The sheer volume of work that has already gone into the development of Firefox 3.1, which is code-named Shiretoko, makes the new browser feel like much more than a small, incremental improvement over Firefox 3, said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla's director of Firefox development.
For this reason, Beltzner noted, a proposal was put forward at last week's Firefox/Gecko delivery meeting "to change the version number for Shiretoko to Firefox 3.5." If Mozilla decides to adopt the proposal, "the following fourth beta will be numbered Firefox 3.5b4a," Beltzner said.
New Features
The browser's developers have continued to make improvements to the Tracemonkey JavaScript engine, which they say is more stable and faster than previous beta releases. Furthermore, they have added a new capability to the private browsing feature that will give users the ability to select Forget This Site from the application's history sidebar.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 also marks the completion of developer changes related to an enhanced scripting feature called "Web worker threads" that gives Web site builders a way to move extensive JavaScript computation to a background thread. This allows the user interface to remain responsive to commands even as the JavaScript engine churns away. Moreover, navigating away from the Web page pauses the computation.
Other notable improvements include a significant upgrade to the Firefox Gecko layout and rendering engine. The plug-in previously required for video and audio elements has been eliminated by adding support for some aspects of the forthcoming HTML 5 spec, which is expected to remain a work in progress for years to come.
Beta 4 Next
The developers of Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 consider the new release stable enough for use by testers committed to providing Mozilla community feedback. However, members non-testers who now use Firefox 3.0 are being cautioned that some add-ons may not work properly with the beta release. Mozilla reports that of the 693 programs that make up 95 percent of the known add-ons now available, only 47 percent are considered compatible with the 3.1 builds.
A fourth beta release of Mozilla's next-generation browser is tentatively slated for release next month, noted Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering. Beta 4 will serve "as a vehicle for more testing of Tracemonkey, video, places and other eagerly-awaited improvements as well as" additional tests based on "feedback from Beta 3," Shaver said. "Analysis of our crash stats and other feedback indicate that we're in a good position with respect to stability and robustness, with key areas easily identified and a good understanding of the work needed to remedy remaining issues."
Still, Mozilla's continuing need for tester feedback has prevented the organization from indicating just when the general public can expect to receive the final build of the new browser, which is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform. Given that Beta 3 took months to reach testers, the project has "a lot of changes" and "would benefit from wider feedback," Shaver said.
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