What's new in Firefox 1.5 Beta 1

This page lists the improvements in Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 over Deer Park Alpha 2. Last updated September 10, 2005.

Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 includes several key security improvements: splitting windows into inner and outer objects, enabling XPCNativeWrappers by default for extensions, and improving the application update system to make it easier for users to keep Firefox up to date. Several security holes have been fixed as well (not listed here).

New browser features

• 280190 - Error pages should look a bit better.
• 229737 - Add icons for error pages.
• 299424 - Restore JavaScript annoyances prefs that were missing in Deer Park Alpha 2.
• 285440 - UI to clear SSL session, as part of the "Clear Private Data" feature (formerly called "Sanitize").
• 304403 - Better safe mode UE.
• 304469 - Add -new-tab option to auto-remote.
• 289362 - Replace Dictionary.com with Answers.com for dictionary lookup.
• Improvements to application update
  • 305642 - Turn on bsdiff-based binary updates so that future security updates to Firefox can be half a megabyte or smaller.
  • 302721 - Implement update service channels (e.g. "nightly trunk", "nightly branch", "betas and releases", "releases only").
  • 302073 - Turn Software Update background checking on by default.
  • 302062 - Comprehensive Log of Updates.
  • 259429 - Proxy: Software Update does not request authentication and fails.
• Improvements to extension update
  • 296566 - Move Extension Update into Extension Manager.
  • 300731 - Change app/extension version scheme going forward.
• Improvements to Find Toolbar and Find As You Type
  • 298658 - When Enter key is pressed in FAYT mode, we should close find toolbar.
  • 250274 - Find Toolbar: Esc doesn't focus link.
• Improvements to accessibility
  • [Windows] Support for Window-Eyes 5.5 Beta. Window-Eyes is a screen reader used by many blind and visually impaired Windows users.
  • DHTML Accessibility support.
• 236304 - [Mac] MacIE Profile Migrator.

New web developer features

• 155723 - Make innerHTML property work with XHTML (?).
• 244964 - Support quotes around the charset parameter value.
• 305583 - Allow explicit use of XMLList constructor with E4X disabled.
• 280792 - Include Optional Support for MIT Kerberos for Windows.
• 302103 - Implement SVG events.
• 306664 - Bump JavaScript version to 1.6, for E4X + Array extra + Array/String generics.
• DHTML Accessibility support.

New extension developer features

• 300423 - Expose nsIPipe implementation via component factory.
• 298498 - Allow extension XPIs to ship multiple independent extensions.
• 302834 - Components.utils.evalInSandbox should return result, throw exception.
• 302276 - Flip XPCNativeWrappers default to yes. It is now much easier to write extensions that interact with content without introducing security holes.

Notable bug fixes

• Web page rendering and interaction
  • Many regressions due to fastback were fixed. As far as I know, Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 doesn't have any glaring bugs that weren't in Firefox 1.0.6.
  • 86999 - Hebrew support for Universal (All) Autodetect.
  • 78510 - Link should become :visited color if URL is loaded in another window/tab/frame.
  • 138403 - Text-align:left; for submit Button does not work.
  • 223542 - Weird scrolling using autoscroll over iframe / frame.
  • 295074 - POST responses remain in the memory cache when using XMLHttpRequest => huge memory leak.
  • 296639 - Split windows into an inner and outer object.
• Bookmarks
  • 178120 - Chevron box not updated when renamed bookmarks exceed/under-run the Bookmark Toolbar.
  • 255255 - After searching bookmarks, the results are not editable.
  • 269775 - Bookmarks toolbar 'shrinks' when window is resized/restored.
  • 274382 - Loading live bookmarks bypasses cache.
  • 258223 - Bookmark keyword quicksearch need a way to specify character encoding for query URLs.
  • 300412 - A menu option for Bookmark All Tabs (Ctrl+Shift+D on Windows, Cmd+Shift+D on Mac) and bookmark options in the right-click menu for tabs.
  • 271359 - Wrong favicons appear on bookmarks for sites with no icon of their own.
  • 305004 - Create a dated bookmark backup file periodically.
• 271097 - Searchplugin auto update should ask user.
• 284086 - "Sanitize on shutdown" fails if the last closed window is not a browser window.
• 265028 - Clearing cache sometimes fails.
• 302164 - Shorten text and add descriptive button labels in "Remember Password" dialog (screenshots: old, new).
• 285002 - Slow scrolling/redrawing in new cookies window with many cookies.
• 191642 - Lots of missing keyboard accelerators (accesskeys) in Options window.
• 249883 - Do not open sidebar if panel content to fill it does not exist.
• 222654 - global/scrollbars.css for native scrollbars different on Mac (many Firefox themes break scrollbars on Mac).
• 243324 - Download manager fails to close with files that download very quickly (small files / cached files).
• 258285 - Find Toolbar sometimes appears (pops up) when typing/entering arbitrary characters in textareas/form input fields, FAYT (find as you type) activated.
• 300756 - Flash 8 Player (Public Beta) crashes Deer Park [@ js_SetupLocks].
• 236107 - Wrong background for caption in groupbox.
• Windows-specific bugs
  • 260437 - [Windows] "Set as Wallpaper" changes wallpaper for all users (should not save in Windows directory).
• Mac-specific bugs
  • 102330 - [Mac] Back/Forward menu gets stuck on click-and-hold.
  • 233977 - [Mac] Single-click selects entire address bar rather than activates cursor.
  • 202014 - [Mac] Add header/footer configuration for printing.
  • 303203 - [Mac] Turn on autoscroll on OS X.
  • 257854 - [Mac] OS X disk images should include an installation background. (Note: you won't notice this in nightlies because they don't have Firefox branding enabled.)
  • 283598 - [Mac] Give the Firefox .dmg a nice icon.
  • 302080 - [Mac] Opening disk image should display a EULA.

More information

• Changelog for previous release (Deer Park Alpha 2)
• Changelogs for other releases
• The Burning Edge (nightly build changelog)