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Tech: Mudcat browser tools
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Tech: Mudcat browser tools |
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Subject: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: GUEST,DaveRo Date: 16 Jan 16 - 09:03 AM Over the past couple of years I've written several userscripts and bookmarklets for browsing Mudcat. I've now packaged them as a browser addon to make them easier to use, especially on a tablet. They're for Firefox and Chrome. It adds these features to the threadlist and thread pages: 1. Identifies threads posted to since last visit. 2. Scrolls to the first new post in a thread. 3. Remembers a guest user name, and preselects preview. 4. Adds quoting and linking buttons below the input area. 5. Saves and recovers text in case the post fails to 'stick'. Mudcat Browser Tools Feedback welcome, especially for the chrome extension. Any problems installing it? (2 YEARS OF POSTS AFTER THIS REMOVED) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 08 Jul 18 - 12:00 PM Version 2.3.1 replaces spaces with non-breaking spaces when you format selected text with the 'monospace' button. This is useful when posting ABC or code. It's what the PRE tag does, but without the leading spaces that PRE generates here. Example: P:A |:D|"G"~G3 GAB|"D"ABA ABd|"G"edd gdd|"G"edB "D"dBA| "G"~G3 GAB|"D"ABA ABd|"G"edd gdB|"D"AGF "G"G2:| You can use monospace formatting and box-drawing characters, in combination with the option to convert non-ASCII characters to html '&-codes' to display guitar tabs. This example is from a post by Stanron: E╓───╥─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────╖R B╟───╫─────3───────┼─1───────────┼─────────────┼─────────────╢E G╟───╫─0─────4h2p0─┼─────2─────2─┼─4p2─0───────┼───────0─────╢P D╟─0─╫─────────────┼───────4h5───┼─0─────2h4─2─┼─0h2─4─────0─╢E A╟───╫───────2─────┼─3─────0─────┼───────3─────┼─────────────╢A E╙───╨─3───────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─2─────3─────╜T . + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + . 1 + + 2 + + If you don't convert non-ASCII characters to &-codes it previews OK but converts the box-drawing characters to hyphens and pluses. You have to select this option - it's not on by default. The 'recover text' button reverses the conversion so you can edit what you originally typed or copied in. Note, however, there is a bug in some versions of Android whereby not all box-drawing characters are the same width, so verticals do not always line up. I don't know whether other operating systems suffer from this. (2 YEARS OF POSTS AFTER THIS REMOVED) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 07 Nov 20 - 10:47 AM Back in 2017 Mudcat was displaying as ??? many characters that it previously displayed OK, and I added a module to convert non-ASCII characters to HTML '&-codes'. The problem was fixed six months later, and most common accented letters have since displayed OK. The module remained in the add-on but I suggested it be disabled unless users were posting in non-western languages. I recently had to rewrite this code so I made some changes. If the encoder is turned on - it is off by default - it will now only encode characters which I believe are not capable of being held in the database and are therefore displayed as ?, or converted to another character, even though they preview OK. So these characters will no longer be encoded: ¡¢£¤¥¦§¨©ª«¬ ®¯But eastern European characters such as these will be: ş ğ ı ő ć ń ś ź ł ż ą ęIf you have the option turned off, and you occasionally post non-western letters, or symbols, I suggest you turn it on. If you already have it turned on you'll notice it no longer converts any of the letters above - for example é into é It doesn't encode high-end unicode characters such a Chinese or fancy emoticons: nothing above u+26FF (#9983). So you can display these: ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ ♭ ♮ ♯ Click 'Recover text' to restore the original characters, which makes them easier to edit. Mudcat Browser Tools (Version 2.4.7) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 16 Oct 21 - 11:55 AM The Linkify button will create, with one click, a link from anything in the post that looks like a URL. You can also specity the displayed text like this: www.example.com|click_here The underscore is replaced by a space: click here I added another way of creating links with multi-word text, allowing spaces and avoiding the need for underscores: www.example.com{{This site is an example.}} which generates: This site is an example. That's easier for longer texts, for example a title copied from the target website. Full details are on the Firefox addon page. The Chrome extension is identical. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 06 Jan 22 - 11:00 AM (MANY OLD POSTS BEFORE THIS ONE DELETED) If you cannot run the Mudcat Browser Tools add-on - for example on an iPad - and therefore you cannot make links with a single click, you will find my Simple Linkifier useful. It works in any browser. It overcomes the problems which the Mudcat link tool currently has: it truncates long URLs, and links to pages within Mudcat do not work. I suggest you bookmark it. (SEVERAL OLD POSTS AFTER THIS ONE DELETED) |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 09 Jul 22 - 11:37 AM The Mudcat Browser Tools Chrome Extension is back! A mudcatter told me he uses it with Vivaldi browser, which is based on Chromium. So I have created, and he has tested for me, a Manifest Version 3 version of Mudcat Browser Tools. There are ten times as many (non-mobile) Chrome users as Firefox users so it has always puzzled me there were so few Chrome users of this addon compared to Firefox users - at one time they were almost equal at a dozen each. (Also why most users are in the UK - but that might be related.) So I think a bit of a relaunch is appropriate. Chrome Extensions add features to the Chrome browser. You install this one from the Chrome Webstore with one click: Mudcat Browser Tools Chrome Extension The original and still the main purpose of Mudcat Browser Tools is to easily see which threads have new posts since your last visit and to automagically position threads at the first new post. It has other features, but those are the main one. Optional features, such as displaying the number of posts to the left of thread title on the index page, are accessed from the jigsaw piece on the toolbar or 'More tools', 'Extensions' in the main menu. From the options page you can display a fuller description of all the features. (You can also look on the Firefox Addon Page which is clearer.) But you don't have to set any options. If you don't like the quoting feature just don't use it. If you don't like the DaveRo wrote bit of it, you can suppress it and just have indented italics. Chrome Extensions work in Google Chrome (not mobile), Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome), Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and some more obscure browsers. Not Safari - or not unless I pay Apple I think. It's version 3.0.0. This version adds a facility to copy posts to local files for archival purposes, offline viewing, or as a hedge against data loss. Posts are stored in individual files and are viewable in a browser. You can specify that specific threads are to be archived: this might be of interest if you invest a lot of effort in posting lyrics, say, and would like to automatically keep a local copy of your posts and others' comments. Archiving requires installation of a separate program which actually writes the files, and some configuration. Contact me by PM or email (addess on the addon page) if you want to try it and I'll provide instructions. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 23 Jul 22 - 12:40 PM The Firefox addon now includes the archiving facility described in the previous post. It's version 2.6.0 Mudcat Browser Tools |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 15 Dec 23 - 10:19 AM Mudcat Browser Tools will now run on Android (again). As I wrote in my OP, in 2016, the add-on originated as tools to make Mudcat more readable on a small tablet. Some of the features were aimed at very small screens. Firefox's Android browser removed support for all but 'recommended' add-ons in 2020. Mozilla has now restored the ability to run any add-on in Firefox for Android, so Mudcat Browser Tools is available again. The default features are the same on desktop and mobile, but if you use a very small screen you might investigate the options to reororganise the index page, and use a bigger font for posts. There are screenshots of it on a phone on the Firefox add-on page Chrome never supported extensions on mobile. You can of course install Firefox on Android just to read Mudcat while keeping Chrome as you default browser. Install Mudcat Browser Tools A note about Mudcat URLs. For historical reasons, you can run Mudcat using different URLs: - https (secure) or http (insecure) - mudcat.org or www.mudcat.org If you just type 'mudcat.org' you might get the secure version or the insecure one, depending on how your browser is set up and how the server reacts that day. In order for Mudcat Browser Tools to work, you must stick to to the same type of URL and not mix http and https, or mix URLs with and without www. The addon now redirects the browser to https://mudcat.org. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 25 Sep 24 - 06:52 AM I updated the Chrome Webstore page with screenshots showing the main features. Chrome Webstore: Mudcat Browser Tools The space available there is quite restricted. The best explanation of these features is still the Firefox page: Firefox Addons: Mudcat Browser Tools I'd be grateful if somebody could confirm that the procedure here for installing it on Microsoft Edge still works on Windows 11. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 22 Jan 26 - 10:58 AM Two years has gone by with no changes to Mudcat Browser Tools (MBT). It has about 14 average daily users on Firefox and 6 on Chrome (or Chrome-based browsers). For the first time Android users are a clear majority (of Firefox users), which is perhaps due to the decline in consumer desktops compared with mobile devices. Up until recently Firefox for Android was the only browser that ran addons on mobile. But I have discovered Orion Browser, which runs on iPads and iPhones and supports many addons including mine. I tried it on my iPhone and it works. So if you regularly read Mudcat on an iPad or iPhone you could try it, and the features I listed in the first post in this thread. I originally wrote the scripts that became MBT to make Mudcat easier to use on a small tablet, and some of those features, such as rearranging the layout and making the posts' font bigger, are not enabled by default. You enable them in the 'Extensions' menu item: long-tap MBT to get the Options page. You must tap 'Save' at the bottom afterwards. Orion Browser User Guide How Orion compares with Safari in iOS or iPadOS I've no idea. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: Pappy Fiddle Date: 24 Jan 26 - 11:23 PM If the buzz on Youtube is any guide, a lot of people are abandoning Microsoft Windows because of W11 and going to Linux. I myself am doing that. There's a version of Firefox that runs on it. So folks who develop apps and addons might want to be aware at least. I would have thought that after the Windows Vista they'd be chary of dumb moves but I guess sometimes it takes more thumps than just one. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: MaJoC the Filk Date: 25 Jan 26 - 03:09 PM As I understand it, the chief reason most people use MS-Windows is because that's what the computer was delivered with, as that's what companies demand for their staff; and the full-fat reason why companies still tolerate and support MS-Windows is because their companies need MS-Office in general, and Excel in particular .... otherwise, for some mysterious reason, their magic spreadsheets break. End of rant. Meanwhile, back at web browsers: I read once that Netscape found it necessary to use the Internet Explorer icon for their own browser in certain far-east markets (China?), as the locals wouldn't recognise the standard Netscape icon as representing a Web browser. This presumedly was in a market where characters are pictograms, and Microsoft and its browser's icon had got there first. |
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Subject: RE: Tech: Mudcat browser tools From: DaveRo Date: 31 Jan 26 - 12:37 PM In my last post I wrote about the Orion Browser, which is capable of running addons like Mudcat Browser Tools (MBT) on iPhones and iPads. Here is a comparison between Orion Browser with MBT and the default Safari browser on my small iPhone SE. Orion Browser with MBT vs Safari on an iPhone On the index page the lines are too small to read in both browsers so I have to 'reverse pinch' zoom in. But MBT moves the 'number of posts' column to the left so that it doesn't disappear off the screen when I do. On the thread page, MBT increases the font size of the post compared with the rest of the page so I can read it without zooming. In Safari, I have to zoom which makes the lines go off the right hand side. (Or I could turn the phone sideways.) As I mentioned, you have to configure the display layout and font size changes in MBT - they are off by default. |
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