The Elephant in the Browser
David Feugey (2125) 2687 posts |
That’s probably a stupid idea, but a few examples of what is possible, and a HTML flag to launch the JS engine on specific web pages (3 modes: JS always off, JS always on, JS on only on compliant web sites), would really be a cool thing. I have some web applications made for ROS and NetSurf that would loved to be JS enhanced. |
Steve Pampling (1551) 7957 posts |
Experience of changing formats? My first work based dealings with that kind of thing were back in the mid-90’s. All my file reading and changing scripts/programs were written in BBC BASIC and then often converted to the available PC version (GW or BASIC 5 as I recall) so that others could run my conversion routines to change Olivetti word processor and Amstrad word processor documents to which ever of the current house standard formats was required. |
Glen Walker (2585) 469 posts |
Not at all! And the reason for upgrading to a new version of software that is not backwards compatible has nothing at all to do with getting you spend more money… |
David Gee (1833) 266 posts |
This is particularly bad with IDEs and the like. Word might let you save in an old format but Visual Studio won’t—even when the differences are minimal. |
Rick Murray (539) 13425 posts |
Well, there’s theory and there is reality. When saving “old style” in Word, the actual older versions throw enough of a wobbly that sometimes the easiest option is to save as RTF… but that has its own problems. Getting VB5 to load VB6 programs was easy enough. Just load the project file into Notepad and delete the line something about key retained. May also be worth checking those embedded OCX magic numbers as well to make sure that both machines have the same stuff or it’ll choke in interesting ways. It’s the same sort of deal with Google Drive. Older apps such as QuickOffice used “docx” format, the newer Google Docs apps use a custom format. The two don’t seem able to access each other’s files. But I suppose, even more worrying is dependence. I like Docs as I can write a document on the iPad, proofread it on my phone, and grab a copy on the PC in several formats. This works around the fact that iOS sucks at sharing with non-Apple devices, plus having missed Apple’s “everything we do for free” appfest by a mere two weeks, there is nothing else that resembles a useful text editor for iOS. Thankfully Docs can work connected or offline, though now my phone contract gives me 2 or 3 GiB a month (I forget how much…) it is less of a problem. |
Rick Murray (539) 13425 posts |
Glen
My netbook runs XP SP3 and it’s about a year and a half out of date on the official security updates (ran out of space on the C: SSD!). I run Avast!, I block most web content with a paranoid view, and I don’t visit dodgy sites other than xcdd.horriblesubs.info and that isn’t exactly dodgy as dodgy is defined. While XP (etc etc) has vulns, I think a reasonable amount of machine security is not so much what you have but how you use it. I saw a virus/trojan ridden Vista box when Vista was “current”. How did it happen? The person’s kids used to download and install everything they could get their hands on. I’ve never seen a box with so many screensavers and a flippin’ animated cowboy-with-a-lassoo mouse pointer. Having a look at the report generated by… oh, what was it called, that test suite that looks for malware… anyway, the utter hundreds of screenfuls of output convinced me that the best advice I could offer is to format the harddisc and reinstall everything again, and don’t let the kids near it. Eric
That used to be the way, certainly. Now Google Drive tells me my browser is too old (and I can use the old style “for now”) while some other sites go further and block access entirely – just continually redirecting you to a page telling you to upgrade to the latest version of Firefox or Chrome (or maybe, at a pinch, Opera). I tend to think of these sites along the same lines as I think of paywall sites or ones that appear empty without JavaScript…that whatever is there isn’t worth archiving and if style over substance is this important to the company running it, it’s their own damn fault if their content is lost to history. |