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Apple’s Safari Technology Preview 83 Release Brings Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements

Apple on Wednesday released Safari Technology Preview 83, the latest version of their developer preview web browser. The preview version of Apple’s popular browser offers developers and other interested users the ability to try out features that may or may not, debut in future public release versions of Safari.

Release 83

  • Fixed isPrimary property of pointercancel events to match previous events for that pointer
  • Fixed calling preventDefault() on pointerdown to prevent “compatibility” mouse events

Storage Access API

  • Changed to only consume the user gesture when the user explicitly denies access and made document.hasStorageAccess() return true when the feature is off

Rendering

  • Implemented backing-sharing in compositing layers, allowing overlap layers to paint into the backing store of another layer
  • Changed layers painting into shared backing to contribute to overlap
  • Changed to repaint when the set of backing-sharing layers changes
  • Fixed rendering of backing-sharing layers with transforms
  • Fixed layer bounds for sharing layers that paint with transforms
  • Fixed layer-related flashing with composited overflow: scroll
  • Fixed overflow: scroll that becomes non-scrollable to stop being composited
  • Fixed content disappearing when the scroller hosting a shared layer becomes non-scrollable
  • Fixed rendering issues when layer contents become non-opaque

Service Workers

  • Changed to terminate a service worker instance when its SWServer is destroyed
  • Changed a service worker process to app nap when all of its clients app nap

CSS

  • Implemented line-break: anywhere
  • Implemented a modern “clearfix” with display: flow-root
  • Implemented page-break-* and -webkit-column-break-* as legacy-shorthands.
  • Fixed font-optical-sizing applying the wrong variation value
  • Updated CSS grid when changing auto repeat type
  • Updated to use max size to compute auto repeat CSS grid tracks

WebRTC

  • Defined a media buffering policy
  • Allowed sequential playback of media files when initial playback started with a user gesture
  • Fixed video stream freezing when the front camera orientation changes

WebDriver

  • Fixed the in-view center point for elements larger than the viewport

Web API

  • Changed to preserve DOM selection after clicking a button that hides itself on mousedown
  • Limited the number of prefetches of a given page

Web Inspector

  • Changed the user gesture toggle to also force a user interaction flag
  • Fixed the colors in the network table waterfall container for Dark Mode
  • Fixed context menu items in the DOM tree when not clicking directly on the node representation in the Elements tab
  • Fixed Storage tab crashes when adding new local storage or session storage entries
  • Fixed the CPU timeline and Memory timeline bars sometimes incorrectly drawing and jumping around while scrolling
  • Made it easier to switch to a DOM node in the Elements tab from a returned DOM node in the Audit tab

The update can be downloaded from the Safari Technology Preview website, or if the browser is already installed, it can be updated via the “Update” tab in the Mac App Store. Full release notes for the update are also available on the Safari Technology Preview website.

While the preview is intended for use by developers and advanced users, in order to provide Apple with feedback on the development of the Safari browser, it can be run side-by-side with the release version of Safari. The app doesn’t require a developer account to download and install. For more information, visit the Safari Technology Preview website.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.