Tag: developer tools

Opera Dragonfly – A day away!

Opera DragonflyFor those of you who have not heard, Opera is releasing the “Opera Developer Tools” named Dragonfly to the public tomorrow, May 6th, 2008! The release will be made Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 12:00 PM EST.

The new Dragonfly developer tools are aimed at competing with the developer tools that are already and have been offered by Firefox for a long time now via extensions (Firebug).

Dragonfly should (in theory) increase the popularity and use of the Opera browser by providing debugging tools to web developers. In the past, it was always some what difficult to develop web sites to support all of the main browsers and then fix problems that occurred in Opera. The old tools just didn’t cut it.

The new developer tools will provide a much more efficient and easier method of pin-pointing problems and correcting them in Opera with much less work and effort than was once required.

With more web sites working flawlessly in Opera (due to the developer tools), there will be less reason for end users to not give Opera a try. These tools will help level the playing field among the major browsers.

I know what I’ll be doing all day tomorrow. 😀 Make sure you check out Dragonfly tomorrow at 12:00 PM!

UPDATE:
Opera Dragonfly has been released and it is fantastic! Even as an alpha version it’s truly a handy tool. If you want to use this tool then you’ll have to get the latest version of Opera to test it with. To go that go to:
http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2008/05/06/getting-ready-for-dragonfly

Blog tag: 5 things I’d like to see in Opera

Recently, I read a post at OperaWatch.com where Daniel has started a new game similar to tag..with Opera. So the game is that you make a list of your top most 5 wishes for the Opera browser. The features or suggestions are to improve Opera in your own opinion. After listing your 5 wishes you should leave at least 5 other friends names that are linked to their blog page. Once linked, they are entered into the game and have to make their own list and tag new friends. So I guess I’ll just jump right in…

  1. [done] -> [link] Developer Tools. I wish for developer tools as my top wish simply because Opera lacks in this area. Other browsers such as Firefox and Safari already have great developer tools. Most people that I know turn to Firebug in Firefox to debug their web sites. Opera really needs to step up and release something amazing asap!
  2. [done] -> [link] Auto-Update. My second wish is for an auto-update system similar to the one that is already present in Firefox. Most people won’t understand that currently the only way to update Opera is to go to the download page and download the entire program over again. This could be handled so much better with an auto-update feature that downloads only small patch files instead of downloading the entire ~6mb file each time. This feature would also include auto-updating of plug-ins to make the stress on the user as little as possible.
  3. [done] -> [link-1 link-2] Extended Widget Capabilities. This wish may not seem like a popular wish, however, many people are begging for extensions and other exact copies from Firefox. I believe in the widgets. The only thing that I feel desperately needs to be improved to them is to allow them to interact with the browser it self and even interact with the OS on a low and safe level. If widgets could interact with the browser itself a lot more then we would have infinite possibilities for new widgets. Widgets really could start to have some of the same capabilities that make extensions such a popular choice today.
  4. [done] -> [link] In-line Spell Check. I know that many people have been begging for this feature for ages. It goes with out saying that this feature would become a success from the start. Also, this is just a suggestion, but a wiki could be started to allow members to contribute dictionaries for various languages etc. so they could be included with the installer program and just compressed.
  5. [done] -> [link] Improved Interface. This last wish is more of an improvement wish rather than a feature request. It took me a while to decide on this wish, but I’d really like to see the interface improved on tons. I know that lots of work is going into the mail client at the moment with Kestrel in mind. The freezing bugs are rumored to be squashed and the interface of the mail client is supposed to be slightly redesigned to make managing your mail much easier. I’d really like to see the rest of Opera improved upon though, including the notes, contacts, info panel (which has been improved already internally), transfers (including Bit Torrent downloads), widgets (some kind of bring all to front or something), windows panel (thumbnail view instead of just list view), a thumbnail view of history pages, thumbnail view for bookmarks, upgraded chat client, possibly even jabber support, better support for reporting fraudulent sites (the login causes many people to avoid reporting), and keep the incredible speed you’re so famous for!
    The five friends that I tag are: haavard, zomg, Remco Lanting, FataL and Nicomen.

Tag, you’re it.

Last updated 2008-12-07