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An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

bugzilla.mozilla.org

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Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#51

Few months ago QA at my workplace found a bug with my work but I couldn't reproduce it. Turns out they're using Chrome and I'm using Firefox, and after reading some docs & specs, I concluded that Firefox's behavior is not correct. I'm about to file a bug and turns out that I found a same issue that's filed 20 years ago, and it's still open today: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=156090 Quite amusing...

[deleted]

Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#53
I remember that the introduction of the new WebExtension API to replace the existing extension system was heavily criticized. The old system gave extensions deep access to the browser and the new extension API (copied over from the Chrome browser) was seen as a limiting dumbing down.

It was a painful transition but very much needed. Now extensions don't clash with one another. The browser code can be modified more freely without impacting extensions and it is possible to implement features such as sandboxing.

Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#55

I remember that the introduction of the new WebExtension API to replace the existing extension system was heavily criticized. The old system gave extensions deep access to the browser and the new extension API (copied over from the Chrome browser) was seen as a limiting dumbing down. It was a painful transition but very much needed. Now extensions don't clash with one another. The browser code can be modified more fr…

Yes. It's a shame that the firefox user base is so easy to outrage. Same with the more recent change ragrding tabs. I am using firefox for a very long time now, and I just don't see that firefox is massively going downhill so far, like many people seem to suggest. Of course I am bummed out that certain features could not be retained (such as installable PWAs on desktop). But these are just the realities of the fact that it is hard to compete with google.

Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#56

I remember that the introduction of the new WebExtension API to replace the existing extension system was heavily criticized. The old system gave extensions deep access to the browser and the new extension API (copied over from the Chrome browser) was seen as a limiting dumbing down. It was a painful transition but very much needed. Now extensions don't clash with one another. The browser code can be modified more fr…

My two most important extensions were my adblocker, and Vimium (enable Vim-like control in Firefox). The new WebExtension API broke Vimium, with no replacement possible[1]. Meanwhile, I never had problems with extension clashes.

I appreciate that this improved the code base quality for Mozilla folks, but it was a significant step down in features for me. I even switched to Vivaldi (which has built-in Vim keybindings) for a while because of this.

[1]: There are some partial replacements, but they all fail if you try commands on a still-loading page, and they don't work at all on any browser page like New Tab or Settings. So even a simple hotkey for "go to left tab", or "close current tab", fails constantly. I didn't stick around to find out what else is broken.

Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#57
post #16
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this case they closed the bug because a competing browser launched with the "bug fix" as one of its most touted features, and Mozilla spent several years rearchitecting Firefox in order to support the requested feature. This is a triumph.

That's not how I would describe it and not how it was described at that time. It was deemed necessary to discontinue legacy extensions to improve the browser.

Well, I could be wrong, but as I understand it, the particular way in which the browser was improved is that, now, browser and extension components can be sandboxed, which is what the bug was asking for?

Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#58
Well, I have a bug open (now it is wrong closed) in 2016 about firefox in their bugtracker:

"The onload event is not fired with the symbols are loaded in a svg"

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1254159

The last messages were:

"Well, the standard documentation (w3c) says there is "onload" event, then Firefox does not comply the SVG standard...because the performance is important....it is sounds good." Miguel

"I know what the standard says, that's why I set this bug to WONTFIX rather than INVALID" Robert Longson [:longsonr]

Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#59

I remember that the introduction of the new WebExtension API to replace the existing extension system was heavily criticized. The old system gave extensions deep access to the browser and the new extension API (copied over from the Chrome browser) was seen as a limiting dumbing down. It was a painful transition but very much needed. Now extensions don't clash with one another. The browser code can be modified more fr…

But still, the inability to modify the UI is a major drawback.

I used to rely on TabMixPlus to have multiple rows of tabs even the ability to mouse-wheel scroll them so get access to more rows and other things like lock them with a MMB press.

I often have so many tabs open that now I'm not able to read the title and am forced to drag them off to create a new window in order to get a new row of tabs.

There was also an extension where I could split the main pane into multiple tiles in order to view multiple pages at the same time.

I'm not saying that it was a bad move to move to the new extension model, but I think that an API should exist which allows developers to modify the UI in a secure way.

Re: An enhancement request I submitted to Bugzilla 15 years ago was just closed

#60
post #56

I remember that the introduction of the new WebExtension API to replace the existing extension system was heavily criticized. The old system gave extensions deep access to the browser and the new extension API (copied over from the Chrome browser) was seen as a limiting dumbing down. It was a painful transition but very much needed. Now extensions don't clash with one another. The browser code can be modified more fr…

My two most important extensions were my adblocker, and Vimium (enable Vim-like control in Firefox). The new WebExtension API broke Vimium, with no replacement possible[1]. Meanwhile, I never had problems with extension clashes. I appreciate that this improved the code base quality for Mozilla folks, but it was a significant step down in features for me. I even switched to Vivaldi (which has built-in Vim keybindings)…

I've been using Vimium since I use firefox (for around 3 years). It's annoying that Vimium can no longer control the browser UI and is limited on some pages (New Tab, mozilla.org) but this is necessary for security.
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