New Russian K-Meleon 75 for Real Pro

How long is it, but did we go a long way from the desire to revive the famous Russian assembly K-Meleon Pro to its actual release?

In fact, the Pro-assembly came out in August, but there was no time to write about it, and we caught fleas in the intervening time. Today the assembly has been re-published with all the latest additions and fixes, and you can write an article about it with a clear conscience.

Actually, the ideology of all the assemblies that I personally did is one: maximum functionality, maximum convenient and productive settings, maximum useful community developments, and maximum user friendliness.
Those. to take and combine the highly flexible, but tech-nar approach of the original CM with care for those who take it in hand.

So I collected my Twin on the basis of old KM 1.6 and 1.7. This seems to be the new Pro.
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I took this name for the new build, because the developments of the past Russian developers of CM were included in it to the maximum, namely our people (personally Quicksilver Tears) first assembled K-Meleon Pro (then version 1.02) almost 10 years ago.

Nothing was for nothing. Until now, the Russian-language CM uses the locale, the main part of which was made even then, localized extensions (macros), as well as skins standardized by the Russian team. I refreshed something, corrected something, added something.

The rest we got from the new K-Meleon 75, or rather, from the following after the final assembly - 75.1.
It is worth clarifying here that the latest Pro version is compiled in two versions at once:
- based on KM 75.1beta + update5 - K-Meleon 75 Pro
- based on the latest KM 75.1 RC + update1 - K-Meleon 75.1 Pro
The first base is more learned and more reliable, it seems like, but the second one adds something necessary and long-awaited. The choice is yours.

It remains to consider in detail what our Prosh is good at, how it is better (or just different from) the “official” browser from Dorian.

Let's start with external changes:

1. Skins The build uses alongside not only the default themes from Dorian (in Russia, many complain about them, calling them “the past century.” In Europe and the world, on the contrary, many users appreciate these low-key and out-of-date skins. Something about this is characteristic). The main bulk of them are themes from the collection of the Russian team, where I have corrected them as needed (there were minor errors there).
   But with the default theme for the Russian assembly, I chose a completely new for most users theme Green, originally compiled by Brazilian Kameleonera (they also have their own assembly KM). But I didn’t just choose, but seriously reworked, having actually collected a new Green Pro theme from it, which is tuned to the “chrome style”, so fashionable and in demand in infinitely small monitors these days. ;-)
2. In principle , the main purpose of including a whole set of skins in the set was a demonstration. The fact is that the change of skins in the CM has long been a fun for the strong spirit of users: because of the excessive openness, the collection was (and remains) highly non-standardized, which often leads to the “scattering” of toolbars when changing themes. The work carried out by the Russian team in past years was precisely aimed at creating a collection of themes with standardized content (configuration and graphic files).
   A new generation of KM - branch 74-75 - finally got a working opportunity to bind a variety of browser settings to the change of the skin. For this, there is a skin.js file in the folder of each theme, in which the necessary parameters are written. First of all, this is the actual configuration of toolbars (the group of kmeleon.toolband. * Prefok), but nobody forbids to write ANY parameters from about: config into this file! And they will receive priority over default when the browser is restarted, it is necessary to conduct a skin change.
   In other words, it is possible not to rivet different profiles for different conditions and tasks, but simply to configure skin.js so that when displaying a certain topic, the browser receives the necessary modes of operation.
   
   Actually, this is demonstrated by several skins in the set: Green Pro is configured, as I said, “chrome-style”, i.e. the browser has the system window title disabled and the panels are arranged to simulate the layout of the main GUI elements in Chrome; K-Melezilla does roughly the same thing, but with a more old-school, classic layout of toolbars; most of the skins also use the background image for the panels (if it is provided for by the skin author) - before that it had to be switched separately, and this spoiled the impression of browser customization.
   Camrod, on the other hand, is a theme where, by default, another new Cameleon is used:
3. The changing font size of the address bar. This feature was requested by those who use modern TVs as a screen and work with them from a distance. The fact that in Firefox could be changed through user interface styles, in the CM now it is changed with one prefka. It has not been added to the graphical user interface yet, so I decided to include it in the skin settings kit. In our case, this is the Camrod skin (in itself, it is large, convenient for working at a distance or for working with your fingers on the touchscreen).
   
   
   
   The font of the address bar in it is increased by 1.5 times. But you can set your multiplier as the value of the parameter kmeleon.display.urlbar_fontsize
4. New settings in the GUI. The community is gradually complementing the Settings panel (F2), introducing new prefok switches. We collected several such updates at once (and I made a part myself - and they even gradually migrated to the official assembly!). These are minor and not all noticeable changes, but for some they will really help make life with the browser more convenient.
   
   
   
5. Advanced search tools. In fact, they all exist for a long time - and the quick search panel ( SearchBarExt.dll ), and the search supermenu with a dynamic button, search history, search on the page, highlighting, etc. But I put them in my default builds instead of the default button, which has far less possibilities. Try it all and choose what is convenient for you. Or leave it all together.
   
   
6. "Lost options." So often it happens that updates bring us not only something extra useful, but something also disappears. Either the developer overlooked or simply made a mistake while assembling, or he deliberately removed some favorite function for some reason.
   What good is K-Meleon in this case? Yes, the fact that there is almost all fashionable fix.
   
   In the new branch of the development of CM, there were “losses” of both types - somewhere, Dorian simply forgot to register the necessary prefixes into configs, and he consciously reworked something. Moreover, traces of the presence of the function remained, and she herself ...
   In general, the most annoying things, which the author did not intend to fix, were corrected by ourselves. They added several prefixes, in the absence of which individual Settings were inactive (well, the user was deprived of some convenient features).
   
   
   For example, to completely control the behavior of windows and tabs for such a useful function as removing all links or images from the target web page with a separate page in the browser - the CM without these prefoc would open a mandatory new window for such a new page, and now you can do it in a new tabe, if you don’t like a lot of windows. Another prefka was lost, disabling the drawing of horizontal dividing lines between separate toolbars. And so on.
7. Additional hotkeys. This part is quite normal for the CM - each user can register their own keys in any quantity - for this purpose there is the file accel.cfg in the folder of each profile. I began to customize some shortcut keys for my builds back in the K-Meleon Twin build, and now I just added a few more hot keys for the existing and new features.
   
   For example:
   
   • Alt + F10 - open about: config (I can’t understand why no one ever got around to do it: the first thing that anyone interested in setting up Fox-like browsers teaches is the address of this service page. He has to fill it dozens of times manually);
   • Ctrl + left and right arrows - to navigate back and forward, respectively;
   • F12 - for attaching / undoing toolbars;
   • Shift + Alt + D - download manager ( about: downloads );
   • Shift + Alt + M - download manager ( about: memory );
   • Shift + Alt + A - Add-ons FF Manager ( about: addons )
   • Shift + Alt + C - again the configuration ( about: config )
   • (we should also make a macro and key for the new about: preferences settings page and for about: permissions)
   • Alt + 1 - a menu call (especially useful, because it works and when the menu is not displayed);
   • Alt + 2 - call the compact menu (appears at the cursor);
   • Alt + 3 - call the search menu (also at the cursor);
   …and so on.
   
   
8. Access to service pages about: is facilitated to the maximum: first, the mentioned hot keys; secondly, a new subsection of the menu “ Tools-> Managing advanced features ”, from where you can open the most frequently used such pages. And finally, in each new tab, we open an about: about page with a list of all service pages available to the user of the CM.
9. A large bilingual spell checker . Everything is simple - our users often have to check mixed bilingual texts, so KM Pro out of the box received an extended bilingual dictionary found somewhere on the web. Respect to his collector.
10. Many convenient native extensions KM . Let me remind you that the browser has its own extensibility toolkit - a macro language capable of integrating into the CM the functionality of Firefox add-ons, JS scripts and third-party programs available on your PC, and people write very interesting things on a pure macro language. Among the existing Pro assemblies, there are such extensions as “Open a page in another browser”, “Quick restart CM”, “Link activity switch” (it can temporarily “turn off” links on the page, turning them into inactive text and helping, for example , copy the text to which the link is “attached”), “Forced opening of the link in the current tab”, “Transfer saved sessions”, “Switching the full-screen mode variations”, “Opening previously closed tabs”, “User agents switch”, oGet, GetFileSize and etc. etc.
    It's all better to try at work than to search for descriptions.
11. Firefox tools. A fresh AdBlockPlus (suitable for the 31st engine) with an easy subscription (and I weaned it to self-exaggerate with unsolicited subscriptions and the resolution of “unobtrusive advertising”) and the Page Information module are integrated into the Pro-assembly. Also updated is the standard Newsfox module, available from the box in any Cameleon.
12. I also want to mention my own development macros : one of which ( pastegohack.kmm ) adds commands to the context menu of the page to open the clipboard addresses in the current and new tabs - this was done as a crutch that replaces the “Paste follow the link ”(many complained that it was unusual and inconvenient to go behind it to the next Go-button - and this was a true truth!).
    
    True, in the latest version of Dorian, it became possible to customize the address bar menu as you please - but I did not throw out my option, because it turned out to be even more convenient than I expected. Generally do not need a mouse in the address bar to heal. Right from the page - once and ready! But the opportunity presented by the official assembly did not ignore either:
    
    The second macro ( maxfix.kmm ) simply corrects the incorrect behavior of the maximized window WITHOUT the system header in Windows 7 (and obviously, all the newer ones). Unlike XP, where everything is normal, in the Seven the “lame-like” window is opened with a slight shift beyond the screen when opened. The macro corrects this with an automatic “minimize-maximize”, so you will notice a slight one-time blinking of the window at the start. If a classic skin with a window title is selected, the macro does nothing, because it is not needed.
    I also added to the user the ability to customize the search as you type (Find As You Type) - you will find an extended menu at Edit -> Search on page .
    These are not all my macros, but I did not include the old ones in this build. Some of them are irrelevant, some do not fit into the assembly concept, and some I just forgot left for the future ;-)
13. And there will be no 13th item! Of course, I did not describe everything, perhaps, but for now it will be enough. We must take and try what is.

For K-Meleon Pro is a good thing. Put, test, work. That's what he and Pro.

PS Known issues: K-Meleon is among those rejected by Mega.nz (it only allows fresh Fox and Geckos, and in general only new browsers). Today it is the only site where the problem is not solved by replacing the user agent, so if anyone knows the solution, I would be grateful.

PPS The latest events in the world of Mozilla leave many questions to the future of both Fox and K-Meleon. Nevertheless, the possibility of fork options, with one of which it will only benefit us. For example, if the Mozillers finally bury the XUL extensions, then Fox will have to be forked, or it may be easier to create a layer of complete compatibility with them for K-Meleon - who knows.

In general, taking this opportunity, I invite all developers of extensions for Fox to pay more attention to K-Meleon. Come to us at the light. We will continue to create alternatives.

PPPS At this, our first half a year at Habré is completed, and I hope we will extend the subscription in the “Startup” mode (we are still fulfilling all the conditions) so that we meet here more than once and please you with something new and tasty.