[Molvis-list] Protein Explorer for Netscape 7, Mozilla, Firefox

[Eric Martz]

Protein Explorer is now compatible with Netscape 7, Mozilla and Firefox -- 
this version will be released by the end of January, 2005. For faculty 
whose IT support groups refuse to install Netscape 4.8 on campus computer 
lab systems (including mine), Netscape 7 should provide an attractive solution.

This will affect WINDOWS users ONLY. (Since Chime is available only for 
Classic on Macs, OS X users will continue to depend on Netscape 4.8 in 
Classic for PE. That combination works extremely well.)

I have put a pre-release of the Gecko-compatible PE at
http://www.umass.edu/microbio/chime/beta/pe_gecko/protexpl
(Netscape 7, Mozilla and Firefox use a common layout engine named Gecko.)

I will appreciate testing and feedback. Note that you must install Chime 
manually. Instructions doing this, and for managing the popup blockers in 
each browser should appear automatically when needed. Everything should be 
working well, except for some unimportant fontsize and formatting 
irregularities. Please let me know if anything is unclear or seems to 
misbehave.

Kudos to Enrique Castro who solved the key compatibility issues and 
inspired me to do this, building on his insights!

Implementation and some peculiarities are documented at
http://www.umass.edu/microbio/chime/beta/pe_gecko/protexpl/gecko.htm

After release is completed, you will be able to download the 
Gecko-compatible PE. Then Firefox will have one notable advantage over 
Netscape 7.2 or Mozilla. Only Firefox allows you to give downloaded HTML 
files permission to open windows (popups), while leaving popup blocking 
enabled for on-line websites. Netscape and Mozilla seem to permit popups 
from downloaded files only if the popup blocker is completely disabled. (PE 
absolutely requires popup permission in order to operate.) Other than this,
all three browsers seem to work equally well.


----
Eric Martz, Professor Emeritus, Dept Microbiology
University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA US
http://www.umass.edu/molvis/martz