Opera has beta released version 12.10 of its desktop browser. In a press release announcing the new version, Opera indicated at support for several APIs. With the new context API, developers can now add more interactive right-click options. By allowing this, users can highlight text and make use of the extension for social networking, translations and more. Similarly, a more browser friendly snipping tool alternative would now be available with the screenshot API. Using this feature, users can now share what they see in their Opera browser window with their friends.
Additionally, with the resource loader API, Opera extensions can now load CSS or JavaScript included within the Opera extension. This helps with modifying functionality and design for web pages. According to Opera, “you can replace all fonts in Comic Sans on web pages to Helvetica or execute advanced JavaScript right inside webpages”.
Standards compliance
Known for its adherence to W3C standards, Opera seems to have raised the bar higher. According to the announcement, “The Fullscreen API, along with the Page Visibility API, lets developers have more say in presentation of content and better manage resources in the browser.”
Also, if as a developer you prefer to use web sockets, Opera has announced “the latest Web Sockets implementation with richer functionality for developers and an improved experience for end users”. This is a default function.
In addition, it said, “Among a long list of speed and performance improvements, we are introducing the SPDY network standard as a supplement for the HTTP protocol, promising even faster downloading of webpages. In Opera 12.10, SPDY is turned on by default and works with webpages that support the standard. As of today, several large-scale websites such as Twitter and Gmail support the SPDY standard in addition to the traditional HTTP protocol.”
“During the planning of Opera 12.10 we listened to the web developers,” says Krystian Kolondra, SVP Desktop, Opera Software. “The web developer community is thriving like never before and we want to support that in every way we can. With the new APIs, developers are better suited than ever to create extensions that give users of Opera for desktop a unique browsing experience.”
Opera has hinted at a Windows 8 version to be publicly available ‘soon’, and “Opera 12.10 includes updates to accommodate Windows 8 enhancements. These include touch support for Windows 8 Classic mode, with the added bonus of working on Windows 7, as well.”
