Netsurf 3.9 x86_64 anomolies

[PDP-8]

First, thanks to neonix for v 3.9 !

I'm seeing some anomolies / bugs and wonder if anyone can duplicate them before I make an extension request to run with the latest 3.10 version to help focus my direction on bugs.

My environment:
Xorg 7.7 with fltk/flwm.  TinyCorePure64 naturally.

Bugs:
Netsurf acts differently depending on how you invoke it causing some strange issues.

A.  Invoked from the wbar, when launching a bookmark, instead of bringing up another tab, it will bring up another instance of Netsurf itself.  Perfectly over the initial one.  Took me awhile to see that.

B.  When invoked from the hierarchical drop-downs in fltk/flwm screen background, no bookmarks will launch.

C.  And the old classic - after a download from a link is finished, Netsurf will simply close.  The file will be there, but most probably don't want the browser to close immediately.

Small things:  Bookmarking a page with ctrl-d will do so, but there is no indication that it has done it.  Not sure if this is the normal behavior.

So I'm not really sure where to focus my reports to, or if this is an indication of something majorly wrong in my setup locally.  Perhaps the latest 3.10 would fix it, or at least direct my reporting efforts to them instead of here?

As always, I'm grateful to Juanito and neonix for bringing what we have now in the first place.

[PDP-8]

The last problem of Netsurf abruptly closing after a download is a known issue and fixed in 3.10 according to the project leaders.

Acknowledged and fixed on this MantisBt bug-tracker:
https://bugs.netsurf-browser.org/mantis/print_bug_page.php?bug_id=2676

As for the bookmarks bringing up a second-instance of Netsurf - still seeing if that is supposed to be normal behavior or not...

[PDP-8]

WORKAROUND:

For downloads, merely right click link and Copy Link Location.

Open another tab.  Paste the link location into that tab's url bar as a reference.

Simply open a terminal, and wget the file yourself.  As a convenience, you can highlight the url, and just middle click when you are in a terminal right after you type wget.

Bookmark issue.  Not an issue but I can't find any documentation about it's normal behavior.
So - activating a bookmark simply calls up another WINDOW with your bookmark as the first tab.

You can have multiple windows open, and each with successive amounts of tabs, it's just that using a bookmark forces a new window, and does not go into a tab by default.

Slightly pebcak.

Will request a 3.10 extension upgrade even though the temporary workaround described above works.

[PDP-8]

Hilarious:

The reason I didn't notice the normal activity of a bookmark calling up another dedicated window which is offset rather than going into a tab is because I'm using a very small res of 960x540 on purpose. (with xorg custom modeline, still sharp!)

Thus the offset window merely aligned perfectly over the original so it appears like there's no offset.

Laugh.  I'm still going to use my half-res setup, but now I know.   Still lovin' Netsurf.

[gadget42]

thanks for taking the time to point that out, it is the simple things that elude us!

[PDP-8]

No problem.  I'm not smart, I'm just exposing my ignorance in public.

Nick motivated me to look at Netsurf on the framebuffer, and holy cow.

So running a modern cheap uefi-only hockey-puck with a low-spec N3350 Celeron rig with 6gb ram standard on board, I created the canonical fltk/flwm boot environment with Xfbdev as the driver for x86_64.  I'm addicted to these little fanless things.

Fired up Netsurf and just from a usability standpoint compared to Dillo - no question about it.  Of course this thing flies with TC in ram and Xfbdev as the video driver.  Some of the pucks have crappy framebuffer support, but seems like most that have Intel do the nicest.

So Xfbdev on the 64-bit rig compared to using Xorg isn't to everyone's taste.  And using Netsurf isn't everyone's taste.  At least the rig has seemingly good support for the framebuffer - while being very new in manufacture, is using older-tech internally- albeit with a uefi-only front end, which is not insurmountable and actually does provide a performance boost.

I hate to admit it, but it just confirms my decision to move a little bit forward from Dillo to NetSurf as my standard lightweight now.

[PDP-8]

BTW -handy tip if using Netsurf in Xfb framebuffer mode on X86_64 to see this  forum:

Disable background and foreground images in your preferences (no images).  Something odd about them that makes 3.9 at least very cranky but the forum is still very usable and navigable otherwise.

A nifty developer blog just to prove that these are just a handful of smart guys like all of us can be seen here:

https://vincentsanders.blogspot.com/2019/

Puts a human touch on things.  Nice.

[curaga]

Framebuffer mode means command line. Do not run a framebuffer app under X.

[PDP-8]

Roger that.  I needed that refresher.

It's right in the first character of the name Xfbdev.  So it's not full xorg, but the "tiny-X" - still X.  Or use Xvesa or Xorg.  Whatever you use, if you using any of these three, it is still X.

I apologize to lurkers for cross-pollinating terms which could lead to a lot of confusion to those using solely the framebuffer version, invoking the framebuffer version of Netsurf from a command-line only environment.

So this version of Netsurf 3.9, still barfs on png graphics in the fore/backgrounds of the forum for whatever reason.  Run with no-images and it still works great.

Ironically, png's, such as taking a screen-snapshot locally, can be seen easily if one points the url inwards (file:///) and navigates to that png file.