Problems with GIF animations

[Bernhard Scholz]

Regarding your message "Re: Problems with GIF animations"
sent to me: Sat, 6 Sep 1997

Hello!

First I wan't to say: Thank you for OmniWeb! I love it!

This is just, because the following might sound a little bit too critically.

> Animated GIFs work great in 3.0 -- they no longer suck down a thread, so
> they don't lock up your browser. I had no idea the web was so animated!
> We're including a preference to stop them after N iterations (including
> 0), for those of you who like your pages less flashy.
Wow! Sorry, but if you are getting the idea now(!) I believe you heavily  
missed a lot of the way the web is acting! I can't believe it! You were
working on one of the beautifulst apps for NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP and weren't
able to read the signs (realizing animated GIFs as one of the key design
features after 2 (I think) years isn't what I'd call: fast). You could  
have trashed every other browser much much earlier (okay, there is always:  
you get what you pay for :-) )!

> But, hey, as part of the bargain you'll get our new, cool heirarchical  
> processes panel, and our new, cool document inspector (so you can save
> off backgrond images with ease, for example, or edit a single frame in a
> frames document).
>
Nice! These are real improvements. But I'd liked the way OmniWeb was  
acting on normal pictures. Just drag&drop an picture and it get's saved.
I always wondered, why this behaviour wasn't possible for background  
images?! BTW: you already have the stuff to edit a single frame in a  
frames document aren't you? Just selecting a frame and using 'View Source'  
does it. But I'm missing to edit the mother page which loads the frames.  
(don't know how to call this page exactly)

> But, wait, there's more -- you get our redesigned UI, with just one URL
> field per window, which is totally easier to use! Now how much would you
> pay?
>
Hm. I remember at least two articles (one in MacWorld and one in C't  
(german biggest computer magazine) stating that exactly this two URL  
feature was a major feature and improvement over other Web browsers. It  
was just brilliant to see the space for the process bar used twice. Let's  
hope the new interface is even more brilliant.

> What if I told you that reloading a document reloads all the subframes
> and images, as well?
Barh! Really? Personally, I don't like it. Please make it selectable!  
Reloading just subframes is a great choice! I'm going to miss it at all  
when I'm at work and I have to use Netscrap and InternetExplosion :-)

> That hitting the stop button now stops all the
> images as well as the main page? That I've added a reload button to the
> main panel? That there's a new "load all images" menu item for people
> who like running with autofetch images off, or for sites that timeout a
> lot? That the processes panel always has a selection, so you don't have
> to keep clicking on it all the time?
Nice. But for the reload images feature: does it really improve  
performance? I notice the opposite: If you really reload the whole page,  
only the images which weren't reloaded the last time get fetched again.  
(because the other are fetched from the cache). Does this feature really  
reload every picture? This would hurt. I don't see the need for it. People  
which turn off loading of images, may just enable this feature again to  
reload the images in the current page (e.g. make the preference setting  
act at once and not just for the next URLs being loaded).
>
> And these are just the UI improvements!  So far!
>
Sorry, but I don't see many real improvements. I just looks like: let's  
do something different and add gimmicks. It seems as if you are breaking  
with the user friendlyness of the interface and it's clean design. Do you  
have a new software designer?

Sorry, that this was mostly hard critizism. But this is because I love  
OmniWeb. I use it all day and I don't want to see it die in the near  
Rhapsody days. But you have to face the features of the other browsers and  
the way the Web is used for publishing. Key features are e.g. the  
mentioned animated Gifs, zero line table borders (not implemented yet) and  
several other 'gimmicks', like JavaScript support (even a bare bone  
support so we could see the ticker scripts, where it is used mostly) or a  
web pull client which combines me with the latest pages in one single  
page, or a friendlier cooky access or ... (to be continued). Please: focus  
on the unique features of OmniWeb and continue with your creativity for  
real enhancements! Don't waste your time on something which looks like a  
workaround (like the reloading mechanism for frame pages or the reload  
images menu item).

Best wishes,

  Bernhard.

---
Bernhard Scholz				http://www.leo.org/~scholz/
Peanuts FTP Admin 			http://peanuts.leo.org/
scholz at leo.org, (StuSta ONLY: boerny at xenia.hsh.stusta.mhn.de)