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I cannot continue working on my add-ons

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Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#11

Post by wvenable »

If this WebExtensions move makes Tab Mix Plus stop working (I use multi-row tabs extensively) then I will no longer have any reason to continue to use Firefox. I put up with it's poor performance and instability merely for this one feature.

Nobody needs a clone of Chrome; we already have Chrome.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#12

Post by mindcrime »

stephengillie wrote: post #7

Isn't Firefox open source? Can't you just fork the project and start your own browser, where all these changes don't get made? Is the real concern about forking the userbase and ecosystem, and the fork won't have the critical user base to become self-sustaining? Edit: added paragraph for clarity.

In principle, yes. But maintaining a browser is, as a understand it, a LOT of work. So it would take a sizable contingent of volunteers to take on a project like that and keep the forked version current.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#13

Post by MiddleEndian »

wvenable wrote: post #11

If this WebExtensions move makes Tab Mix Plus stop working (I use multi-row tabs extensively) then I will no longer have any reason to continue to use Firefox. I put up with it's poor performance and instability merely for this one feature. Nobody needs a clone of Chrome; we already have Chrome.

I would use the last version of Firefox that supported Tab Mix Plus until it no longer worked with the web in general. At that point I don't know what I'd do.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#14

Post by wvenable »

stephengillie wrote: post #7

Isn't Firefox open source? Can't you just fork the project and start your own browser, where all these changes don't get made? Is the real concern about forking the userbase and ecosystem, and the fork won't have the critical user base to become self-sustaining? Edit: added paragraph for clarity.

The real concern is that browser is a hugely complex piece of software with lots of security, stability, and compatibility concerns. You could fork it, but now you have to constantly ensure you maintain all those things between your fork and the mainline. That will become increasingly difficult as they diverge more and more.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#15

Post by stephengillie »

iancarroll wrote: post #10
stephengillie wrote: post #7

Isn't Firefox open source? Can't you just fork the project and start your own browser, where all these changes don't get made? Is the real concern about forking the userbase and ecosystem, and the fork won't have the critical user base to become self-sustaining? Edit: added paragraph for clarity.

Maintaining a fork of a large browser is extremely difficult, especially for coordinating and merging vulnerability fixes.

Do no other extension developers have this issue?

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#16

Post by kesselborn »

wvenable wrote: post #11

If this WebExtensions move makes Tab Mix Plus stop working (I use multi-row tabs extensively) then I will no longer have any reason to continue to use Firefox. I put up with it's poor performance and instability merely for this one feature. Nobody needs a clone of Chrome; we already have Chrome.

for me it's Tab Groups (actually one of the Extension the author wrote). If that is gone, there is no good reason for Firefox over Safari

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#17

Post by mnarayan01 »

DashRattlesnake wrote: post #8

Just curious will the new Web Extensions style allow add-ons like Classic Theme Restorer [1] and Tree-style Tab [2] that change the Firefox UI? [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemer... [2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...

Previously the WebExtensions wiki mentioned that they were planning to support functionality for TreeStyle tabs. As of https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=WebExtensions&diff=... it no longer does; no idea how much to read into that though.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#18

Post by evilpie »

detaro wrote: post #3
sp332 wrote: post #2

This makes me curious - does Mozilla's new Tab Center experiment use Web Extensions? Or are they refusing to take their own medicine, and using inaccessible internal APIs? https://testpilot.firefox.com/experiments/tab-center (Edit: Deprecated, not inaccessible.)

From a quick look at the source[0] it uses the deprecated Add-On SDK[1]. [0] https://github.com/bwinton/TabCenter/blob/master/main.js [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/SDK

There is a rough version [0] based on the sidebarAction API [1], this is probably going to improved when it actually lands in Firefox Nightly, which should hopefully be soon.

[0] https://github.com/bwinton/TabCenter/tree/webext [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1208596

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#19

Post by protomyth »

navaati wrote: post #9
protomyth wrote: post #4

I think there is a niche for a programmer's browser. I often think something half-way between a web browser and the old Lisp and Smalltalk machines.

Oh, it's called Emacs (being half-serious here)

On a fully serious note, Emacs born out of a web browser would be a pretty good goal.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#20

Post by guelo »

DashRattlesnake wrote: post #8

Just curious will the new Web Extensions style allow add-ons like Classic Theme Restorer [1] and Tree-style Tab [2] that change the Firefox UI? [1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemer... [2] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tree-style-ta...

The Classic Theme Restorer page says "CTR will stop working on Firefox 57 (release) when Mozilla drops support for XUL / XPCOM / legacy add-ons, but it will still work on Firefox 52 ESR until Firefox 59 ESR replaces it in 2018 (~Q2)."
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