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Improved speed is a theme of Firefox 3.5, with faster page rendering thanks to changes to the Gecko rendering engine, and faster JavaScript execution by the new TraceMonkey engine. According to Mozilla, the new version of Firefox is twice as fast as its predecessor.
TraceMonkey delivers better performance through just-in-time compilation, using the Trace Trees technique developed at the University of California, Irvine. The method is said to allow compilers to work more quickly and in less memory.
The default settings enable the new mode of operation for web page content but not for XUL (used in Firefox's user interface and to create extensions).
Among the improvements in Gecko is speculative parsing, a technique that allows faster rendering by not waiting for external scripts to load before continuing to process the HTML. One of the motivations for this development was the common use of external scripts for analytics and advertising purposes.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is natively supported in Firefox 3.5, allowing much more rapid parsing of JSON objects while preventing malformed strings from triggering arbitrary code execution.
Firefox 3.5 also introduces web workers, an arrangement that allows a script to run in a separate background thread. Examples of the way this can be used include ensuring that processor-intensive tasks do not stop the user interface from being responsive, dividing complex tasks between multiple cores, and performing web I/O in the background.
Apart from the resulting speed, these features are generally hidden under the covers. So what might users actually notice in the way of new features?
Private Browsing is becoming a common feature in web browsers. Normally, a browser will retain a list of pages visited and other information about how it has been used. This can be convenient, but may not be appropriate when more than one person uses the same account. For example, the history could reveal the birthday gift you've ordered for a family member.
Please read on for more on Private Browsing and other new features of Firefox 3.5.
When active, Private Browsing prevents pages from being added to the History list and files from being added to the Downloads list. It also forgets anything typed into text boxes, and doesn't store passwords, cookies or cached files.
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The location is determined from the computer's IP address and any Wi-Fi access points that are within range. The result is said to be accurate within a few metres in some places, but elsewhere may only give the right city.
Firefox 3.5 supports HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements, and can play Theora video and Vorbis audio without the need for plug-ins.
HTML 5 local storage and offline application storage is also supported (useful for web applications), along with other web technologies such as downloadable fonts (web pages may be displayed in the fonts the designer intended even if they're not installed on your computer), colour correction of images with colour profiles (photos are more likely to appear onscreen in their original colours),
Firefox is now internationalised for more than 70 languages, although several - Bangladeshi Bengali, Kazakh, Malayalam, Mongolian, Oriya, Romansh, Chilean Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Tamil, Sri Lankan Tamil, and Turkish - are still in beta.
Firefox 3.5 is available for Windows (2000, XP, Server 2003 or Vista), Mac OS X (10.4 or later), and Linux (various prerequisites).
