I recently downloaded the latest version of Firefox — Firefox 1.5 — and have noticed that the new DOM adjustments and perhaps its javascript support have caused Phatic Communion pages to operate less smoothly than before. So far,

• [*Update below: a work-around for this problem] The pop-up windows for link titles sometimes display the link title and link address twice, in a window twice the size of the normal window (to accomodate the double display.) Alternatively, sometimes a very small window displays without showing the link title and link address.
• The instruction box for comments on the individual archive pages (bordered with a double red line) moves as one types a comment. This may make editing one’s typing a bit difficult, since the box overlaps the text area after so many lines have been entered.

I am not very knowledgeable of javascript and DOM manipulation, so will be unable to correct the double link box displays without finding an update to the javascript somewhere on the web. This is irksome, since I’ve relied heavily on that javascript for the appearance and operation of my site. It’s an irritating aberration at most, since the link titles are not always doubled and even when they are nothing serious disrupts viewing. (On the other hand, some visitors might be confused, particularly when empty boxes appear.)

As for the instruction box on the comment page, that’s a result of a different interpretation of CSS styles for the new version of Firefox. I use an “absolute” positioning for the box — it is positioned at an absolute position relative to the bottom of the page — which worked fine in previous versions of Firefox and in IE: even when the bottom of the page extended downward during commenting, in those browsers, the instruction box maintained its position on the page. Now, with Firefox 1.5, the bottom of the page is recalculated during commenting and the absolute positioning is reconfigured accordingly. (So, as the bottom of the page extends downward, the absolute positioning of the instruction box follows it, dropping the box to the specified distance from that bottom margin.) I can fix this by including the instruction box within another division of the page and forgoing the use of absolute positioning.

Sigh.

Incidentally, I’ve not noticed any significant improvements in Firefox 1.5 over my previous version. Actually, the new version encounters javascript “errors” on other pages as well. And, when highlighting links with the cursor, this version of Firefox causes pauses on Phatic Communion, so that one might hover over a new link but the page for a moment still displays the hover attributes of a previous link: probably while it is trying to interpret the javascript I have used to display the link boxes.

Additionally, anyone thinking of upgrading to the new Firefox should be aware that not all extensions currently in use will be compatible with 1.5. The update installation program actually determines which extensions have 1.5-compatible updates and translates those extensions for the new version, but other extensions may be suppressed after upgrading. (Mostly, I do not miss the few that could not be upgraded.)

Update 12-16-05: I’ve created a work-around for the duplication problem in the pop-up link NiceTitles. It’s actually a CSS trick. At the end of the NiceTitle CSS file, I’ve added the following lines:

div.nicetitle > p {display:none;}

div.nicetitle > p:first-child {display:block}

This is a CSS format not recognized by IE (as of 6.0 at least) so it should not affect the appearance for IE users. Mozilla and Firefox, on the other hand, will recognize it. Essentially, the first line of this fix tells the browser to not display any of the paragraphs in the NiceTitle box, and the second line tells the browser to display only the first paragraph. (Thanks to the CSS code, first-child. This is a “pseudo-element” type of CSS code.) Since the title and address are in individual paragraphs, this work-around won’t display the link address for Firefox users, but it will display the link title. The duplicated titles/addresses are in other individual paragraphs, but those paragraphs won’t be displayed either.

Wordpress users may be experiencing the duplication problem also if they are using the Fancytooltip plugin. I’m not very familiar with that plugin, but it’s a modification of the same Langridge code I use, and the CSS file looks very similar. It may be possible to use the same workaround by changing the name of the division class:

div.fancytooltip > p {display:none;}

div.fancytooltip > p:first-child {display:block}