Apple hides information to make Firefox better
DEVELOPERS working on the new super soaraway Firefox 3 have noticed that there are a few problems trying to run the browser on Apple's OSX software.
For no apparent reason, Firefox 3 was running slower on OSX than on Firebadger 2. Most of the tests showed that it was 50 per cent to 500 per cent slower.
According to the bog of 'Vladimir' the graphics layer in Firefox 3 should be much faster.
Initially he thought it must be Apple's native theme drawing, because if he disabled native theme rendering, benchmark performance shot up.
It was clear that the Apple OS was throttling Firebadger 3 by forcing it to wait for the next frame interval before allowing punters to draw again.
Unfortunately disabling the whole thing on a system-wide basis was not a good idea and since Fireweasel 2 didn't suffer from this there must be something else.
Eventually Vladimir was snuffling around some old tech notes from Apple when he found that the reason that Firerabbit wasn't affected was that since it was not a Cocoa app and was exempt from being subject to the silly updates.
The Apple techs talked about a "last resort" which showed how to disable the feature and Vladimir got the whole thing working properly.
What was strange was that Apple's Safari/WebKit didn't seem to have this problem. Vladimir discovered that it had code under the bonnet which did loads of interesting things to bypass the landmines in OS-X which otherwise would have slowed it all down.
None of these speed up tricks is documented. They only appear in binary blobs shipped along with the WebKit source.
Vladimir does not rail against Apple's poor documentation, or think that is a plot by Jobs' Mob to kill off Firebadger and force OSX users onto the lacklustre Safari.
He just thinks Apple has cut a few too many corners and since it is such a closed operation noone can force it to pull its socks up. µ
L'inq
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You mean it was going _backwards_, _fast_? Arrant gibberish.
Could you please read paragraph 7 over, and tell me if it actually makes sense to you. And what updates are you referring to?
All Nick Farrell articles are required to have one incomprehensible paragraph....
..is a fine example of why you must be fed to the badgers. You didn't mention Cappucino, Saint Steve, not even a dig at the vole or even give OS X its proper "super soaraway" moniker. There's humour, and then there's your misuse of that humour...and of the English language.
How dare you say such things you young rude man? Don't you know Safari is just faster and just better because Holy Steve says so? Is this not enough? You are evil or ignorant and we don't like you, oh no no </sarcasm> Why bother and give FF to Mac users? They will be fine with Safari or whatever no matter how much it sucks as it is Apple and this is enough isnt it?
Apples software is "Safari". The headline is bunk. Second a Developer is complaining because he is not using the native programming framework cocca? Get with the developer program. Cocca apps are native apps and have full access to all features. If you are not writing cocca apps you are using outdated programming APIs. Well Duh your program can't use all the wiz bang things. Don't blame apple for your incompetence AT adds: Or your inability to spell.
well whatever. i find that ff3 beta 3 on mac runs faster than ff2, so that's good. what bugs me is that ff in general is still gawdawful slow and laggy when it comes to flash stuff, try scrolling with a flash thing on screen, say on youtube.. gahh annoying. yet it works ok to goodish in safari - coincidence? besides, why is nobody making a stink about apple keeping stuff to themselves? think about it, how many dos (read windos) boxes are out there compared to macs? 50:1? that's why they don't get fined. it's not like apple is taking over the massmarket with their os and computers anytime soon right. but still the way they operate is annoying.
Lacklustre safari... hah! Fireferret is absolute junk... Try using Fireferret for facebook on windows... it's worse than IE6, let alone IE7! Not only do I use Safari for Windows myself, but all my friends who were previously using fireferret who I've told to try out Safari were left wondering why they ever installed fireferret in the first place! But Apple better keep it up... because I'm not biased against Fireferret or IE, and I will change if they're better... and take all those other users with me
Funny all the fan boys flock to apples defence. But when MS does exactly the same they cry foul, kick up a stink and threaten to sue or encourage others to sue on there behalf. Now I would like to see the EU fine the crap out of apple for doing 'exactly' what MS does. Force people to use there compilers and programming packages for software development and leave everyone else out in the cold, without documentation to those undocumented features. It's plain old pathetic that apple has such a hold on development. Then mac users cry foul when they don't have a driver or something else like Java 6. That's because its being held up with apple for there approval! At least with windows, you can run with an un-official driver, you don't have to wait for WHQL from MS.