[Mike_P]

Just in case folks here haven't seen the other thread, the javascript enabled browser from www.skyfire.com allows me to kibitz with my Sprint Touch Diamond (Windows Mobile 6.1) smartphone. May be the answer for many of you for whom a downloadable version is available.

-- Mike

[uday]

from the skyfire website
"
Skyfire runs on Windows Mobile (smartphones and PPC) and Nokia N and E Series (Symbian S60, 3rd Edition) phones.
"

One of my New Yorker pals has a Blackberry Curve. He says he uses "Opera Mini" as his browser instead of the browser that comes with the Curve. I have not tried Opera Mini but I'm guessing it is a full-featured browser.

Anyone who can't get the handviewer working interested in trying Opera mini and letting us know how that works out ?

http://www.opera.com/mini/

[kfay]

fred, on May 1 2009, 05:10 PM, said:

I modified the application so that it will try to detect whether or not Javascript really is enabled and display a message (instead of a blank white page) if it is disabled.

If any of you who had the white screen problem feels inclined to try again and let me know if you see this message, I would appreciate it. I don't think you will need to clear your browser's cache, but if you know how to do this then it can only help to do this before you try again.

By the way, I believe you when you say that you have set things up so that Javascript should be enabled, but for some browsers running on some mobile devices it appears there may be more to it than that.

Thanks,

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

Fred-

I was able to see the message. I went to options and checked 'support javascript' and 'allow javascript popups.' The message went away but I still only see a white screen with the 'shuffle, rewind, previous, next, options, GIB' buttons.

I also switched my browswer to different emulators but nothing seems to work.

Kevin Fay

[bhallak]

uday, on May 2 2009, 07:08 AM, said:

from the skyfire website
"
Skyfire runs on Windows Mobile (smartphones and PPC) and Nokia N and E Series (Symbian S60, 3rd Edition) phones.
"

One of my New Yorker pals has a Blackberry Curve.  He says he uses "Opera Mini" as his browser instead of the browser that comes with the Curve.  I have not tried Opera Mini but I'm guessing  it is a  full-featured browser.

Anyone who can't get the handviewer working interested in trying Opera mini and letting us know how that works out ?

http://www.opera.com/mini/

I have tried it on Nokia 5700 (Symbian S60, 3rd edition). It works using native browser(works better) as well as Skyfire. However it does not work on Opera Mini. Opera Mini has emulator to test it out.

Able to launch flash version on Skyfire but could not login because of Skyfire's flash input bug. Hope Skyfire fixes flash input soon.

[fred]

Thanks to all the people who have tried this thing on various devices and with various browsers and reported the results.

I am not sure what (if anything) I am going to be able to do in the short term to solve the problem of some device+browser combinations not being able to run our application. There already seem to be a sizable number of these combinations (some work, some semi-work, and some don't work at all) and this number is sure to grow quickly as more and more types of mobile devices that can run web browsers are produced and as new browser software is developed.

The annoying thing about this is that this is not supposed to be my problem. Javascript is a well-defined language and programs written in that language are supposed to have well-defined behavior regardless of the environment that the program is running in. That is the main reason we wrote this thing in Javascript in the first place. An alternative would have been to create custom applications for each popular type of device (an iPhone "app" for example).

Unfortunately it seems to be the case that, at this point in time, some of the browsers that run on some of the popular mobile devices do not do a very good job of supporting Javascript.

The same was true of PC browsers for a while. To some extent it still is true for Internet Explorer - our application has some "custom code" that only runs if the IE is being used. That isn't such a big deal, both because IE comes close to getting things right and also because so many people use IE that is is easy to justify writing custom code for these people. But PC browsers have been around for several years now. Nowadays all of the popular browsers contain strong support for Javascript.

However, it is a different story when it comes to mobile devices that claim to run Javascript-enabled web browsers. This is partly because some of these claims seem to be grossly exaggerated. It is partly because there appear to be several of these device+browser combinations each of which would likely require their own custom code to make our application run properly (if it is even possible to get the thing to work at all). It is partly because I expect these browsers will improve in the months and years to come (so that any custom code I write will at best become unnecessary and at worst will result in new bugs once these browsers develop to the point that they work as they should). Finally, it is partly because this application (for now at least) is mostly just a fun thing that (for now at least) we have no plans to turn into a source of revenue. That makes it hard for me to justify spending a lot of time trying to get it to work on all device+browser combinations.

Sorry if it sounds like I am passing the buck here. Perhaps I am, but hopefully the above will help some of you to understand the issues that are involved.

I am not giving up yet, but it appears likely that I will not be able to provide a solution for all of you in the short term. More likely you are going to have to depend on the developers of the browser software you use to do that.

Fred Gitelman
Bridge Base Inc.
www.bridgebase.com

[firmit]

Holy crap! This is awesome!

Very nice, Fred!

[tuggy]

Hello,
I have just seen this topic and ty much Fred as a any bridge-liked . Immediatly just now I tried on Windows CE 5.0 in a SBC (Single Board Computer) ARM9 based with Samsung S3C2440 MCU.I'm getting white screen only but sure it will be getting better:)

Thanks again.

Tuggy (Tuncay)

[meto]

I have HP IPAQ 914c which is working on windows mobile 6.1..Similarly, I have experienced the so-called blank screen problem as the others. After I have downloaded skyfire browser on my device it has started working perfectly. I have similar problems with my bank they are having hard time adapting their software to this windows mobile 6.1 version. I guess it is up to Microsoft guys to fix the bugs.

Now, I am hoping to play bridge on my pocket pc ... Thanks to Fred..

[Leifj]

Hi

Nice!

Is it possible to put the comentator-field on the left side of the screene, not under as now. Would be more easy to read then.

[glen]

Thanks - works on the iphone 3GS