IBM Donates Code to Firefox

OS24Ever writes "Internetnews.com is reporting that IBM has donated new DHTML code to the Mozilla foundation specifically targeted as accessability and rich interactive applications (RIA). These new features are expected to be in the next major update of Firefox (v1.5). Is this the first OSS application to get RIA/DHTML support for accessability? I would think this could open some doors for Firefox to replace IE in many Windows environments."

Comments

As a nerd...

[ErichTheWebGuy]

I would really love to see the code. It is in CVS yet? I am rather excited, since I have been working on several RIA things lately. Anyone seen the code yet? Or at the very least, anyone have a more specific list of new functionality?

Don't take your eye off the ball

[sentanta]

DHTML is certainly less annoying than 30 second flash intro's, but I want a simple,fast, non-Microsoft browser. I hope this doesn't become a bloated browser like Navigator became.

Re:Don't take your eye off the ball

[nmoog]

Hey hey, let's not bash Flash for being annoying. You can be equally annoying and stupid in DHTML too, you know.

Flash, MTASC, and ActionStep

[tcopeland]

Yup, I know, the Flash player isn't open source. But there's an open source compiler, MTASC (*), and with ActionStep, there's a rapidly growing (BSD licensed!) open source component library.

All sorts of nifty open source things are happening with Flash these days; you can track that sort of thing on OSFlash.

(*) Written in Ocaml, how cool is that? (**)
(**) Very.

"Optimized for IE"

[pommaq]

I'd certainly like for it to open doors but features like these won't really matter unless IE pick up on them, too. The sad reality is that most sites need to work 100% with IE and the attitude towards Firefox/Safari is "if the site's legible, then it's ok". Maybe it can get some headway in some specialized areas, libraries or job centers or some other place where accessibility is a real priority, I don't know. I do however know that the one and only thing that will help Firefox dethrone IE is browser stats. It needs to hit some serious percentage. Only then will people stop "optimizing" for IE and start building their HTML according to standards.

Great job on the DHTML patch, though! This sort of thing is why I use Firefox :)

I don't follow...

[Mr. Cancelled]

I would think this could open some doors for Firefox to replace IE in many Windows environments.

Firefox already adheres to standards better than IE, has a more rubust, and secure environment, and arguably provides a superior user experience to IE, and yet IE lives on... So why would some (arguably nice) DHTML addons make a difference?

I think the situation's kinda like this: Those who care, and/or are "in the know" are already using Firefox.

The rest of the users still left on IE either

1. Don't care (lazyness, "not my pc", whatever)
2. Are too intimidated by technology to go outside the little box they've created for themselves
3. Think IE's still the better browser

I suspect the bulk of the switchers have already switched, and the rest either will not switch until either their OS of choice changes (OSX anyone?), or they are faced with a computer-oriented crime which makes them paranoid about using IE (be it identity theft, stolen cc info, whatever)

So while IBM's gift is a "nice to have", I don't see it making a huge difference in the lives of the average IE user. Not at the moment, at least.

Re:But why did they do this?

[Soko]

My bet is that IBM is still dreaming of a day where the OS is irrelevent, since all your apps are Java based (perhaps even XUL based) and accessable through a standards compliant browser. IBM has a lot of expertise in this area, and stands to make a really nice chunk of change if customers migrate to this way of getting thier apps.

If Firefox gets above 10% marketshare and stays there, IBM should be able to do real damage to the competition by luring thier customers to more open solutions on the Firefox platform and marketing them as liberation from vendor lock in.

I'd buy into that, myself.

Soko

Re:Sounds like . .

[thc69]

In Firefox you can press the Ctrl+'+' key to zoom in and Ctrl+'-' key to zoom out.

I was ecstatic when I read this, but then I went to try it -- and it's only effective on text. Opera does it for everything, including pictures and even flash. I run 1280 on a 17" LCD, but when I want to show stuff to other people, or when I stumble across a small image/flash, I love blowing it up to a reasonable size.

Just last night I wanted to show my wife a picture of a Merkur XR4TI, so she'd understand why it was funny that Prinicpal Skinner on The Simpsons drives one...

Re:Anyone have a non-buzzword version?

[veg_all]

I believe I saw this code being demonstrated at a recent New York PHP meeting; the IBM guy was tabbing through a tree menu and the voice would say, for example, at what level down the tree the current focus was, the tag in question, whether or not the field was editable and the like. Far and beyond the functionality of, say, JAWS.

The demo was mainly focused on the "ajax" lirary which was a rapid-deployment web-app framework and the accessibility features were an aside, but it was pretty impressive. See here for the code and here for an example app.