Jonas J�rgensen wrote:
> I think it might be a good idea to consider naming the final version of
> Mozilla version 5.0 instead of 1.0. Yes, I know that Netscape 4.0 (which
> call itself "Mozilla/4.0") and below is only nicknamed Mozilla, and that
> "the real" Mozilla will be the first release to actually be named
> Mozilla, and of course that logically calls for the name Mozilla 1.0,
> but won't it be pretty confusing to have a User-Agent string in Mozilla
> 1.0 that reads "Mozilla/5.0 (rv:1.0)"? Did you consider what you are
> going to do when Mozilla reaches version 2.0? Will the User-Agent string
> stay as "Mozilla/5.0" forever with only the "rv:" part changing? In my
> opinion, naming the first final version Mozilla 5.0 will solve tons of
> problems and complications, and I can't really see any good reasons not
> to. Am I the only one who thinks this is a good idea? Or have someone
> else been thinking the same? Or did I maybe overlook something really
> obvious?
>
> Jonas
>
Well, this is one more thing that can be traced back to Microsoft [;)],
or at least to the browser war between them and Netscape. A quick
[although slightly dated] explaination is here:
http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/intbrowtest.html#getting
My userAgent is:
"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:0.9.3) Gecko/20010801"
But, in IE6, my userAgent is:
"Mozilla 4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0b; Windows NT 5.0)"
The problem comes down to backwards compatibility. navigator.appVersion
only checks the first number, and most userAgent checks are looking for
4.0+ browsers. Otherwise, simply putting "Mozilla 1.0" in the uA would
be fine. Since everyone is checking for 4th generation browsers, that is
what is put first. The actual version of the browser ends up being
tossed in the parentheses. So, you're getting a 5th/6th generation
browser in it's first release. A bargain, non? So, calling it Moz1.0 is
fine with me. Who knows when we'll get to move the uA to 6.0+ [as MS
continues to use 4.0 as the first # in their uA].
OT, but can someone tell me what the uAs for Konqeror, iCab and OmniWeb are?
-bZj
--
Brian Z Jones | down8 at yahoo dot com
Mozilla 0.9.3 | Windows 2000 Server, SP2
