After some recuperation I was able to track down the problem with Linux Firefox, and clean out the rest of the known bugs on the Daily Kos Ajax client.
Animation is now enabled on Internet Explorer 5.5 and later, fewer comments will be lost when the server blinks at the wrong moment, and there are improvements to how ratings update.
Continue below for the list of bug fixes, and browser compatibility charts.
It turns out the Mozilla team was first alerted to the slow scrolling bug in Feburary 2001. It apparently affects thousands of websites that have background images set via CSS. And they've never really fixed it; it's just really bad on Linux.
Bon Echo (Firefox 2.0 alpha 1)
still doesn't fix this bug!
I was puzzled because I was certain I hadn't changed anything that might cause such incredibly slow scrolling (20x slower than normal!). And sure enough, the bug actually arrived when the site was redesigned last year. In fact, the popular personal blog of the designer (a noted web guru) also displays the problem.
So to fix this I had no choice but to rebuild the look of the site avoiding background images. I got it about 99.5% visually identical on the recommended browsers (Firefox and Safari) and IE7, 99% identical on Opera 8.5, and 98% or so on IE6. The page progressively renders a little differently (in blocks) but if you blink, you'll probably never notice the difference. The new design is also much easier to maintain and modify as it relies less on perfect registration with background images. And if the image server goes down, you won't have to read on a gray background.
Since I have never touched the Daily Kos home page or other pages than the diary/comments view, those pages will still scroll slowly on Linux.
It's also possible that individuals who were experiencing slow scrolling in Firefox on other platforms (e.g. Windows) will no longer have that problem.
I also took this opportunity to fix up animation in IE, so it's now enabled for IE 5.5 and later. The panels will magically unfold into and out of view as they do on all other Ajax browsers.
I've done some work to support the upcoming IE 7 and Opera 9. (Opera 9 looks as if it will be the browser to beat, period. They've even got widgets like those from the Mac Dashboard running on Windows via Opera!)
When the server goes down briefly, it was possible for comments posted that second to be lost. The new code should prevent most if not all of those problems.
Finally, some people noticed odd behaviors when rating comments...the ratings totals might actually go down when rating, the screen might jump while rating, etc. Those problems should now be fixed.
KNOWN BUGS REMAINING:
- Duplicate posts are possible: The client has been given code to prevent double-postings; we are still waiting on the server to be updated to block such redundancies.
- People are losing and regaining Trusted User status randomly. It has happened to me even.
- Sometimes in small threads one user is left without ratings controls
- [new] markers can come back on a manual reload.
- Foreign characters and curly quotes in subject lines appear something like &x2018;
ISSUES WE'LL JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH
Some things are out of our control and depend on the browser. It would be costly or impossible to try to compensate for them.
- Navigating to another page, then pressing the Back button will display the page from the last time you manually loaded/reloaded it.
- Doing so with the comment editor open may wipe your comment text.
- If a page takes a long time to load, you might be able to beat the script from rewiring the links. You will be in legacy mode until the script runs...be patient.
- Safari on Mac OS 10.2 Jaguar is not supported (see below).
REPORTING BUGS
Please let us know of additional problems. When you do so, it is important we are able to duplicate them on our test machines. Please provide with each report:
- Browser and version
- OS and version
- Bandwidth (56K dialup, 1.5MB Cable, etc)
- Processor GHz and RAM
This should be the last client code update before the next big step in Ajaxifying Daily Kos, but if you find other problems, please let me know here in a comment or track me down in an Open Thread or something. I read your emails but regret I can't respond to them, though I often can followup here on the site.
Cheers,
peeder
DAILY KOS AJAX COMPATIBILITY
Common Considerations:
The site will look and work much like the old site does with JavaScript disabled, or with browsers that don't support Ajax (old ones, mobile phones like the treo, etc.). This is called "legacy mode". The technology that makes that support so smooth, by the way, has the lovely name "progressive enhancement."
WINDOWS
Recommended Browser: Firefox 1.5
Firefox 1.5/1.07/Netscape 7.2 and later:
- No known issues, but staying up-to-date is recommended
- Firefox extensions may work but are not supported: if you load them into your browser, disable them (Tools/Extensions and right click them to Disable, then close _all_ Firefox windows and re-launch Firefox) and reproduce your problems before reporting them to us.
Internet Explorer 6 (Including AOL Explorer and Netscape 8 in IE mode when IE 6 installed):
- Links created with link editor are pasted in at the end of comments. They can of course be moved from there with a cut and paste.
- Find (on this page) will bring up an error message when done during a refresh. These can be safely dismissed and tried again in a few seconds. Turning off Autorefresh will help avoid this problem.
- Autorefresh may cause periodic "clicking" sounds as it loads (the same sounds as if you were pressing the reload button manually); these can be turned off in the Sounds tab of the Sounds Control Panel: Set the "Start Navigation" sound to "(None)".
- Renders faster than Firefox, but JavaScript is slower
- IE7 beta 2 works much like IE6
Internet Explorer 5.5:
- All IE6 problems. Even so, upgrading is recommended.
Internet Explorer 5.0, Netscape 4 and earlier are all stuck in legacy mode (no Ajax).
Netscape 7.1 and earlier are not supported on any platform.
Opera 8.5:
- Back button may sometimes require numerous presses (use rewind button)
- Parent links on comments in /story mode open an ugly page instead of scrolling up.
- These issues, true for all Opera platforms, will be fixed in Opera 9.x
MACINTOSH
Recommended Browser: Safari
Safari 2.x (on 10.4 Tiger) / 1.3x (on 10.3 Panther):
- No known issues provided Safari is updated via Software Update
Safari 0.x/1.x (Early versions on 10.2 Jaguar):
- These browsers are not supported.
- The site will render, but some links will not be clickable
Firefox 1.5.0.1/1.07/Netscape 7.2:
- Should now work fine.
- Not as fast as Safari, or as pretty.
Camino 1.0:
- Will support Ajax usage on 10.2 Jaguar
- Similar to Firefox but doesn't allow extensions; you may prefer it though.
Opera 8.5:
- Same problems as Windows Opera 8.5
Internet Explorer 5.2:
- Uses legacy mode...no Ajax support
- May be best browser for 10.2 Jaguar and earlier
- IE is the only working option for MacOS 9.
LINUX
Recommended Browser: Firefox 1.5.0.1
Firefox 1.5.0.1:
Mozilla 1.7.12:
Opera 8.5.2:
- Sometimes has rendering problems, in addition to the problems on Windows.
Konqueror 3.4:
- Has some problems booting up these scripts; first comment load fails and sometimes it brings up the Script Continue dialog when first loaded. Not recommended or supported but you might be able to use it anyway.