscrolls on many documents using an image watermark background.
    And scrolling down overscrolls on some documents using an image
    watermark background.
U3] The scroll bars can't be pulled to the very bottom or right edge.
    No information is lost but this is untidy.

Printing Difficulties
P1] Amaya deadlocks during printing when document contains
    the following style attribute:
    <h2 style="page-break-before: always;">The Title</h2>
    If the style attribute is removed, printing works ok.

Keyboard Shortcuts
K1] Standard shortcut nomenclature should be used in menus.
    For example Alt + P  instead of Alt p    and
    Ctrl + Enter  instead of Ctrl Return. 
    NOTE: I can't find Return key on a standard keyboard ;-]
  
Compose Function
C1] Creating a soft hyphen adds a &173; to the document which
    will not pass some validators.  Should use &shy; instead.

Address Dialog
A1] Currently  www.w3.org  will not get a page from the web
    (needs http:) but \temp\foobar.htm will get one from local drive.
    Either the default mode should be switched around so that
    http: is assumed (to coincide with other browsers) or that
    the service MUST BE declared (which is Amaya like solution).

Received on Friday, 22 December 2000 10:44:43 UTC