What's New In Firefox Development

[Neil P]

For the opening post, I thought I'd highlight perhaps one of the coolest features I've seen in quite some time, and it can turn out to be very, very useful!Fixed-on-trunk since August 19, 2004 is bug 238099 - "implement at-rule for matching on site/document URL"Since this bug has been fixed, users are now able to modify websites based on personal preferences, and all it takes is minimal CSS knowledge.All it takes is a file in your profile called userContent.css (locate the chrome directory in your profile, here are instructions to locate it! The file needs to be created, or rename the userContent-example.css file to userContent.css.) with some CSS rules. The real magic, though, comes from @-moz-document rules.They're set up like this:

@-moz-document domain(mozilla.org) {  * { background: aqua ! important; }}                @-moz-document url-prefix(http://www.mozilla.org/) {  * { background: green ! important; }}                @-moz-document url(http://www.mozilla.org/), domain(foo.bar) {  * { background: yellow ! important; }}

If you want a rule to take effect on all pages under a domain, you would use the domain(mozilla.org) style rule above. Rules in those brackets would then affect every single page on that domain, subdomains included.The url-prefix style rule is a little more flexible. Say you want to hide tables (you probably wouldn't ever want to do something like that, but work with me here!) on http://www.mozilla.org/a/, but not anywhere else on the site. You would craft a rule that looked something like "@-moz-document url-prefix(http://www.mozilla.org/a/)" and every page that begins with that exact string would be affected. Note that something like "test.mozilla.org/a/" would not, thus the added flexibility.And finally, a url rule would be useful to specify a particular page, rather than a range of them. In the example, a rule that is "url(http://www.mozilla.org/)" would only apply to that exact page--nothing else on mozilla.org would be affected by it.A very, very useful and handy feature! You can specify any number of rules inside the @-moz-document xxx {}, not just one.This feature will be in Firefox 1.1 and later (NOT 1.0.2 or any variety thereof), and is currently available in any Mozilla Suite release after (and including) Mozilla 1.8a3.

[Neil P]

Pref Window V.Ben Goodger has rewritten the Preferences Dialog (now in its fifth iteration, hence "Pref Window V") for the 1.1 release. There are many pictures of it here. (Note: I'm using the latest nightly, and it looks a little different. But in general, it's similar to that)Perhaps the "biggest" new feature of the Pref dialog is the "Sanitize Settings" button (visible in this screen shot, among others) which is the "one stop shop" for clearing any information stored by the browser. Clicking that button brings up a dialog that asks what you want to clear, and when you'd like it cleared (you can have it clear at shutdown, and have it clear anything from all of the information, to just one (History, for example). This dialog is visible from this screenshot, and once you set the pref, you can access it from the menu, or with Ctrl+Shift+Delete.Also, several menu items have moved from their current locations to a more suitable area of the Pref window.

[Neil P]

A Thunderbird post!First, we have bug 279191 - "Add Phishing Detection Support to Thunderbird"Note that this bug is not "Fixed", it is still a Work In Progress. The current implementation:

When the user clicks on a URL that we think is a phishing URL, he now getsprompted before we open it. Handles two cases so far. Hopefully we can add moreas we figure out how:1) The host name of the actual URL is an IP address2) the link text is a URL whose host name does not match the host name of theactual URL.

That is from an early comment. Some other cases and tweaks might have been added since then. Great news that Thunderbird is pro-active on the phishing front.Next, bug 202468 - "Simpler, more consolidated UI for SMTP server settings". Basically, this one is self-explanatory. Of course, pictures help too :)Finally, the Thunderbird start page has changed from this to this, and looks much nicer, I think.

[Neil P]

Sometimes an image can speak louder than words! ^ Click!Robert O' Callahan blogs about CSS Columns, which have been added to Gecko for the 1.8 cycle (again, Firefox 1.1!).

Basically this lets you set up multiple columns like a newspaper, so that content flows from the end of one column to the top of the next column automatically. The big win is that you can use the full width of a large screen without making lines excessively long. This very blog is using columns on most entries --- check it out with a Firefox trunk build.

(My screenshot is from a trunk build, so you can see the columns in action!)"roc", as he is known, is quite the programmer, and does many fantastic things like visual regression testing! His weblog is always entertaining.

[Neil P]

This isn't so much a feature of Firefox, or even a Firefox 1.1 thing, it's just really cool (I think--it will work on release builds!)http://www.google.com/googleblog/2005/03/e...th-firefox.html

Now Google's faster than ever on Firefox and Mozilla browsers. When you do a search on these browsers, we instruct them to download your top search result in advance, so if you click on it, you'll get to that page even more quickly.You can learn more about this cool feature here. If you're a webmaster, we have FAQs for you too. Or you can just download Firefox and check it out for yourself.

Really cool!edit:Discussion on possible security risks

[Neil P]

neat stuff!sooo when is this 1.1 comming out?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Firefox Roadmap says "June 2005". BUT....In the time I've been following Mozilla (just about two years, now) I have never seen them pick a release date, and actually hit it. It was already pushed back (this might be the second time, even), as I believe it was originally scheduled for March/April. Originally, it was going to be a "Gecko upgrade" more or less. The plan was to just land the features from the Aviary branch (from which 1.0 and subsequent point releases came) onto the trunk, make sure everything worked, and then ship it. However, that plan didn't go over so well, and they've added some time to get 1.1 ready. The reason they wanted to do it like that originally is because the Gecko version of 1.0.x is quite old now. They cut the Aviary branch on May 15, 2004 (nearly a year ago!), and Gecko hasn't taken any "major" changes on the branch. Therefore, on the trunk, Gecko has progressed quite a bit (just see my above post about things like better CSS3 support), so they wanted to push that Gecko update to the users.Oh geez, I've written too much If you'd like me to clarify anything (I jumped around a little) feel free to ask. :thumbsup:edit:Actually, let me write a little more. Since the discontinuation of the Mozilla Application Suite, the Mozilla Foundation has lost their mechanism to deliver test releases (which were in the form of the Mozilla 1.xAlpha and Betas). However, they will be releasing a "Developer Preview" and a "Preview Release" (or, "Alpha" and "Beta" ) of Firefox/Thunderbird to serve this purpose. Tonight (as luck would have it), the trunk goes into a "freeze" until the Alphas are released (it's difficult to create a release if the code is changing, so the drivers close the trunk, and only allow critical changes to land. This freeze will remain in effect until the 1.8 branch is cut, which will be very soon after the "beta" is released. At that point, the code goes into a localization freeze (so the localizers can translate things without worrying about them changing later), and the 1.8 branch will be cut. From there, stability will be the focus, and checkins become even more restrictive (only security and stability checkins) in preparation for a release. Once all of the "blockers" are fixed, and the stability is ensured, 1.1 will be released.If it all goes to plan, it will hopefully be by July. (I've gone and doubled what I first wrote)

[Neil P]

If it all goes to plan, it will hopefully be by July.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Of course, as soon as I write that, there is a roadmap update. Asa again updates the roadmap (with pretty graphics, even ) If those dates are met (we'd need the "Deer Park Developer Preview" soon, as in this week), it's possible for a mid to late June release of 1.1 (depending on how the RC's go)

[Neil P]

I've got some more big news: SVG will (more than likely) be turned on in Firefox 1.1!Considering how long it's been in the works, this is huge news. Mozillazine has the story (confirmed by roc, see above for some more of his work ) Tor, another great programmer (who runs Planet Mozilla, actually) has an SVG status update blog, which points to bugs fixed, or soon to be fixed.Some more info on SVG, and the bug to turn it on, which is set to block 1.8b2.

[Neil P]

SVG is really, really, REALLY cool. I hope that with Firefox 1.1 turning it on, more people will find uses for it. It seems to be a niche thing right now, but vector art is really great.

[ross549]

From what I have read, SVG is awesome. I am willing to bet that IE won't support it for some time, so it may be a while before it takes off.

[jar92380]

this may be a stupid question, but what is svg?james

[ross549]

This link, posted earlier in the thread gives a basic introduction to SVG.

[rbdietz]

Nope, a perfectly valid question - not a stupid!SVG = Scalable Vector Graphics

SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional graphics and graphical applications in XML. SVG 1.1 is a W3C Recommendation and forms the core of the current SVG developments. SVG 1.2 is the specification currently being developed as is available in draft form (comments welcome). The SVG Mobile Profiles: SVG Basic and SVG Tiny are targetted to resource-limited devices and are part of the 3GPP platform for third generation mobile phones. SVG Print  is a set of guidelines to produce final-form documents in XML suitible for archiving and printing. sXBL is a binding language for SVG content. Read more about SVG.

http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/

[Guest LilBambi]

Robert O' Callahan blogs about CSS Columns, which have been added to Gecko for the 1.8 cycle (again, Firefox 1.1!).  (My screenshot is from a trunk build, so you can see the columns in action!)"roc", as he is known, is quite the programmer, and does many fantastic things like visual regression testing! His weblog is always entertaining.

It was odd that roc didn't have an RSS link on his page. I ended up having to hover over the Live Link icon in the bottom right and then type in the address for the http://weblogs.mozilla.org/roc/index.xml and then drag to Sage. But I did get it added to Sage. :thumbsup:I use Live Links but I also use Sage...prefer sage cuz I get a summary before clicking instead of just a title.

[Neil P]

This is too cool not to mention here, even though it won't make it to Firefox 1.1.Robert O' Callahan strikes again, this time blogging about Cairo, and its future use. After the Gecko 1.8 branch is cut (probably June, if the latest release plans come to fruition), this work will really take off. It works now, but nowhere near useable for day to day browsing, and it can't be fixed in time for the 1.1 release of Firefox (there are still some bugs within Cairo itself, but they are expected to be fixed within six months), so the 1.9 cycle is when we'll really see Cairo.In reply to some comments (see the entry for the context), roc hints at some really cool features:

rja: When it's done, on rendering regular Web content we should be significantly faster for users with 3D hardware (most modern machines), and we should be doing a better job (better image scaling algorithms, for example). Other users should get performance comparable to today.frustum: There are some performance problems in Cairo to be worked out, but I'm optimistic that we can solve most of them within six months. Mozilla's needs for most regular Web content are quite basic: solid rectangle fills, image drawing (with various combinations of scaling, translucency and tiling), and text rendering, all rectilinear. Getting these "easy cases" to work efficiently in Cairo should not be too hard.One thing you need to keep in mind is that most graphics hardware provides almost no 2D acceleration, while the 3D hardware is very rich. For example 3D hardware is very good at tiling scaled translucent images across a large area (think "texture-mapped walls in 3D shooters"), something that we've never been able to do efficiently with existing platform APIs.

You're right. This will eventually give us PDF output for nearly free.Cairo is rendering XUL. In the screenshot, everything is rendered by Cairo (except for the window manager's window borders), including the browser UI.

He has also posted an update, stating that some of the bugs in his screenshot have been fixed. I told you he was an absolute wizard .Also, he has an update concerning the Acid2 test (if you've seen it, you know that no browser currently out there renders it properly). In his blog, roc points out quite correctly that the next release of Firefox won't do it right, because it's too late in the release cycle to be overhauling parts of Gecko. 1.9 will surely fix the problems. His entry on it is here.More info on Cairo is available: http://cairographics.org/introductionMore info on Mozilla's implementation is available: http://wiki.mozilla.org/Cairo

[Neil P]

Drag and Drop Reorder of TabsMike Connor has picked up the ball and run with it, and is very close to having a patch checked in for Bug 179656 - Allow drag-and-drop reordering of tabsThis patch/work is based on the extension miniT (drag+indicator), so you can try that out if you're interested.Still not a full incorporation of TBE features, but as more features get requested like this, they can be added.And people say Mozilla developers don't listen to feedback!

[Neil P]

I've got some more big news: SVG will (more than likely) be turned on in Firefox 1.1!Considering how long it's been in the works, this is huge news. Mozillazine has the story (confirmed by roc, see above for some more of his work ) Tor, another great programmer (who runs Planet Mozilla, actually) has an SVG status update blog, which points to bugs fixed, or soon to be fixed.Some more info on SVG, and the bug to turn it on, which is set to block 1.8b2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This has been turned on by default now. Assuming there aren't horrible, horrible problems, it will ship in 1.1 as on. I've got a nightly, and while it has problems in other areas, SVG is really really cool.It's on by default on Windows and Mac, and Linux builds will have it shortly.Actually, the bug I linked at first has not been fixed. All that they did here was checkin a patch for bug 292160, which sets the pref svg.enabled to true. There are still some issues, which are handled in the original bug I linked.Either way, I'm using today's Windows build, and it sure does work! mozillaZine has a story on it. That story seems to suggest that SVG is not turned on by default, but it's definitely on for me.Either way, Firefox 1.1 will see SVG!

[Keegan]

here is a mozillazine forum post about bugs blocking 1.1, and also a list of new things coming:http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=257766it would be great if they will manage to get in the resume downloads function, and also instant back and forward would be cool.but over all i was expecting more, oh well :Ptaken from the forum post linked above:"New Features" that should be included in Firefox 1.1 (Green=Already in the nightlys---will be in 1.1)1) 'Sanitize Settings' which automatically removes privacy information with a keyboard shortcut or when closing firefox. (Screenshot)2) Options Window UI Update (Video | Screenshots)3) New Cookie Controls per site (Screenshot)4) Extension Manager upgrades: * Command Line Installation/Uninstallation * Server-Side GUID Blacklist * Enhanced Global Registration5) Mac Profile Migrators for: * Apple Safari * Mozilla Camino * Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.x * Omniweb 56) Searchable download actions manager (now with integrated full page plugin support)7) Possible Accessibilites options (ScreenReader support is being worked on, not sure if its enabled or not)8) Drag-and-drop reordering of tabs9) Instant Back and forward navigation10) SVG Support11) Support for Always Storing Cache on Local Filesystem12) Provide utility for incremental download (Key part in cross session resumeable downloads and for patches instead of full releases for updates)

Edited May 3, 2005 by Keegan

[Neil P]

and also instant back and forward would be cool.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ask, and you shall receive!Today, Bryan Ryner checked in the patch to enable "fastback". (Well, it's not enabled yet, until everything is fixed. But you can test it!)Chase Philips, the mozilla build engineer, shows how to test it out.I have the build, and it is magical. When I see people talking about Opera's features, this is always on the list.If you do decide to try it, be sure to install to a clean directory, and MAKE A NEW PROFILE!! I had a crash at startup until I made a new profile.Anyway, I don't recommend testing this, but rest assured, it will be in 1.1.

[ross549]

Cool! Good to hear that it has arrived!

[Neil P]

With only four bugs blocking1.8b2+ (approved to block the "Deer Park Alpha 1" Release), it shouldn't be too long before this is released.Jesse Ruderman again comes through, this time with an unofficial Deer Park Alpha 1 changelog. It gives a pretty detailed list of changes that will be in this upcoming Developer Preview, and (eventually) in 1.1 Final.

[ross549]

Is there a timeline on 1.1?

[Neil P]

The roadmap says "July 2005", so...add about a month or so, and maybe by September we'll see it.Hopefully it doesn't get to that point, and they can ship in July.

[Neil P]

Drag and Drop Reorder of TabsMike Connor has picked up the ball and run with it, and is very close to having a patch checked in for Bug 179656 - Allow drag-and-drop reordering of tabsThis patch/work is based on the extension miniT (drag+indicator), so you can try that out if you're interested.Still not a full incorporation of TBE features, but as more features get requested like this, they can be added.And people say Mozilla developers don't listen to feedback! 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This has now landed, and will be in for 1.1 final.Additionally, Ben Goodger posts an update on....Software UpdateFinally, Chase Philips has an update on Talkback, with one of the biggest issues resolved!Three big changes in one day. Oh, and by the way, Deer Park Alpha 1 has been released. See the project page. Note: THIS IS A DEVELOPER PREVIEW! If you want a stable release, stick with 1.0.4 and wait for 1.1 Final to come out!

[Neil P]

Well, quite late, the Deer Park Alpha 1 has been released (it's been a week or two now).It features all of the work talked about in this thread (except the Cairo stuff, which is not on the trunk yet), including the drag and drop reordering of tabs, and the "fastback" stuff, and....well, everything in this thread :)It looks like 1.1 will be a pretty solid release all around, when we do see it.Ack, it seems I already mentioned Deer Park Alpha 1 had been released in my previous post (seems I'm becoming forgetful ), but that's okay.One new feature I didn't mention yet is the Website Reporter tool.A quick description, again from Asa Dotzler:

If you did a custom install and included the Reporter tool, then when ever you hit a website that doesn't look or behave correctly, please go to the Help menu, select the Report Broken Websites, and just follow the instructions in the resulting wizard.We'll analyze these reports in aggregate and use them to tackle any regressions in Gecko and to help evangelize standards-based solutions to sites using proprietary code.

[Neil P]

A bit of a disappointment (for some, perhaps): Support for Mac OS X 10.1.x has been officially dropped for future releases (including Firefox 1.1)

Support for Mac OS X 10.1.x has been dropped. Current CVS code (including the forthcoming Firefox 1.1) will not run correctly if at all on 10.1.x for any Mozilla.org products. See bug 298430 for details. Don't spam that bug with complaints please - its done. This is a great move as far as I'm concerned.

The above is from Josh Aas, one of the few Mac coders around. It's disappointing if you're running OS X 10.1.x, but I don't know that the number is very high (we're at what, OS X 10.4.x now?)--and apparently dropping 10.1.x support means several "hacks" and ugly workarounds can be dropped, and more "up to date" features can be incorporated.

[Guest LilBambi]

Here are a few things that might help clarify it abit.

paul: Read the justification in the bug he referenced. Why can't a move that will noticably improve things going forward for 90% (and growing) of people be "great"? Would you rather have a product get better faster for a vast and growing majority, or be held back by catering to a small and shrinking minority?

There is much more discussion about this:Boon Swagger Boom: Support for Mac OS X 1.x - Officially Dropped - CommentsBug 298430 - Drop drop support for Mac OS X 10.1 ("Puma")

Description:  [reply]    Opened: 2005-06-22 01:10 PDTAll Mozilla.org products should drop support for Mac OS X 10.1.x (simply 10.1 from here on) ASAP for the following reasons:1) we do not have adequate QA for Mac OS X 10.1 and cannot ensure a quality product - this includes Firefox 1.12) 10.1 has a very immature API - we can use more complete and advanced APIs that are not available on 10.1 once support for it is dropped3) Mac developers are stretched thin at the moment, and expending effort on 10.1 compatibility would be silly at this point4) the number of users on 10.1 is minimal, and most people who would be using a web browser a lot would have upgraded to another OS version or would not be using Firefox5) things are going to get much worse concerning 10.1 when we try to use cocoa widgets and quartz6) once support for 10.1 is dropped, our code can be optimized further by removing 10.1 workaroundsThis bug should remain open until 10.1 support is dropped, as I will be making notes for things we can do once that happens (code we can remove, optimizations, new APIs that get freed up, bugs we can close).

This is not a new thing to those of us using the Microsoft Windows OS in recent days. We have seen it done over and over with various programs across the boards, some that cost ALOT of money. Some that have been acquired by Microsoft as well.It's always sad when it happens regardless. Hopefully this change will have less impact (numbers wise) on Mac users than it has had on Windows users using products where support for previous OS versions was dropped. Edited June 24, 2005 by LilBambi

[Neil P]

Big news again, we're (almost) another step closer to Firefox 1.1!This page is more than likely the best way to follow "when" the release will happen (besides this one [that's a direct link to bugzilla, be gentle ; when all of those bugs are fixed (ideally), we'll be very close to a release]

6/30/05 - We are currently planning to ship Deer Park Alpha 2 (1.8b3) early next week. We hope to be essentially done with work for these releases by Thursday, June 30th. Thus, starting on Thursday, drivers intend to become much more restrictive in granting trunk approval requests (and we'll also be a little more restrictive between now and then).Please Note: We will branch for Gecko 1.8 when Firefox 1.1 (Deer Park) is substantially feature complete, including l110n dependencies and build infrastructure. This is presently targeted to occur shortly before 1.1b1, in approximately four weeks.

So, Alpha 2 probably on Tuesday (5 July), followed by the 1.8 branch being cut, and shortly thereafter a Beta release. Once that's done, final regressions will be fixed, and some Release Candidates put out. Once those are "cleared" (no major bugs), we'll have 1.1!Be sure to give the wiki page (first link!) a read if you're at all interested.

[Neil P]

The update system is ready to go!

Accomplishing this work is no small feat and we learned a lot from our experiences with the 1.0.x releases. The new system will be much more robust and capable on both the client side and the server side. From the client end, we've got a much improved user experience that should take away pretty much all of the pain of updating Firefox 1.1 for both minor versions and major versions. On the server side, we've increased our capacity and will have the capability to serve "patch" updates which should make things easier for everyone.This new system will also provide benefits for our testing community. If all (or even most) goes according to plan, nightly build users will be able to get the latest nightly bits through the same update mechanism which will make testing nightly builds a bit more convenient and, more importantly, will help us get a lot more testing on the update system itself. This nightly updating system should be in place within the next few days and will be available to our 1.1 Alpha 2 users (preffed off by default). 1.1 Alpha 2 is just the first testing stage, though, and the 1.1 Beta is where we'll introduce the full set of capabilities (including patching) to the testing community.

This is one of the major problems people had with 1.0.x, and I'm glad it's fixed (or nearly so, they're starting testing soon)

[Neil P]

With the IDN Spoofing vulnerability earlier this year, a solution was needed. Discussion on it starts around here. Anyway, it's a delicate problem, but a solution might have been found. It's similar to what Opera does: There is now a whitelist of IDN-enabled TLDs. "Whitelist" is the opposite of blacklist. Whereas a blacklist explicity denys, a whitelist explicity allows. If it's not on the whitelist, then you won't see it displayed as IDN, but rather as punycode (as all sites are currently displayed in 1.0.x). Whitelisting can also be seen in the dialog to allow sites to install software.

In order for us to display IDNs in a particular TLD, that registry concerned must have and keep a published policy stating which characters are permitted. If the set of characters contains pairs of homographic characters, the policy must specify a method to prevent two homographic domains being registered to different entities.

More reading:http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=6902http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/gerv/archives/008469.htmlhttps://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=286534https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=299927