MCBastos wrote:
Interviewed by CNN on 18/06/2011 14:59, Rufus told the world:
No, I don't think you're understanding *me* - I'm not interested in the
Mozilla technology, I'm interested in the Mozilla *feature set*. Big,
subtle difference in that I'm thinking as a user and not a coder, and I
also realize this means a *new* product.
What I want is the Mozilla feature set brought to iOS...which is why I
now have the Atomic browser on my iPad. It's as close as I can get.
The thing is, the feature set on Firefox and Seamonkey is completely
dependent on the Gecko engine. The user interface is ran by the browser
engine, not by the operating system. That's what allows writing such
powerful browser extensions, for starters. Gecko was designed from the
start to offer this functionality. Webkit does not offer it, and that's
why Safari and Chrome extensions are comparatively simpler.
What you are asking for would be an entirely new product, built from the
ground up, reusing very little existing Mozilla/Seamonkey code, made to
mimic superficially the Seamonkey features. I say "superficially"
because, even if it looked like Seamonkey, it would be unable to run
extensions -- because those extensions depend on Gecko to run.
Not only that, they depend on one specific version of Gecko to run, which is why
you can't just change the max version in some init file for some things and have
them work with 2.1. Unlike languages like C or FORTRAN, or an OS like Linux,
tomorrow's interface may not be a superset of today's, so things have to be
rewritten just to work as well as they did, taking time from fixing bugs and
adding new features.
That this works at all is a credit to the hard work and talent of the people on
the project, which I personally think should be renamed from Seamonkey to
Sisyphus to reflect eternal chasing of a spec you don't control. :-(
--
Bill Davidsen <[email protected]>
We are not out of the woods yet, but we know the direction and have
taken the first step. The steps are many, but finite in number, and if
we persevere we will reach our destination. -me, 2010
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