trying chrome

[kalos]

hello!

i am looking to try chrome as a browser, hoping it reached a maturity version from last time i tried it (its first versions)

i want to know if i can do extensive mouse click, mouse gestures, keyboard hit, bindings with actions like:

• hover mouse over selected text = translate text
  hover mouse over link = preview linked content
  right click on tab = close tab
  right click on empty space of webpage = close tab
  hit key 1 = go to previous tab
  hit key 2 = go to next tab
  hit key F1 = open new tab
  hit key F2 = close tab
  left click on tab bar = open new background tab
  right click on tab bar = open new background tab and go/search with the text in clipboard
  drag and drop selected text = open new background background tab and go/search with the selected text
  drag and drop link = open new background tab and go to that link
  hover mouse over tab = activate that tab

are these available?

btw, can i use firefox addons in chrome?

thanks!

[MilesAhead]

There's a Gestures For Chrome

I can't attest to how well it works.  I don't use mouse gestures.

I was using Chromium Snap Shots

That's where you get the most advanced features. I've just gone back to Firefox and I'm using Waterfox on my 64 bit machine.  Most of the snap shots are surprisingly stable. I used the win32 zip files rather than installer.  If you keep backups of your AppData\Local\Chromium folder and the folder that has the executable, you can back off to the previous version. It's important to do this because if the snap shot goes up a major version number and you try to use the local data folder with the older version you copied back over, you may get an error since the older version doesn't know what to make of newer settings.

The most important tweak I found is adding this to the shortcut target line:
--renderer-process-limit=n

as example:
C:\Utils\Chromium\chrome.exe --renderer-process-limit=8

if you don't use a render limit you tend to get about a 1/2 dozen chrome.exe processes plus one for each open tab and running extension. Maybe even more. Experimenting with the number you can decide what number for 'n' is best for you. To get back to default set n to 42(not documented but it used to be the default.)  Once you run it with 42 then you can remove the setting if you want to remain at the old default.

One thing though, the built in bookmark sync totally sucks!! If you are not logged in, delete some bookmarks, then log in, it will restore the bookmarks you just deleted if the original set was in the store online.  Totally brain dead. There's no Up and Down overwrite like they used to have. (If there is, you can't get to it before logging in automatically hoses you by syncing and restoring your deletions.) Nowhere near as good as FF SyncPlaces.

And no, you cannot use FF AddOns. You have to hope the authors also coded one for chrome.
I've gone back to FF as primary since 16.x. It does use a lot of ram, but it seems to launch pretty quickly to a blank page even if the disk is busy. That's the main reason I switched to chromium.

One Extension I do think is better in Chromium is Ginger Grammar Checker. It's the only one I tried that didn't fight with forum editor forms/applets whatever they call what I'm typing into here.

The good news is chromium does a lot on its own. You don't need extensions to play multi-media and it has built in search engine management.  The bad news is if you run a lot of tabs, you'll be running a lot of processes.  The setting I mentioned before helps a bit.

But it is fast and stable.

[Jibz]

Plus, when you upgrade to Firefox 17 you get the cool new Facebook toolbar.

[MilesAhead]

Oh, afa the keyboard specializations. I didn't really look into it because I wanted to use the default bindings and make my changes via AHK_L hotkeys.  For example chromium is set to use Control Click to open a tab in the background and Shift Control Click(if I remember correctly) to open in the foreground. I prefer to open tabs in the foreground most of the time. I set ahk hotkey Control Click to send the foreground key combination and Shift Click to send the background key combination if chrome is the active window.

[erikts]

Plus, when you upgrade to Firefox 17 you get the cool new Facebook toolbar.

I've just updated Firefox to version 17 but found no such toolbar.

[MilesAhead]

Plus, when you upgrade to Firefox 17 you get the cool new Facebook toolbar.

I've just updated Firefox to version 17 but found no such toolbar.

From this it sounds like the programming interface is there. Just nobody has done it yet.... I think. 

[Jibz]

Oh well, good to hear it is not enabled by default.

Edit: Yep, looks like I jumped the gun on that one, sorry. It does not seem to be enabled by default, you have to go to fb and click a button to enable it.

[highend01]

I set ahk hotkey Control Click to send the foreground key combination and Shift Click to send the background key combination if chrome is the active window.

Like to share your ahk script, MilesAhead?

[kalos]

MilesAhead it is very hard to assign hotkeys to web browser GUI (window info tool reveals nothing)

[MilesAhead]

If you download Transpose from my hotkeys page
the source is included.

But in cases where the window class is unique you can use that to avoid worrying about the changing window titles. Here's a couple of snippets from Transpose.  Chrome is easy because they only changed the class name once in the last couple of years. Mozilla based programs many just have MozillaWindowClass even if not a browser.

Code

GroupAdd, ChromeGroup, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_0   ;Chrome Browser pre 20.x
GroupAdd, ChromeGroup, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1   ;Chrome 20.x plus

; later on in the code hotkeys for chrome where I send the default keys
#IfWinActive ahk_group ChromeGroup
^LButton::
  Send, ^+{LButton}
return
#IfWinActive

#IfWinActive ahk_group ChromeGroup
+LButton::
  Send, ^{LButton}
return
#IfWinActive

; #IfWinActive with blank after it just removes the context sensitive nature of the hotkey
; or back to default "applies globally" mode
;
; it's optional. Some use it so they don't have to remember what context that part of the script is in for
; hotkeys that follow

[f0dder]

Plus, when you upgrade to Firefox 17 you get the cool new Facebook toolbar.

That piece of news made me drop my jaw, and pissed me off quite a lot. This should NOT be placed in the core browser! Fortunately, it doesn't disappear by default, nor after visiting facebook (dunno if the feature is not ready yet, or if Ghostery or something else disables it?)

SHAME on you, Mozilla, SHAME on you.

[joiwind]

Plus, when you upgrade to Firefox 17 you get the cool new Facebook toolbar.

That piece of news made me drop my jaw, and pissed me off quite a lot. This should NOT be placed in the core browser! Fortunately, it doesn't disappear by default, nor after visiting facebook (dunno if the feature is not ready yet, or if Ghostery or something else disables it?)

SHAME on you, Mozilla, SHAME on you.

hear, hear.

[erikts]

Plus, when you upgrade to Firefox 17 you get the cool new Facebook toolbar.

Also Firefox 17 does not save cookie exception, but there's a cure.