[tor-reports] Pearl Crescent Report – July 2015

[Mark Smith]

Tor-related work completed by the Pearl Crescent team in July 2015
(Kathy Brade and Mark Smith):

* Tor Browser Updater:

We spent some time testing the updater to ensure that it will work 
correctly in TB 5.0, including with automatic updates enabled.  Related 
tickets:

   "Turn on the background autoupdater"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16632

   "Check for Updates menu item can cause update failure"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16639

We also fixed the following updater-related ticket:
   Avoid writing to the Windows registry for "in use" files
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16236


* Tor Browser and Torbutton:

This month, we put additional effort into preparing patches and fixing 
issues for Tor Browser 5.0.  One of our most time consuming tasks was to 
fix another SVG-related crash (SVG is disabled when the Security Slider 
is set to the "High" position):

   "Tor Browser 5.0a3 crashes with security level set to 'High'"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16495

We also worked on several other tickets.  A few highlights:

   "Closely review all uses of IsCallerChrome()"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/14205

   "non-en-US Tor Browser bundles still contain Firefox logo
    and "Firefox ESR" on about-Tor Browser-window"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16268

   "Allow SVG for extensions, even on 'high' security level"
   https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/16607

Finally, we reviewed other people's patches, including for tickets 
#16316, #16429, #16523, #16528, and Mozilla bug #232227.


* Tor Launcher:  No activity this month.


* Miscellaneous Activities:
    We participated in the weekly Tor Applications team meetings on IRC
    and in various design discussions on IRC and on the mailing lists.


* Planned for August:
     - Help ship Tor Browser 5.0a5 and 5.0 stable, and help fix any
       issues that occur after release.

     - Improve updater usability.  This ticket might be a good place
       to start:
          "After update, load a static tab with change notes"
          https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/13512

     - Scope out the work to make Tor Browser Unix Domain Socket aware.
       See https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/14270

     - Work on Tor Browser, Tor Launcher, and Torbutton usability
       issues as time permits.

-- 
Mark Smith
Pearl Crescent
http://pearlcrescent.com/