I understand what Canary is. But it's pretty useless if you don't know what beta features are available. So is there a place where this information can be found? I've been googling but can't find anything.
Chrome Canary isn't the Chrome Beta, it's built daily and is the bleeding edge of Chromium development. Writing digested changelogs isn't feasible for daily builds.
You can have a look at every change here:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/
click on the current tag, e.g. 62.0.3168.0 and then on log.
For Chrome Beta, the Chromium Blog is a good resource:
https://blog.chromium.org/
e.g. for Chrome 60 Beta:
https://blog.chromium.org/2017/06/chrome-60-beta-paint-timing-api-css.html
Releases (Stable, Dev, Beta) in more detail:
https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/
Related
It started to be happened for some days. I could not click on any tabs on the translation windows.
My OS is Windows 10, I'm using Google Chrome - Version 66.0.3359.181 (Official Build) (64-bit).
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Here's how I understand the google browser differences:
Chrome - Production release (the one we're currently using, stable version)
Canary - Test release before new production release (Version prior to Chrome release)
Chromium - Dev release and available in Linux (maintained by Ubuntu developers, no auto-update of version - user triggered)
Are there any other points that I missed? And in terms of development, is there any other consideration if I use Chromium and Canary rather than Chrome? Like caching, compatibility, cookie, performance and etc. (bugs?)
Your interpretation is correct
Canary is basically a (near) nightly release built from the current tip of tree of the Chrome repo. It's the bleeding edge of development and so you should expect crashes and bugs but it's the quickest way to test recent changes to chrome. (Aside from building ToT yourself)
Aside from Canary, there's also the Dev channel which is a slightly longer development release, usually about weekly, but still built from the bleeding edge tip-of-tree. Beta channel is a long running branch that's the upcoming release and is generally quite stable/bug free.
The order from "freshness" to "stable": Canary -> Dev -> Beta -> Stable
Chromium is the name of the open-source project from which Chrome is built. A Chromium build is basically equivalent to Chrome but doesn't include proprietary bits (Flash plugin, codecs, etc) or official Google branding (icons, etc).
Compatibility in terms of web-facing APIs between the different versions should be essentially the same except, of course, for intended upcoming changes. In general, changes that occur in Canary, Dev, and especially Beta, are intended to make it to Stable channel so it's a good idea to test your apps against Beta to make sure your app will continue to function as expected once the Beta is promoted to Stable. You can find upcoming changes to Web APIs at ChromeStatus
In Canary and Dev, you're more likely to run into unintentional bugs that creep in during development. If you'd like to help Chrome development you can file bugs for these at the Chromium bug tracker (use this for bugs you find in Stable/Beta channel too!)
In terms of performance, a hand-built Chromium will depend on who built it and with what flags. The performance between Canary/Dev/Beta/Stable should be comparable and indicative of the final stable release.
I want to experiment with the WebGL EXT_disjoint_timer_query, accourding to the Chromestatus site this should be available from Chrome 47 if you enable draft extensions:
https://www.chromestatus.com/feature/6254718426808320
I have enabled --enable-webgl-draft-extensions and the equivalent in chrome://flags, but my WebGL implementation always returns null to gl.getExtension('EXT_disjoint_timer_query');
This is on windows 7, with an Nvidia 660, tried various Chrome versions (beta, dev and stable).
Has anyone actually been able to get this to work?
Chrome does not currently support EXT_disjoint_timer_query on Windows because the OpenGLES backend on Windows, ANGLE, does not support it yet. Support is currently being worked on however. See https://bugs.chromium.org/p/angleproject/issues/detail?id=657.
I keep reading conflicting answers to this question, and I can't find a definitive answer in an official Google document.
By suppressing the blacklist I can enable hardware acceleration for almost every rendering feature under chrome://gpu-internals/ but not the 2D Canvas. My system is service pack 3, fully updated. DirectX 9. All drivers for the onboard video (Intel GMA3100) are completely up to date. The chip is quite capable, and I even flashed my mobo BIOS to the latest version as a last ditch effort. I'm thinking that Google just isn't supporting HW accel. for the 2D Canvas under Windows XP.
The problem is that Chrome developers have disabled Canvas HW Accel for XP, it calls Direct3DCreate9Ex from d3d9.dll which is DirectX 9L available only on Vista+, but it is possible to wrap D3D9Ex on Windows XP via WineD3D Direct3D to OpenGL wrapper. (special thanks to WineHQ/Crossover)
Then we need to disable blacklist and disable sandbox in launch options. (Special thanks to BlackWingCat)
I have already managed to force HW accel for Chromium-based browsers for Windows XP/2003. And it works somehow.
System requirements:
CPU with SSE3 feature support, OpenGL 3.0 hardware/software support.
In fact I use video card from "green" company :)
Installation:
1. Copy and paste d3d9.dll, wined3d.dll, libwine.dll into chrome folder where you have chrome.exe, for example "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application"
2. Copy and replace d3dcompiler_47.dll and libwine.dll into your Chrome folder where chrome.dll is, for example C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\49.0.2623.112.
3. Add launch parameters "--ignore-gpu-blacklist --no-sandbox --disable-infobars" to your Chrome shortcut. (without quotes)
4. Run Chrome with your modified shortcut
If you experience issues with Chrome after this hack you can just remove launch options from Chrome shortcut it will disable this hack.
Download:
ChromeHW_accel_XP.zip (tested with backported Chrome 50.0.2661.102 beta-m, Opera 37, Chrome 49)
Known issues:
1. Address bar flickers quickly when you type.
2. HTML5 video doesn't work correctly (you need to force to use Flash Player)
Actually, I can report that Opera 36/37 (chromium based) is a way more stable with this hw accel hack.
UPDATE:
New Chromium builds use libGLESv2.dll version 1.2.0.2448. I'm no expert in VB, but it seems as if the new version doesn't need the mod...
HOWEVER -
The new Chromium builds that use this new libGLESv2.dll always crash (And then restart automatically in safe mode) if you try to enable the overriding of GPU blacklist in flags.
If someone can check this out and report back it would be much appreciated (Could this have something to do possibly with the added support for DirectX 11?)
Update patch is released, anyone interested can check
I can't seem to find a clear answer on this anywhere.
How far back is it backwards compatible? Do I have to be concerned about creating multiple versions of the extension?
Thanks
"manifest_version": 2 itself does not cause any incompatibility issues.
But you can easily make a mistake and create an extension which is backwards-incompatible, by using features/APIs which are introduced in Chrome 18 or later (manifest v2 came with Chrome 18).
I suggest to not worry about the old manifest version any more, because only Chrome 17- is affected. As of writing, the current stable version is 23. Hardly anyone is using Chrome 17 any more.
See also
How to upgrade extension to manifest v2 and remain backwards compatible? (Stack Overflow answer)
Tutorial: Migrate to Manifest V2 (Official documentation, apply the tips in the reverse order)
Manifest version 2 extensions have to use "background" instead of "background_page" (and the manifest cannot contain it or Chrome refuses to load the extension), but "background" is not supported in older versions of Chrome. This is the main problem.
The only work around I can think of is to publish multiple versions of your extensions and ask users to download and install the correct version.