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

To IBM

[Hey_bob]

Thanks for supporting Open Source, and thanks for supporting Firefox.

-Random Person.

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.

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.

IBM == Good code.

[vidarlo]

Usually IBM has got good code, so there is hope that this will make a better browser. Certainly, it will be a great merit for firefox. Branding IBM code is a quality sign in my eyes, and might lead to wider acceptance of Firefox, as IBM seems to have noticed the browser.

Re:IBM == Good code.

[Bogtha]

Usually IBM has got good code

It's worth noting that IBM built one of the most popular browsers for blind people, IBM Homepage Reader, which is currently based on Internet Explorer. Perhaps this is a move to help them switch to Firefox in the future?

I can't help but point out though, that in a landmark website accessibility case, SOCOG were fined A$20,000 for not having an accessible website for the Sydney Olympics. Guess who built their website? Yup, it was IBM :).

Magic Eight Ball says...

[DragonHawk]

From the Slashdot article:

OS24Ever writes "... I would think this could open some doors for Firefox to replace IE in many Windows environments."

Yah, and with a nick like OS24Ever, this person is obviously the perfect choice for making predictions about the acceptability and potential for success of a product.... ;-)

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. I'm a former OS/2 user and licensee myself. "Blue Spine" all the way, baby.)

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:Maybe.

[lpangelrob]

Did you specifically avoid reading the summary?

...specifically targeted as accessability and rich interactive applications (RIA)

You know, code that will help make Flash and its lookalikes accessible to people who maybe can't see or hear?

That's most likely what the poster of the story intended when he/she speaked of being able to "replace IE in many Windows environments."

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...

This is a problem which plagues Mozilla overall

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried to write a firefox extension over this summer and was absolutely shocked by the degree to which firefox-related documentation either doesn't exist or is completely inadequate and disorganized. The solution for every problem of this sort seems to be to point you at source code, and expect you to puzzle out for yourself what meaning the programmers intended that code to have. The ONLY instructions on how to create a firefox extension are an open source demonstration extension on the blog of someone unconnected to firefox-- an extension which itself has few comments and no documentation, you're just supposed to use it as sample code. While there is something to be said for learning by example, this just doesn't work as the sole form of information. You find yourself immediately hitting two problems:

1. At some point you're going to need to know how to do [X random thing] that your sample code doesn't already do. Your only options at this point are to start scouring the internet for firefox extensions, looking for extensions which do something kind of like what you want to do, and then looking at their source code to see how they did it; or mercilessly bother the IRC channel until somebody who's already done this comes by
2. At some point, inevitably, you're going to hit a point where the sample code deceives you! All code contains implicit contracts. You cannot learn those contracts simply by looking at source code. Without documentation to make those contracts explicit, you are left either breaking contracts-- and thus your entire program, when some other part of the program expects something to be X at a certain time when it is in fact Y-- or doing a crazy kind of cargo cult programming, terrified to change anything unless you break the magic incantation that makes the component or preferences or whatnot system recognize your existence. I lost about two weeks on my project because I looked at the sample code, saw it always did a certain thing a certain way, concluded I could do the same thing the same way elsewhere, and was entirely ignorant as to the fact that there was another file in a totally different part of the package which I had to modify for every instance of this specific thing. What this meant was that I made extremely simple alterations to the file I was working on, and the entire extension broke-- for no reason I was aware of-- because I had accidentally caused a mismatch between the file I was working on and a totally different file.

And this is just for extensions, a VERY common thing many people have done. As I started to poke my nose into more intricate and obscure things-- say, components-- I found the amount of available information on how to proceed went from inadequate to absolutely nonexistent. I can only imagine what you are going through trying to embed the entire engine.