Chromium Blog: September 2009

Introducing Google Chrome Frame

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Today, we're releasing an early version of Google Chrome Frame, an open source plug-in that brings HTML5 and other open web technologies to Internet Explorer.
We're building Google Chrome Frame to help web developers deliver faster, richer applications like Google Wave. Recent JavaScript performance improvements and the emergence of HTML5 have enabled web applications to do things that could previously only be done by desktop software. One challenge developers face in using these new technologies is that they are not yet supported by Internet Explorer. Developers can't afford to ignore IE — most people use some version of IE — so they end up spending lots of time implementing work-arounds or limiting the functionality of their apps.
With Google Chrome Frame, developers can now take advantage of the latest open web technologies, even in Internet Explorer. From a faster Javascript engine, to support for current web technologies like HTML5's offline capabilities and <canvas>, to modern CSS/Layout handling, Google Chrome Frame enables these features within IE with no additional coding or testing for different browser versions.
To start using Google Chrome Frame, all developers need to do is to add a single tag:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">
When Google Chrome Frame detects this tag it switches automatically to using Google Chrome's speedy WebKit-based rendering engine. It's that easy. For users, installing Google Chrome Frame will allow them to seamlessly enjoy modern web apps at blazing speeds, through the familiar interface of the version of IE that they are currently using.
We believe that Google Chrome Frame makes life easier for web developers as well as users. While this is still an early version intended for developers, our team invites you to try out this for your site. You can start by reading our documentation. Please share your feedback in our discussion group and file any bugs you find through the Chromium issue tracker.

Posted by Amit Joshi, Software Engineer, Alex Russell, Software Engineer and Mike Smith, Product Manager

Extensions Status: On the Runway, Getting Ready for Take-Off

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

dev channelsample extensionsour launch processbe cautiousa few APIsdocumentationthis post about some recent changesPosted by Aaron Boodman, Software Engineer

A New FTP Implementation Goes Live

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Starting in the Dev channel release 4.0.203.2, we are using our new FTP implementation by default on Windows. (It was already enabled by default on Linux and Mac.) This switchover is an important milestone in the development of our network stack. We'd like to acknowledge two Chromium contributors who made this possible.
The new FTP implementation was initially written by Ibrar Ahmed single–handedly. It was a long journey for him because he worked on it in his spare time. Ibrar has a master's degree in computer science from International Islamic University. After working as software engineer and associate architect at other companies, he recently started his own tele-medicine company. We thank Ibrar for his contribution to the Chromium network stack!
Paweł Hajdan Jr. started to work on the new FTP code in July as one of his summer intern projects at Google. Paweł added new unit tests, fixed bugs and compatibility issues, and is taking the lead in bringing the new FTP code to production quality.
Finally, we used Mozilla code for parsing and formatting FTP directory listings (ParseFTPList.cpp), which was originally written by Cyrus Patel.
In the near term, the original WinInet-based FTP implementation will still be available as an option on Windows. Specify the --wininet-ftp command-line option to enable it. (The original --new-ftp option is now obsolete and ignored.) During this period we will fix FTP bugs only in the new FTP implementation. When we're happy with the quality of the new FTP code, we will remove the original WinInet-based implementation, finally eliminating our dependency on WinInet.
Please help us achieve that goal by testing FTP with a Dev channel release and filing bug reports. Follow these guidelines when reporting bugs:

Please don't add a comment like "Here is another URL that doesn't work for me" to a bug. Always open a new bug, and give a link to another bug if you think they are similar.
Make the steps to reproduce as detailed as possible, and always include the version number of Chrome.
Check if the problem can be reproduced with --wininet-ftp on Windows and include that information in the bug report.

Posted by Wan-Teh Chang, Software Engineer

Chromium Blog

Introducing Google Chrome Frame

Extensions Status: On the Runway, Getting Ready for Take-Off

A New FTP Implementation Goes Live

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