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descriptionMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 EmptyMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1

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Fast JavaScript included, but is switched off


(Computerworld) Mozilla Corp. today released Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, the first preview meant for the general public, but disabled one of its most-touted improvements.

In a posting to its developer center today, the company cited improvements in "performance, Web compatibility and speed" to Firefox and said that it wanted users to focus on testing the core functionality of the open-source browser.

Among the new features the company highlighted are support for the 'video' and 'audio' HTML tags, a new tab-switching shortcut that mimics an existing Firefox add-on called Ctrl-Tab, and the new geolocation API that uses third-party services to pinpoint the user's location and feed that information to Web sites and services.

Mozilla's Geolocation API (application programming interface) has been prominent since last week, when the company's research labs rolled out a new extension, Geode, for Firefox 3.0 that reproduces the feature built into Firefox 3.1. At the time, Mozilla's director of Firefox, Mike Beltzner, argued that the API, though of obvious use in the still-under-development mobile version of Firefox, will also be important on netbooks, the ultra-light, less-expensive laptops that are becoming more popular.

But Mozilla did not enable its new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine in Beta 1; It's still switched off by default.

TraceMonkey, which Mozilla began talking up in late August, boosts rendering speeds up to 40 times over those of Firefox 3.0, which relies on an older engine. Mozilla started working on TraceMonkey at the beginning of the summer, and wrapped up enough of the initial work to slide it into the "nightlies," the versions of Firefox that are updated daily for testing and development purpose.

Mozilla officials were not available late Tuesday to explain why they decided to leave TraceMonkey turned off.


More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9117198&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1

descriptionMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 EmptyRe: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1

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I'm looking forward to TraceMonkey.

descriptionMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 EmptyRe: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1

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I so cant wait for 3.1

descriptionMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 EmptyRe: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1

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Agent Cosmic wrote:
I'm looking forward to TraceMonkey.


I second this. If I can find a download link, I'll give it a go on my VM at the weekend.

descriptionMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 EmptyRe: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1

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From what I heard, TraceMonkey can speed up javascript by up to 20 times.

Not sure if it's a downloadable add-opn or not, but it seems like it is built in:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/JavaScript:TraceMonkey#Playing_with_TraceMonkey

descriptionMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 EmptyRe: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1

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Tested 3.1 beta 2 on my VM today with Tracemonkey on. I have to say I noticed the speed, I went to a site with quite a few images on it, they loaded instantly. I can't wait for the full release. Hooray!

descriptionMozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 EmptyRe: Mozilla releases Firefox 3.1 Beta 1

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