Firefox 1.5: Feed handling improvements; Pretty Print out
August 20th, 2005
Firefox 1.5 was originally going to have both feed handling improvements as well as a feature called RSS Pretty Print or “Feedview”.
Feed Handling
The user interface for accessing and finding feeds has changed. The feed icon can now be found in the address bar (see screenshot). This brings Firefox in line with how browsers such as Opera and Safari show the existance of feeds for the website. The feed discovery has also become more intelligent. Firefox 1.5 will detect if the list of feeds are just the same feed in different formats, and if so will present the feed in the best format. If there are multiple feeds displaying different information, the menu will be presented as before. It seems that Atom will be the preferred feed format of Firefox (sounds like more of a political than technical decision to me; never the less, the correct one).
Pretty Print
Pretty Print originated from the integration of the
Feedview extension. This adds a XSL stylesheet to web feeds which displays them in a nice user friendly format rather than displaying the XML source code. The original intent was to get this in to Firefox 1.5 but it has now been delayed until 2.0 due to several problems. Having tried it, I think it was the right call and for those who want it, it’s always available as an extension.
About the Author: Hi! I'm Ken. I've been using mobiles for over 10 years and technology for a lot longer! I'd love to hear from you.
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Maybe it’s me, but I’ve just noticed the new way that it handles extension updates aswell. Looks very good to me, atm and Pretty Print makes it look really nice. I’m still trying to get used to the new Options/Preferences layout.
Yup, the update system has been entirely overhauled. There’s now background downloading, automatic installation of updates if you choose to allow it, updating without having to run installer, smaller upgrades, etc.
As for Pretty Print, enjoy it whilst it lasts