Google Chrome : Java Glossary

Google has released an open source browser based on Apple’s Safari rendering engine. The current version is 23.0.1271.97 Last revised/verified: 2012-12-13.

Advantages

• Google translate integrates beautifully. It automatically translates as you go. You can flip back and forth between the language and English with the click of a button.
• Available for Windows, Linux and Mac.
• When you enter the name of a file to browse, it lets you use any combination of / and \ in the URL (Uniform Resource Locator).
• It multi-threaded with isolation between the threads so if one goes berserk, it takes only one window down, not the whole browser.
• It generates native code on the fly for JavaScript much the way HotSpot works for Java.
• It has a JavaScript console and a JavaScript debugger. Its whole focus is improved JavaScript.
• It has constantly updated lists of sites that are malware or phishing sites.
• It runs signed Applets without asking permission, even ones with self-signed certificates if the certificate is registered in the IE (Internet Explorer) set of trusted certificates.
• Like other browsers it has add-on apps, called extensions, though not as many as Firefox. Most of them are just silly diversions, not productivity tools.
• Like other browsers Chrome has themes, a special type of extension. Chrome’s are more practical without a lot of distracting contrast.
• Chrome can import/export its settings to other browsers.
• You write add-ons in JavaScript and JSON (Java Script Object Notation). This may not sound like a plus, but compared with writing XML (extensible Markup Language), it is.
• It has a clean look. Most of the screen is for displaying the document. It does not use up a lot of space with bars and buttons.
• It has its own Flash player which automatically updates with Chrome. You cannot update it separately.

Disadvantages

• It does not support Java Applets with the usual Java version 1.7, even though it claims to work. You must install a special Chrome version of Java including JRE version 1.6.0_29. Once that is done, Chrome will start using your 1.7.0_21. I gather the Chrome version of Java includes a Plugin for Chrome, which is the crucial piece. It should be bundled with Chrome itself.
• It does not support Java Web Start.
• It has no edit button to let you edit the current page in your favourite text editor. Every other browser has one. This is a showstopper!
• It takes a long time to start because it is resolving proxy.
• If you edit an image, you can’t proof read the new version without exiting Chrome and restarting. Reloading the page will not suffice.
• You cannot exit with a download in progress, without terminating the download.

• Browser Colgroup Support
  browser	version	col class supported	col align supported	HTML5 entities supported
  Firefox	20.0
  Chrome	23.0.1271.97
  Opera	12.15
  SeaMonkey	2.17.1
  Safari	5.1.7
  Avant	2013:22
  IE 10	10.02.9200.16521
  IE 9	9.0.8112.16421
  IE 8	8.0.7601.17514
  IE 7	7.0.6000

  Those browsers marked with an x all have a bug. They will not render <col class="xxxx">s correctly. The ones with a tick render it correctly. The Opera people say this is a feature not a bug. The language lawyers claim the W3 spec says that the browser is supposed to ignore the color attribute from the <col class. Logically, I think the <col styles should apply to the entire column, but not to <th rows. In addition Firefox, SeaMonkey, Safari and Flock also ignore the <col align attribute. Opera and IE render it properly.

  Firefox, SeaMonkey and Opera support almost all the HTML5 entities. Chrome and Safari support many of them.

  Colgroup Test
  	Style Test	Alignment Test
  On Every row	style	alignment
  Using Colgroup	style	alignment

  If both cells in the left hand Style Test column are the same colour, then your browser (the one you are using now to view this page) supports <col class=.

  If both cells in the right hand Alignment Test column right-align, then your browser supports <col align= correctly.

  Dreamweaver lets you apply a css style to all rows individually. Last revised/verified: 2013-04-14

• When the download is done, it won’t notify you. You have to guess when it is complete and you have to go find the file and execute it. It does not make it easy for you to run the install. I can’t believe Google could screw up something so basic that every other browser does in its sleep.
• Some programs such as Avant and JPSoft Take Command are updated frequently using the same downloadable name for each version. Chrome renames your download to avoid overwriting the old one. If are not aware it has done this, you will just install the old version again, and gradually accumulate obsolete update downloads. You have to manually modify the download name to get Chrome to write over top of the old download. On paper, this sounds like a good idea, but in practice, Chrome’s behaviour is almost never what you want.
• When you save an image it takes 12+ seconds before it even asks you where to store the image. It is similarly slow starting downloads.
• It cannot print white writing on a black background. Use Firefox instead.
• It works only on Windows and works only with Java 1.6.0_10+
• It is based on an older Safari engine which still has a serious security flaw.
• There does not appear to be any way to customise the toolbars.
• It does not have a way to launch Java Web Start automatically.
• It reports that Java Web Start is not installed.
• It does not yet support SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) client authentication, though it does support access to SSL end EVSSL (Extended Verification Secure Socket Layer) secure sites.
• It is quite slow at saving images.
• Sometimes your computer slows to a crawl. If you look in the task manager, you will see dozens of copies of Chrome running.

Tips

• Click wrench ⇒ Tools ⇒ Extensions to manage add-ons.
• The view source command is hidden under Document ⇒ Developer.
• In the options section, you can configure the home button to show, but it does not show by default.
• It is missing a stop button. You stop by hitting the Esc key.
• Configure larger fonts under Options ⇒ Minor Tweaks.
• Instead of installing itself in X:\Program Files or X:\Program Files (x86), oddly it installs itself in C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe.
• to search google, type g xxxx in the address bar.

Denmark

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
~ William Shakespear (born: 1564-04-23 died: 1616-04-23 at age: 52) Marcellus in Hamlet Act I scene iv

There is something a little fishy about Google. First they discontinued support for Java Applets, but maintained the fiction they were by having a button to turn it on. It does not work in beta either. They have fiddled with Java Web Start to make it clumsy to use, rather than a one-click as intended. Why are they trying to ruin Java Applets while simultaneously promoting Java for use inside Android cellphones?

Second, Google Chrome seems to be the only browser that can deal with Google Adsense and Google Translate reacting so slowly. There is a technical reason for this — their superior multi-thread JavaScript engine. However, it is almost as though the deliberately hobbled Google AdSense so that Chrome would look better compared with other browsers. They properly should fix AdSense, Translate and the like to work properly in any browser when the Google server is slow or the proxy server is slow.

Java Support

Chrome’s support of Java is incompetent to the point of malice. Nether Java nor Java Web start work when you first install Chrome.

You can coax Java Applets to partially work by installing a special Chrome version of Java including a complete JRE version 1.6.0_29 and plug-in DLL (Dynamic Link Library) for Chrome. Once that is done, Chrome will start using your 32-bit 1.7.0_21. You can then uninstall the obsolete JRE version 1.6.0_29. However, even then Chrome keeps asking permission over and over to run an unsigned Applet as if there were something dangerous about it. It re-asks even for the same page and even if you have previously told to it accept Applets from this website before, especially if you load from local hard disk. Further Chrome randomly fails to render some of the Applets on a page. Every time you reload the page a different set of them will render. Further, it keeps reloading pages for no reason at all, sometimes with Java, sometimes without. This is too incompetent for words. A student who handed in a program in a first year programming course would get failing grade for this sort of half-assed effort.

Once you have Applets working, you can tackle making Java Web Start work, using this easter egg.

1. Go to the SetClock Java Web Start page (or any other JWS (Java Web Start) app).
2. Click the orange launch button.
3. Download the *.jnlp file to a temporary directory. You can discard it later.
4. In the bottom left of your screen you will see word setclock.jnlp with a tiny downward pointing arrow just to the right of it.
5. Click the tiny arrow.
6. Tick off always open files of this type.
7. Now try launching SetClock again by clicking the orange launch icon. It should ever after start properly.

RFE (Request For Enhancement)

• Chrome should stop dicking around and run Java Applets and Java Web Start right out the box.
• It is libelous the way Chrome keeps asking permission over and over to run an unsigned Applet as if there were something dangerous about it. The must cut that out.
• Chrome should let you close all the tabs without exiting the program.
• Chrome should let you configure a page editor/source viewer.
• Chrome frequently freezes the address bar so you can’t type in a new URL. It should not do that.
• If you ever change your mind and want to download the *.jnlp files to examine them, you are out of luck with Chrome. You will have to use some other browser that lets you change your mind.