Prism Test Version Available for Download
June 9, 2008 – 9:45 amNote: The Windows version of this test version had a serious bug that could damage your Windows installation in rare circumstances. These versions are really old anyway, so I’ve removed them from the post. Please visit the Prism website for the latest versions.
I’ve posted test versions of Prism for those who want to play around with the features and improvements I mentioned in my last post. These are untested, potentially unstable and possibly just downright broken, so please try them at your own risk. Do let us know if you run into any problems so we can work towards a more stable release.
Update: Thanks to Jens for pointing out a bug in the Prism for Firefox extension. I’ve uploaded new versions for all platforms that fix the problem (use the same download links, the versions have been updated).
16 Responses to “Prism Test Version Available for Download”
after installing the windows FF addon, Firefox (2008060806 ) would no longer open any links that come from the outside, i. e. Click on a link in a email in TB, a new Firefox window would open and the default start page loaded instead of opening the given URL in the existing FF window. Had to uninstall the extension therefore
By Jens on Jun 9, 2008
Thanks for the report. I’ll try to figure out what’s causing the problem.
By Matthew Gertner on Jun 9, 2008
Any chance of getting a PPC Mac version?
By Jamie on Jun 9, 2008
I have the same problem as Jens. Windows XP SP3.
I can only imagine this has something to do with how Prism adds new command line parameters so you can make shortcuts to Prism apps. So I would start my investigation there if I were you.
Firefox registers it’s handle for the http protocol like so:
firefox.exe -requestPending -osint -url “%1″
When this is executed (with a url) with Prism enabled and Firefox already running, a new blank window is opened instead.
When I remove the -url parameter the behavior of Firefox is correct… the specified url is opened. With the -url parameter present before the url, alone or with the requestPending and osint paramters, it only opens a new blank window.
By Dan on Jun 9, 2008
Okay, the extension should now be fixed. Please reinstall and let me know if you run into any further difficulties.
We are planning a universal binary build but I’m not sure when I’ll have time.
By Matthew Gertner on Jun 9, 2008
Windows users: DONT CLICK THE OTHER EXE FILE!
There’s an file called regprot.exe located in the root Prism folder. You don’t wanna click this file. You are probably itching to do it right now, but I promise you will regret it.
I am not suggesting that it was left there with bad intentions. It is probably made to good use by the real EXE file. But I strongly suggest that this file be moved to a sub folder in future distributions. My office dude clicked it by accident and just to prove that the ensuing dysfunction could not possibly be caused by anything related to Prism, I clicked it on purpose. It nuked the entire registry. Seriously, it’s all gone. Or at least badly warped. Can’t install any registry utility software to certify for sure, because my computer lost the ability to handle installer files. Happened on XP and Server2003.
If you never hear from me again, it means that my Windows re-installation went wrong somehow. In that case, let me take the opportunity to thank you guys. Prism is a knockout - no irony intended.
By Wired Earp on Jun 11, 2008
Hmmm, that file shouldn’t do anything unless you provide the right parameters. I’ll test it. If you can figure out what happened to your registry that would be very helpful.
By Matthew Gertner on Jun 12, 2008
I back to enjoy my happy life as a Windows user. Even so, I would urge you NOT to test it - at least not by clicking it! Here’s how bad it is: After doubleclicking the wrong EXE file, nothing happens when you doubleclick the right file. You think something may be wrong with the mouse, so you right-click and get cut, copy and paste. No “open” or “run as…” option. Bam! After a restart, all your icons show as default icons and all shortcuts stops working. In fact, all shortcuts in the Start folder has now been suffixed with the “lnk” extension. You cannot start any program. You cannot even start it from DOS, because the machine has no program registered as handler for “cmd.exe”. Fortunately Firefox started up by itself so that I was able to leave you this warning - but only because Firefox was now registered as default association for some kind of program in my startup folder.
Faced by this, I gave up on all attempts to analyze what happened to the registry. But I believe it was something bad.
By Wired Earp on Jun 12, 2008
To stress the point further, let me add that I am now working on another machine altogether. On the “Choose partition to format” screen, no partitions were presented because no drives were recognized. My technical fellow was able to get past this point somehow, but it all crashed in a disk error.
But maybe you are aware of this by now
By Wired Earp on Jun 12, 2008
Is there an official place to file issues? I installed it on top of my old version, and now nothing works
By Allan Beaufour on Jun 23, 2008
bugzilla.mozilla.org (components Labs/Prism)
By Matthew Gertner on Jun 23, 2008
FF3 rocks. I use google docs instead of word, so this is great for me
By jordan on Jul 4, 2008
try this direct download link: http://www.jabum.org/download/files/343_asap.html
By benster on Jul 31, 2008
Hi Matthew,
Unfortunately, I executed the bomb file!!
I can’t believe that Mozilla distributes a weapon.
Please let me know how to recover my machine, if you’ve finded some.
By Yoshi on May 12, 2009
I found the source…
http://svn.mozilla.org/projects/webrunner/trunk/client/winbuild/regprot.nsi
By Yoshi on May 12, 2009
Sorry, I don’t know of any way to fix this. We fixed the problem a long time ago. I’ll add a notice to this blog post to make sure no one else makes the mistake of installing a really old test version.
By Matthew Gertner on May 12, 2009