Thunderbird 6.0, etc.

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Revision as of 23:56, 28 July 2011 by Rsx11m (talk | contribs) (additions from 656045/667245, clarified what's listed where)
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In a process driven by the Firefox developers, Mozilla has substantially redesigned their release process [1]. Thus, there will no longer be parallel branches after Firefox 3.6 and Thunderbird 3.1 have reached their end of support. Instead, each release will have a full version bump even if there are no or marginal feature changes (i.e., Firefox 5.0 will be the stability update for 4.0.1, then 6.0 will be the update for 5.0, etc.) [2]. Only in quick "firedrill" follow-up releases which become necessary shortly after a release to fix a missed issue, a minor "dot" release will be issued.

Thunderbird decided to follow that pattern, and in the process to re-align its numbers with Firefox again [3]. Consequently, the "Miramar" branch has been bumped from 3.3 to 5.0, and the next release after 5.0 will be Thunderbird 6.0 (formerly 3.4) around the same time when Firefox 6.0 is released. It yet has to be seen how this process turns out in practical terms, especially with respect to add-on compatibility as a stable API is no longer given as it was previously assured during the lifetime of a branch.

The user-facing changes between Thunderbird 5.0 and Thunderbird 6.0 should be close to none, given that there were only two weeks (May 10 vs. May 24, 2011) between the string and feature freezes of these two versions, even if the time between those two releases is longer.



In the following sections, updates to the previous articles should be added along with a reference to the respective section in that article which they obsolete. This is intended to keep track of any incremental changes as development of new features and bug fixes proceed. If a change checked into multiple branches at the same time, it is listed for the first release version where it becomes active. Note that there are also detailed tracking lists now on the Mozilla Wiki, to which links are provided in the individual update sections.


Updates for Thunderbird 6.0

related Mozilla Wiki page: User Visible Changes to Thunderbird 6

New appearance on Windows 7 and Vista

relates to section: Thunderbird 5.0 - New Features and Changes#New appearance on Windows 7 and Vista

A regression has been fixed where with the Windows 7 Default and Basic themes (and possibly other desktop themes on windows) drag-and-drop of a message into a folder would not highlight the selected folder as drop target [4].

A mitigating fix for the poor visibility of menus and toolbar buttons on dark desktop themes, caused by the use of aero glass in that UI elements, has been checked in to decrease the transparency for those items [5]. An alternative is the NoGlass ass-on [6], which removes the glass effect entirely. An extensive discussion on the use of aero glass and various other tips and workarounds can be found in a GetSatisfaction topic [7].

Font rendering and performance issues

relates to section: Thunderbird 5.0 - New Features and Changes#Font rendering and performance issues

The options to influence ClearType/Direct2D have been extended with the following preferences, thus allowing a better fine-tuning of font display [8], [9], [10]:

  • gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.gamma - between 1000 and 2200 and describes a luminance curve, the value depends on the physical screen characteristics
  • gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.enhanced_contrast - 0 to 1000, the default 50 should work for black on white
  • gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.cleartype_level - 0 to 100 (percent?), defaults to 100, where 50 is recommended for a compromise in fringe effects
  • gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.pixel_structure - 0 to 2, defaults to 0 = "flat" but may be set to 2 for BGR monitors (this seems to influence the shift between red and blue colors)
  • gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.rendering_mode - the value 0 means default handling depending on font and size, other values:
    1. aliased
    2. GDI Classic
    3. GDI Natural Widths
    4. Natural
    5. Natural Symmetric

The defined defaults for all preferences is "-1" and implies the stated default behavior.

Another preference gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.force_gdi_classic_for_families contains a comma-separated list of fonts for which GDI classic mode will be used, up to a size specified in the .force_gdi_classic_max_size preference and only if .cleartype_params.rendering_mode doesn't specify a non-default behavior.

Images and links in HTML messages

relates to section: Thunderbird 5.0 - New Features and Changes#Images and links in HTML messages

When composing a new message and using the Insert → Link function, pasting a web address into the Link Location field using the right-click menu was broken. This function has been restored in TB 6.0 [11], [12].

Updates for Thunderbird 7.0

related Mozilla Wiki page: User Visible Changes to Thunderbird 7

Attachment pane redesign

relates to section: Thunderbird 5.0 - New Features and Changes#Attachment pane redesign

There have been some inconsistencies in disabled/enabled status for the menu items in File → Attachment, the attachment-bar menu, and the attachments' right-click context menus. That part has been rewritten to show the expected menu items being available [13].

Updates for Thunderbird 8.0

related Mozilla Wiki page: User Visible Changes to Thunderbird 8

Folder Pane / Smart Folders

relates to section: Thunderbird 3.0 - New Features and Changes#Smart Folders

The header over the folder pane allowing to cycle between Smart/Unified Folders, All Folders, and other views is no longer available by default, thus they have to be selected from the View → Folders menu [14]. That header bar is just hidden though and can be reactivated by the userChrome.css code below, or by using the Folder Pane View Switcher add-on which also provides additional folder-view options [15].

#folderPaneHeader, #abDirTreeHeader {
  display: -moz-box !important;
}

Quick-Filter Bar

relates to section: Thunderbird 3.1 - New Features and Changes#Quick-Filter Bar

The keyboard shortcut Ctrl+F, previously used for both the Quick-Filter Bar and Find in This Message has been changed to Ctrl+Shift+K for the Quick-Filter Bar (in analogy to Ctrl+K for the Gloda search) [16]. Ctrl+F now performs exclusively Find in This Message, whereas the ESC key closes one or the other depending on the mouse focus.

Here a summary of search-related keyboard shortcuts:

  • Find in This Message – Ctrl+F (back to previous function)
  • Search Messages window – Ctrl+Shift+F
  • Find Again, Next – Ctrl+G
  • Find Again, Previous – Ctrl+Shift+G
  • Global-Search Bar – Ctrl+K
  • Quick-Filter Bar – Ctrl+Shift+K (new)

Images and links in HTML messages

relates to section: Thunderbird 5.0 - New Features and Changes#Images and links in HTML messages

Attachments in a "multipart/related" context (such as images inserted into the message body itself, but also items like PDF files which Thunderbird cannot display inline) are no longer provided in the attachment pane even if View → Message Body As & Plain Text is chosen [17].

A hidden preference mailnews.display.show_all_body_parts_menu is provided, which – if set to "true" – provides a new menu item View → Message Body As → All Body Parts. Select this to present all MIME parts of the message as attachments, which will be displayed if they can be shown inline unless View → Display Attachments Inline in unchecked. This allows to (a) save again embedded content from the attachment pane, and (b) access attachments in a malformed message which otherwise would stay invisible.

See also