You can hook your MIDI keyboard up to a website with Firefox 108
- Reference: 1671017411
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/14/firefox_108/
- Source link:
Mozilla has [1]released Firefox version 108. Amusingly, for the first time since [2]Mozilla sped up its release cycle in 2015 (and presumably for the last time, too) the current version numbers for Firefox and Google Chrome line up: the current stable version of Chrome is also [3]version 108 .
Truth be told, the 108th fox is not an especially big specimen. We rather like the task manager: it's been [4]present for a while, but it's easier than ever to get to – just press Shift + Esc and a new "Process Manager" tab will open. Prepare to be aghast at how much RAM it takes to render a single web page nowawadays.
[5]
A new feature that may please musicians is the improved support for the [6]Web MIDI API. The MIDI standard is [7]very close to a remarkable [8]40 years old , and Web MIDI does just what the name implies: it allows web apps to send and receive MIDI signals to and from musical instruments. In principle this will allow sequencer apps to be [9]implemented in Javascript.
[10]
[11]
Amusingly, the last time The Reg mentioned Web MIDI, it was because [12]Apple was taking it off Safari users , allegedly because of security concerns. Firefox 108 addresses that with a new security mechanism for preventing, and [13]optionally permitting , apps inside browser tabs to access hardware resources – in this instance, your MIDI ports.
[14]Google warns of commercial Heliconia spyware hitting Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Defender
[15]Mozilla will begin signing Mv3 extensions for Firefox next week
[16]Firefox patches Windows 11 Ctrl+C hang, introduces new bug
[17]Firefox 106 will let you type directly into browser PDFs
No, this does not mean that you can listen to CANYON.MID directly within Firefox. .MID files are not the same as General MIDI. But if you are nostalgic for that for some reason, help is at [18]hand .
Handling background tabs, especially under load, has been tuned. Here at The Reg FOSS desk, we almost never use Windows – we only have one box able to run Windows 11 at all – but if you suffer with that OS, then background tabs in Firefox 108 should use less battery power. (We highly recommend [19]ExplorerPatcher which restores the Win11 desktop to some semblance of usability, and [20]O&O AppBuster , which can remove a lot of built-in bloatware with a few clicks – both have noticeably improved [21]since we plugged them back in July .)
Firefox 108, and yes, that really is Windows 11 with a vertical taskbar.
Most of the other improvements are less visible. Some of the smaller ones include improved support for non-ASCII characters when saving and printing PDF forms, to go with the [22]steadily improving built-in PDF handling that Firefox has [23]had since version 19 . If you use the option to only show the bookmarks toolbar on new tabs, that's been improved, and it should handle new empty tabs better – a weakness vis-à-vis Chrome that has mildly irritated the author for ages.
There are also small improvements in some things that only web designers will notice, such as ICC colour handling, Javascript imports, and CSS trigonometry functions. As usual, this release also plugs some new security holes: [24]eight of them, to be specific.
If the main website doesn't offer version 108 to you just yet – when we clicked "download", we got version 107 – you can download it from the Mozilla [25]FTP server for Windows/macOS/Linux. Ubuntu and other Snap users who want to jump the gun can check the "candidate" channel on [26]Snapcraft . ®
Get our [27]Tech Resources
[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases/108
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2015/07/07/firefox_development_changes/
[3] https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/12239814
[4] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/task-manager-tabs-or-extensions-are-slowing-firefox
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5oBNE5bLmKIIa5Bwj@JEwAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://webaudio.github.io/web-midi-api/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2012/11/28/midi_merry_unbirthday/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2013/08/19/midi_spec_1_is_30_happy_birthday_musical_instrument_digital_interface/
[9] https://webmidijs.org/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5oBNE5bLmKIIa5Bwj@JEwAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5oBNE5bLmKIIa5Bwj@JEwAAAAQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/06/29/apple_web_developers/
[13] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/site-permission-add-ons
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/01/google_heliconia_spyware/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/mozilla_next_week_will_begin/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/01/firefox_ctrlc_windows_11/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/firefox_106_arrives/
[18] https://canyonmid.com/
[19] https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
[20] https://www.oo-software.com/en/ooappbuster
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/04/rufus_explorerpatcher_windows_11/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/firefox_106_arrives/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2013/02/20/mozilla_pdf_view_html5_javascript/
[24] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2022-51/
[25] http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/108.0/
[26] https://snapcraft.io/firefox
[27] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: MIDI Web input
Tried to figure that one out for a minute or so, before suddenly remembering: despite how it is written, MS don't want you to pronounce that as "c hash" (or even "c octothorpe" which has a nice ring to it).
Re: MIDI Web input
I never had a problem seeing it as "C-sharp", even though- strictly speaking- the hash (#) and sharp (♯) are different symbols and it should be written C♯.
But who's *really* going to bother figuring out how to type ♯ on their keyboard?
This MIDI thing must have been possible for some time.
A couple of years ago, my daughter's school wanted her to compose a tune using some cloud-based software. We hooked up her laptop to the MIDI USB port on our Yamaha DGX Piano, because it's nicer to use a proper piano keyboard than clicking with a mouse. Whilst this does sort of work, the latency is horrible and website response times are inconsistent. Maybe it would be better on a Fibre connection than home ADSL. But really for anything where accurate timing is important, it's always going to be better to run the software locally than in the cloud.
This MIDI thing must have been possible for some time.
Chrome-based browsers have had an option to turn it off for a long time now, but I've no idea if MIDI works otherwise. It's something that I check is set to "Block" when I upgrade Vivaldi. Also I block access to my Bluetooth devices. Why would I want that?
Now Available
Just updated to Version 108 after visiting Help | About Firefox.
Shift+Esc shows the new Process Monitor tab. Looks like this will be most useful when dragged to a new monitor - so you can use Firefox and monitor the brief CPU spikes at the same time.
But I'm failing to spot any improvements to the bookmarks toolbar shown on new tabs.
-mobailey
Re: Now Available
[Author here]
> But I'm failing to spot any improvements to the bookmarks toolbar shown on new tabs.
AIUI, the improvement is when -- or if -- it appears. It's the same toolbar, the question is whether it appears or it's hidden.
Chrome gets this right. When I open a new window *or* a new tab, I get the bookmarks bar.
In Firefox/Waterfox, it's inconsistent. For example, if my browser is set to display my homepage (APOD) in a new window, Firefox considered that to be _not blank_ and I didn't get a bookmarks bar.
Which is one reason I stuck with Waterfox Classic for ages, as an interacting set of 4 old XUL addons still worked: vertical tabs + vertical bookmarks + flattened bookmarks + combined sidebar.
Result: no horizontal tab bar _or_ bookmarks bar, 1 integrated sidebar, with tabs at the top and bookmarks at the bottom. Perfect.
Can't be done since they ripped XUL out. :-(
Task Manager
> Prepare to be aghast at how much RAM it takes to render a single web page nowawadays.
Particularly aghast that previous pages seem to remain in memory, even if their tabs are all closed or another Bookmark has been loaded on that tab. Fortunately you can apparently close them using the Task Manager... Will need to experiment a little more with that.
Be really nice if the task manager had some customizations
Also, this is called "Process Manager" when it is brought up. The old "about:performance" is still there with something called "Energy Impact" - I guess somebody's attempt at mashing metrics into one item.
The only fields are "Name" (includes URL and tab name), Memory (!!! I have an entry labeled "GPU (42044)" which is listed at 5GB and uses 10-20% processor.). There appears to be a button on the far right labeled "Actions" which does nothing for me.
I'll always want more metrics. Please keep them coming.
Wow.
I had trouble a few years ago as something using directly connected MIDI missed a mere few centiseconds (was a weird buffer issue) and it was noticed. I can't imagine the sort of latency a browser and connection (no matter what sort, you're up against laws of reality if pulling data from potentially the other side of the planet) would introduce.
But, then, people seem to accept dreadful quality videos where areas of similar colour (especially dark colours) end up as dancing blotches of the same colour, so maybe they'll accept horrible out of time music.... just call it post-dubstep or something, it'll be okay...
FTP what?
What are Mozilla still doing running an FTP server? I thought they'd decided that FTP was a dead/insecure protocol?
https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2021/07/20/stopping-ftp-support-in-firefox-90/
Re: FTP what?
That's just a legacy naming thing. They used to serve the files over both FTP and http, at ftp.mozilla.org
At some point, the FTP server was switched off, but the name remains
SOCKS5 Proxy no longer works for me in 108
Anyone else noticed their SOCKS5 Proxy no longer works with Firefox 108?
See here for more info: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1399592
MIDI Web input
Does that mean we can now programme the web directly using C# ?