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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

#71

Post by wtbob »

Animats wrote: post #45

Firefox has three APIs: XUL, Jetpack, and WebExtensions. XUL has been on the way out for years, and never worked in mobile Firefox anyway. (Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much.) Jetpack was introduced in 2013, and by 2014, it was actually usable. It's not clear when and whether Jetpack add-ons will stop working. Mozilla's developer documentation is so confused that you can't tell.…

> Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much.

FWIW, I love mobile Firefox and I really don't understand why folks use Chrome instead.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#72

Post by johnvaluk »

williamscales wrote: post #32

This is going to kill pentadactyl, which is currently the only reason I'm using Firefox. For those who aren't familiar, pentadactyl is a Firefox extension that transforms the user interface to make it more minimal and vim-like. You get to use standard vim bindings to navigate the web and it even gives you a vim-like command line interface to the browser's functionality.

The recent 51.0 update killed Vimperator, so I switched to Firefox ESR to gain some time while I search for a replacement.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#73

Post by wadkar »

williamscales wrote: post #32

This is going to kill pentadactyl, which is currently the only reason I'm using Firefox. For those who aren't familiar, pentadactyl is a Firefox extension that transforms the user interface to make it more minimal and vim-like. You get to use standard vim bindings to navigate the web and it even gives you a vim-like command line interface to the browser's functionality.

I use vimperator, and I decided to switch to Firefox ESR (which is v45.7.0) - you get security fixes and none of the jazz.

There are ways to run both versions side-by-side, but I will let you figure that out.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#74

Post by macintux »

st3fan wrote: post #65
Animats wrote: post #45

Firefox has three APIs: XUL, Jetpack, and WebExtensions. XUL has been on the way out for years, and never worked in mobile Firefox anyway. (Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much.) Jetpack was introduced in 2013, and by 2014, it was actually usable. It's not clear when and whether Jetpack add-ons will stop working. Mozilla's developer documentation is so confused that you can't tell.…

> Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much Well. The number of installs of Firefox for Android is a nine-digit number. Depending on your perspective that can be thought of as a big or small number. But it certainly is not "nobody".

I have hundreds of apps installed on my phone I never use.

Per https://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qpr... it doesn't look like the usage numbers are 9 digits.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#75

Post by wadkar »

johnvaluk wrote: post #72
williamscales wrote: post #32

This is going to kill pentadactyl, which is currently the only reason I'm using Firefox. For those who aren't familiar, pentadactyl is a Firefox extension that transforms the user interface to make it more minimal and vim-like. You get to use standard vim bindings to navigate the web and it even gives you a vim-like command line interface to the browser's functionality.

The recent 51.0 update killed Vimperator, so I switched to Firefox ESR to gain some time while I search for a replacement.

Ditto! Unfortunately, it appears that there will be no replacement any time soon, if ever. I am not 100% certain on the details, but apparently, the new WebExtension APIs make certain browser window manipulation impossible. So looks like we're stuck with ESR in short-to-mid term future.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#76

Post by hinkley »

Animats wrote: post #45

Firefox has three APIs: XUL, Jetpack, and WebExtensions. XUL has been on the way out for years, and never worked in mobile Firefox anyway. (Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much.) Jetpack was introduced in 2013, and by 2014, it was actually usable. It's not clear when and whether Jetpack add-ons will stop working. Mozilla's developer documentation is so confused that you can't tell.…

Encouraging all of your addon developers to create addons for your biggest competitor?

How is that a good idea?

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#77

Post by throw2016 »

Firefox has literally been kicked by its userbase and Chrome to get into its current semi competitive state. One understands the need to evolve but change just for the sake of change and activity can just be spinning your wheels. We don't need another Chrome clone. Firefox and Chrome's objectives are completely different.

We definitely need more browser competition but growing complexity rules out one person or small team efforts like before all over the open source ecosystem.

Untill open source users can get their act together and find a way to fund development they will find projects increasingly less accountable to them than their corporate sponsors.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#78

Post by nol13 »

macintux wrote: post #74
st3fan wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much Well. The number of installs of Firefox for Android is a nine-digit number. Depending on your perspective that can be thought of as a big or small number. But it certainly is not "nobody".

I have hundreds of apps installed on my phone I never use. Per https://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qpr... it doesn't look like the usage numbers are 9 digits.

That sub-9 digit number includes me though, hard to understate the importance of this fact.

(that said after reading tfa, if there's really no tab groups after next year i'll be really upset, especially after the whole "it's ok that we're removing it because now it's just an add-on" thing)

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#79

Post by mschuster91 »

wtbob wrote: post #71
Animats wrote: post #45

Firefox has three APIs: XUL, Jetpack, and WebExtensions. XUL has been on the way out for years, and never worked in mobile Firefox anyway. (Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much.) Jetpack was introduced in 2013, and by 2014, it was actually usable. It's not clear when and whether Jetpack add-ons will stop working. Mozilla's developer documentation is so confused that you can't tell.…

> Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much. FWIW, I love mobile Firefox and I really don't understand why folks use Chrome instead.

Because it syncs with my desktop Chrome install and especially the password manager.

If there's one thing that sucks it's typing secure passwords into a phone.

Re: I cannot continue working on my add-ons

#80

Post by st3fan »

mschuster91 wrote: post #79
wtbob wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Almost nobody runs mobile Firefox, so that turned out not to matter much. FWIW, I love mobile Firefox and I really don't understand why folks use Chrome instead.

Because it syncs with my desktop Chrome install and especially the password manager. If there's one thing that sucks it's typing secure passwords into a phone.

Mobile Firefox syncs too. For years.
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