Igor Planinc said:
Seriously now, Chris, _try_ it out. Start with a (_free_) PC version.
What are you talking about? I'm talking about whether mobile browsers
support things like XmlHttpRequest, so that they can implement AJAX. I
know that Opera in a desktop environment implements the API, and does it
in a way that involves quite a few quirks. I know this because I test
with Opera rather frequently.
There are several problems, though.
First, it's still quite a risk to assume the same non-standard class
exists on Opera Mobile implementations of JavaScript. I've had Opera's
desktop product installed for about five years now. You are greatly
overstating your case. To assume that a feature will be in Opera Mobile
just because it's in a desktop product that's many times more memory
intensive is just silly. By necessity, Opera cut out the majority of
lines of code when creating their mobile browser. There's no reason to
assume that some non-standard API that no one uses on mobile phones
would have made the cut.
Of course, since you seem so hot on Opera, I'm sure you have it on your
mobile phone, right? So let us know whether Google Suggest works
properly, how about it? Google Suggest is about the simplest possible
AJAX application, so it should create worthwhile results. I notice that
gmail, the more famous Google-AJAX product, has a non-AJAX version
specifically for mobile phones, by the way.
Second, Opera Mobile is COMPLETELY INCAPABLE of running on the great
majority of mobile phones. JBenchmark, for example, has comp0iled
benchmark results for over 400 Java-capable phones, and I'd assume there
are at least twice as many web-enabled phones out there. According to
their web site, Opera Mobile runs on about a couple dozen phones. Those
couple dozen do not happen to include a single one of the seven phones
that I've ever owned, and I make pretty normal mobile phone choices...
so I have a hard time believing they picked the most popular. Instead,
they seem to have picked the phones that they had business reasons for
pursuing.
Finally, Opera Mobile is a commercial application, and getting it pre-
installed is even more unlikely than its being compatible. I don't know
too many mobile phone users who care enough to BUY a different web
browser than the one they get for free.
Opera may be doing well financially, but the number of Opera Mobile
users out there is small indeed compared to the total users of all other
browsers, which are lesser known and probably considerably less
advanced. Very rarely does a software developer have the luxury of
telling all their users to go buy a new $300 phone, then potentially
download a commercial browser if the phone didn't come bundled with it,
just to use this one application.
You're acting like I've never heard of the Opera browser before. It's
starting to get a bit insulting. If you don't start paying attention to
the conversation, rather than assuming I'm just talking trash about your
pet browser, then don't bother answering.
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