ICab
Encyclopedia
iCab is a web browser
for the Macintosh
by Alexander Clauss, derived from Crystal Atari
Browser (CAB) for Atari TOS
compatible computers. It is the most recently actively developed browser for 68k-based Macintoshes that features tabbed browsing and one of a very few browsers that was still updated in the recent past for the classic Mac OS at all; only Classilla
is more recent.
The downloadable product is fully functional, but is nagware—periodically displaying a dialog box
asking the user to register the product, and upgrade to the "Pro" version.
Macintosh systems running System 7.5
through Mac OS 9.2.2.
through Mac OS 9.2.2, or PowerPC or Intel
systems running Mac OS X 10.1 or later.
API and the WebKit
rendering engine. It can run on PowerPC or Intel systems running Mac OS 10.3.9 or later.
was often criticized for not supporting CSS
and DOM
. iCab 3 introduced improved rendering capabilities, including support for CSS2 and Unicode
(via the ATSUI
toolkit). iCab 4 switched to WebKit for its rendering engine, giving it the same rendering abilities as Apple's Safari
browser.
On 7 June 2009, iCab 4.6, using the WebKit rendering engine, became the first desktop browser released to display a score of 100/100 and pass the Acid3
test. Apple's Safari 4 browser was released one day later and has been officially credited as being the first official release browser to pass the Acid3 test with a score of 100/100.
video filter
which adds a download link on all YouTube
page views.
iCab has features which make it a useful browser for website developers, including an HTML
validity checker, an automatic page refresh option, a Web Inspector, DOM Inspector, JavaScript
debugger, and a Console. iCab’s “Automatic Update” option, for any page it is rendering directly from the local hard disk, will automatically reload the page when changes are saved to disk. The HTML syntax validity checker displays a smiley
face in the Status Bar and also, optionally, in the Toolbar. Clicking on the smiley will bring up a list of any errors on the page, as will “Error Report” from the Tools menu. Double clicking on an error will display the page source, with the offending syntax highlighted. The HTML syntax validator was first seen in the same author's earlier web browser, CAB.
iCab’s Download manager allows the user start, stop, resume and review downloads. It maintains a download history, supports downloading of an individual page, or a whole site (crawling) with many user selectable crawl-constraint options. It can save as portable web archives (a ZIP
archive containing HTML, images and other files), or as individual files on the local hard drive.
iCab also contains the following features:
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
for the Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
by Alexander Clauss, derived from Crystal Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
Browser (CAB) for Atari TOS
Atari TOS
TOS is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520 and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines were developed using a new version of TOS, called MultiTOS, which allowed multitasking...
compatible computers. It is the most recently actively developed browser for 68k-based Macintoshes that features tabbed browsing and one of a very few browsers that was still updated in the recent past for the classic Mac OS at all; only Classilla
Classilla
Classilla is a Gecko-based web browser for PowerPC-based classic Macintosh systems, essentially an updated descendant of the now-defunct Mozilla Application Suite by way of the Mac OS port maintained in the now-aborted project...
is more recent.
The downloadable product is fully functional, but is nagware—periodically displaying a dialog box
Dialog box
In a graphical user interface of computers, a dialog box is a type of window used to enable reciprocal communication or "dialog" between a computer and its user. It may communicate information to the user, prompt the user for a response, or both...
asking the user to register the product, and upgrade to the "Pro" version.
iCab 2.x
While no longer maintained, iCab 2.9.9 is still available for download and registration. It supported both 68k and PowerPCPowerPC
PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
Macintosh systems running System 7.5
System 7
System 7 is the name of a Macintosh operating system introduced in 1991.System 7 may also refer to:* System 7 , a British dance/ambient band* System 7 , 1991 album* IBM System/7, a 1970s computer system...
through Mac OS 9.2.2.
iCab 3.x
As of January 2008, iCab 3 is still maintained. This version can run on PowerPC systems running Mac OS 8.5Mac OS 8
Mac OS 8 is an operating system that was released by Apple Computer on July 26, 1997. It represented the largest overhaul of the Mac OS since the release of System 7, some six years previously. It puts more emphasis on color than previous operating systems...
through Mac OS 9.2.2, or PowerPC or Intel
X86 architecture
The term x86 refers to a family of instruction set architectures based on the Intel 8086 CPU. The 8086 was launched in 1978 as a fully 16-bit extension of Intel's 8-bit based 8080 microprocessor and also introduced segmentation to overcome the 16-bit addressing barrier of such designs...
systems running Mac OS X 10.1 or later.
iCab 4.x
iCab 4 was rewritten to use the CocoaCocoa (API)
Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface for the Mac OS X operating system and—along with the Cocoa Touch extension for gesture recognition and animation—for applications for the iOS operating system, used on Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and...
API and the WebKit
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
rendering engine. It can run on PowerPC or Intel systems running Mac OS 10.3.9 or later.
History
iCab's original rendering engineLayout engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
was often criticized for not supporting CSS
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
and DOM
Document Object Model
The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use...
. iCab 3 introduced improved rendering capabilities, including support for CSS2 and Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
(via the ATSUI
Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging
The Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging is the set of services for rendering Unicode-encoded text starting with Mac OS 8.5 and in Mac OS X.It replaced the WorldScript engine for legacy encodings....
toolkit). iCab 4 switched to WebKit for its rendering engine, giving it the same rendering abilities as Apple's Safari
Safari (web browser)
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...
browser.
On 7 June 2009, iCab 4.6, using the WebKit rendering engine, became the first desktop browser released to display a score of 100/100 and pass the Acid3
Acid3
Acid3 test is a web test page from the Web Standards Project that checks a web browser's compliance with elements of various web standards, particularly the Document Object Model and JavaScript....
test. Apple's Safari 4 browser was released one day later and has been officially credited as being the first official release browser to pass the Acid3 test with a score of 100/100.
Features
iCab features a filter manager which allows users to avoid downloading advertisements and other unwanted content. Currently iCab comes with two filters (ads and video). Other kinds of filters add features, such as the YouTubeYouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video filter
Filter (video)
A video filter is a software component that is used to decode audio and video. Multiple filters can be used in a filter chain, in which each filter receives input from its previous-in-line filter upstream, processes the input and outputs the processed video to its next-in-line filter downstream...
which adds a download link on all YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
page views.
iCab has features which make it a useful browser for website developers, including an HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
validity checker, an automatic page refresh option, a Web Inspector, DOM Inspector, JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
debugger, and a Console. iCab’s “Automatic Update” option, for any page it is rendering directly from the local hard disk, will automatically reload the page when changes are saved to disk. The HTML syntax validity checker displays a smiley
Smiley
A smiley, smiley face, or happy face, is a stylized representation of a smiling human face, commonly occurring in popular culture. It is commonly represented as a yellow circle with two black dots representing eyes and a black arc representing the mouth...
face in the Status Bar and also, optionally, in the Toolbar. Clicking on the smiley will bring up a list of any errors on the page, as will “Error Report” from the Tools menu. Double clicking on an error will display the page source, with the offending syntax highlighted. The HTML syntax validator was first seen in the same author's earlier web browser, CAB.
iCab’s Download manager allows the user start, stop, resume and review downloads. It maintains a download history, supports downloading of an individual page, or a whole site (crawling) with many user selectable crawl-constraint options. It can save as portable web archives (a ZIP
ZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
archive containing HTML, images and other files), or as individual files on the local hard drive.
iCab also contains the following features:
- Tabbed browsing.
- Javascript and CSS2Cascading Style SheetsCascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
support. - Multiple language support, including Arabic on older Macs (cannot display UTF-16 pages).
- Filtering:
- Filtering out of images and plugin content (e.g. ads).
- Adjust rendering, network, JavaScript, and cookies settings for individual sites or types of pages.
- Kiosk mode: full screen display and access controls.
- Acid2Acid2Acid2 is a test page published and promoted by the Web Standards Project to expose web page rendering flaws in web browsers and other applications that render HTML. Named after the acid test for gold, it was developed in the spirit of Acid1, a relatively narrow test of compliance with the Cascading...
test compliance. - Configurable print dialog.
- History window which can sort by title, last access date, or URL.
- Hotlist (bookmark) mechanism which can automatically or manually check for updates to bookmarked sites.
- Reload a single image on a page without needing to reload the whole page.
- Disable web "annoyances" such as animated GIFs and embedded sound files.
- User agent spoofing (i.e. pretending to be another browser).
- Support for sessions (i.e. saving and then loading all open windows and tabs).
- Add any query (e.g., search engine, WikipediaWikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
) to the toolbar search widget by point-and-click.
See also
- List of web browsers
- Comparison of web browsersComparison of web browsersThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.-Historical web browsers:...
- Comparison of layout enginesComparison of layout enginesThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browser engines. Please see the individual products' articles for further information. This article is not all-inclusive or necessarily up to date...
- InScriptInScriptInScript is a software library providing an ECMAScript engine for ECMA-262 3ed, written in C++, and some Java classes for LiveConnect. It was used by the web browser iCab 2 and 3. ICab 4 uses the WebKit Web browser engine with the ECMAScript engine JavaScriptCore. It is proprietary software,...