app103, Curt, Carol and StoicJoker,
thank you all very much for these kind ideas! As said before, I should have withheld these questions to the point in time where I will be able to try the respective ideas, since on comp 2 now I've just got that, working, old version, but I'll try them out and will report, especially in view of the fact that by what you've found, app103, it's obviously NOT the new version that is at fault, but some of my setting, so "reset to factory settings" is primordial here.
VERY funny here: Even the hiding of the last lines in this very text entry field, making it impossible to enter more than just some lines of text here, in IE8, is gone now... that I've changed to Chrome, for good (what an incredible relief... no wonder nobody ever bothered to look after this, IE8 compatibility isn't really any more serious objective (if you don't sell things, that is...):
___The macro trap___
I also installed Maxthon cloud browser, which also seems to be quite ok (but in spite of trying "skins", I couldn't get rid of some baby-blue background). And then I installed google / chrome as they call it. Well, it seems that in the end, I found my new browser... (And nobody today will believe anymore that Chrome will store more of your things, when fact is, all of them will store all of your things, for their masters-in-the-dark (and yes, I know, there are so-called stealth Chrome versions, but I don't believe in them either).
Back to macros
So chrome doesn't have a caption, and the tabs are on top - at least, they are neater than in Avant (where at least it is possible to hide the awful toolbar, and then the address line begins where it should begin to begin with, to the left of your screen, not somewhere in the middle). I didn't get back to my macro file (I "lost" my usb stick together with the AC/DC thing), but this way, at least, hdd and backup are in different places, for once!), but tried the AHK Window Spy: So, the good news is, all these Window windows have "titles" and "classes" indeed, independently of any visible caption: you just have to look them up, once and for all, and then write your scope macros, the caption is really and only there for your being content with what you see on screen, or let's call it "for historical / tradition-compatibilily reasons".
And also, there is a way to retrieve the content of the address line, by "Visible text in slow title match mode", just as in IE. Then, all necessary kb shortcuts are there.
I should have looked up all this months before, but it seems that I first had to "loose" my traditional working environment, in order to get rid of this crazy IE8 sh**.
At the end of the day, as soon as you know the necessary commands (i.e. how to navigate between tabs, how to address the address line, to create a new tab, and so on), transposition of even numerous macros from one such browser to another one should take 20 minutes... but the macro trap exists nethertheless: You built up your macro system around some specific applications, and then you're stuck with them, not by real necessity, but because you "invested some work" into them... when in fact, that was an investment you had to do anyway, independently of every such application (e.g. dozens of specific url's, all two-key on two F keys, together with a second, abc key then), and in which conceptual work the non-transferrable "specifics" for that specific application were only a very minor, negligeable part (that's why serious applications (not Ultra Recall, though!) have a function "replace x with y"), and this means, most of your work is NOT lost, buy a transfer to alternatives!
(
___Tabs above address line___
There are two conceptual points of view for this:
Mine is:
Adress line first, since there are some MORE addresses out there within the web, NOT YET present in my tabs. So "address line urls" are "farer away", whilst those addresses in tabs are "nearer to me", hence the logical order address line, then tabs, then the content from the current tab.
Another one is:
Tabs first, since they are the topmost category. Then the address line, since your choice here will choose the content of the selected tab... or even, its current content is, again, the title of the current tab, but in full length... and then that content; this point of view seems to be as logical as mine above, but we see here that you should at least have a CHOICE, PLEASE!!!
)
___So it's Chrome or FF, depending on what you like best... but why others?___
Chrome vs. FF seems to be a question of personal style... but IE8 or Safari 5 seem to be for lazy people only preferring lots of fuss to some 3 or 4 hours of delving into alternatives.
Opera perhaps, for some? But it seems (I trialled a previous version of it, didn't like it, but would'nt pretend to really know it now), for some special uses, or had it been vanguard some 5, 8 years ago, then got left behind?
I understand Avant has got several, alternative "machines", in order to display sites "like" Chrome, "like" (a newer) IE, "like" FF - would this a real compatibility advantage? Are there many sites Chrome renders faultlessly, but not FF, and vice versa?
I'm not really happy with Chrome, but I can very well live with it, whilst living with IE8 had become a chore.
Thank you, fellows! You asked me right question: why bother?
The lesson here: Masochism should be transitional at least if it cannot be avoided altogether, which would be best.
