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Google Chrome 4.0.206.1 updates for extensions, FTP

By Sean Michael Kerner on September 8, 2009 9:54 AM

From the 'FTP Is Still Useful' files:

Late Friday, Google released dev-channel version 4.0.206.1 of its Chrome browser, including a new FTP implementation and updates to the emerging extension system.

In my view, with the release, Chrome's extension system takes a big step toward being ready for the masses, as the API and user interface stabilize.

The release notes for Chrome 4.0.206.1, detail seven development items for Chrome extensions that are now included. Among them is a set of more consistent APIs, more granular permissions and a polished extension user interface.

Additionally, the extension toolstrip itself can now be detached from the main interface using using with ctrl+alt+b.

For extension developers, Google Chrome 4.0.206.1 adds what the release notes refer to as, "..convenience developer tools to load an extension and pack an extension."

These are the types of dev changes that I think of as 'fit and finish' (crossing the t's and dotting the i's) the types of items that go in at the final stages of development.

I would expect that Google is now pretty close to moving extensions closer to the stable version of Chrome and that we could see a stable release (my guess) this month. This is a big deal, and one that will finally close a gap between Firefox and Chrome. Once extensions are part of the mainstream Chrome experience it's only a matter of time until developers build out a large set of extensions for Chrome.

Chrome 4.0.206.1 also marks the Windows debut of a new FTP stack.

"This switchover is an important milestone in the development of our network stack," Google Software Engineer Wan-Teh Chang blogged.

One item that I found interesting about the new FTP stack is that Google is using code originally developed by Mozilla. Wan-Teh blogged that Google, used Mozilla code for parsing and formatting FTP directory listings (ParseFTPList.cpp).

No, it's not terribly surprising that Google is using open source code from Mozilla, but in my opinion it is interesting to note when that does occur.

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