caching, button sizes, progress display for downloads

[Jeff Fields]

The new beta is quite nice. I think I can actually bear to use this one,  
which is good, cause I like the extra features. Comments:

1. Caching seems to work better than the Release Notes would indicate.  
Unlike 2.0b1, in 2.0b2 you can change the Cache Preferences so that  
various commonly-used data types will never expire (NeverExpire), and it  
actually works. So, going back to previously-loaded pages is much faster.  
Gotta love this.

2. I read the debate posted to this list regarding old-big-buttons versus  
new-more-svelte-buttons. There's certainly a strong argument to be made  
for the larger buttons, which are easier to get to and click on (much  
bigger landing site) but also eat up precious vertical screen real estate.  
I think I can deal with the new button sizes, although I wouldn't want  
them any smaller. Also, compliments on the looks of the new buttons; they  
are quite attractive.

3. I really don't like the new progress display while downloading stuff,  
though. The way OmniWeb 1.0 did this was quite elegant and pleasing, I  
thought. Having to look all the way to the extreme left of the window to  
see the number of bytes fetched so far, and then all the way to the right  
of the screen to see the total # of bytes to be fetched is really evil,  
and using the whole large current-URL bar to display this data makes  
things look much chunkier and uglier. Is this just something that is being  
put in for the beta, or is the old mechanism really being thrown away? I  
realize that since there are now more buttons taking up horizontal space  
at the top of the browser, there is less horiz. space left for displaying  
the site info and then the progress bar with updating numerals, but  
perhaps the old interface for this could be adapted so that it looks ok in  
less space.

Thanks for the continuing updates to a great product.

Jeff Fields
National Center for Voice and Speech
bud at bud.giant.net