Mozilla Introduces Browser-Based WebIDE

mpicpp (3454017) writes with word that Mozilla released a full development environment integrated into Firefox (available now in nightly builds). From the announcement: Developers tell us that they are not sure how to start app development on the Web, with so many different tools and templates that they need to download from a variety of different sources. We’re solving that problem with WebIDE, built directly into Firefox. Instead of starting from zero we provide you with a functioning blueprint app with the click of a button. You then have all the tools you need to start creating your own app based on a solid foundation. WebIDE helps you create, edit, and test a new Web application right from your browser. It lets you install and test apps on Firefox OS devices and simulators and integrates the Firefox Developer Tools for seamless debugging and inspection across those devices. This is a first step towards debugging across various platforms and devices over WiFi using open remote debugging APIs. The default editor is based on CodeMirror, but the protocol for interacting with the IDE is open and support for other editors (Emacs anyone?) should appear soon.

Comments

Yes! Youtube video! HTML5!

[Anonymous Coward]

thanks

IPE

[fph il quozientatore]

Ah, the inner platform effect at its finest.

Re:IPE

[Anonymous Coward]

But does it run Emacs?

Re:IPE

[Sockatume]

I don't think that applies given that the IDE is for the web, not the browser. This is more like a digital photo frame shipping with a photo editing package. Which is kind of worse, because at least the inner platform ships users the tools they need to make the product itself better.

Re:IPE

[ChunderDownunder]

Well, Firefox OS doesn't include thunderbird, including instead an HTML5 'app' for mail.

I've only played with it in the simulator but with a simple css reskin, they could add a multi-pane view for tablets and the desktop. :)

So YouTube example is your own XXX app?

[TrollstonButterbeans]

YouTube video has developer labouring away making an XXX app ...

Bloat !!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh ffs. Firefox is supposed to be a browser. Put the web IDE in it's own product. This is going to introduce yet more attack vectors and bugs into the code.

Firefox *really* needs forking to follow the original vision. Make a fast, lean, controllable web BROWSER. Not a bloody operating system. Not a bloody IDE, not a bloody whizz bang collection of crud.

Developers suck. They get something to a good point and every single time they tinker and fiddle leading to bloated, unusable, resource hungry, insecure crap.

Re:Bloat !!!!!

[NotInHere]

This is going to introduce yet more attack vectors and bugs into the code.

They won't write it natively, but in js+xul. Won't add much security relevant bugs.

Re:Bloat !!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

So the WebIDE is bundled into every download of FF, but at same time they are moving every single feature a normal browser user uses into extensions or at most, into "about:config" -ui?!! I now have a one extension which provides the "hide tabs when one tab is open" -functionality, another to move tabs below the address-bar and to hide the other Australis-crap. Likely there will be need for yet another extension on FF 31, but the dev tools used by ~0,000001% of the FF userbase are always included. Great.

Re:Bloat !!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh ffs. Firefox is supposed to be a browser.

Are you sure? Because I'd swear that all the stuff they have been removing lately is stuff related to it being a browser. You know, all the things that we get told we need to install an ad-on for. And of course we already know that the next version is going to break that ad-on once again.

Firefox, the development environment. With the option to install a bunch of ad-ons that turns it into a browser.

Re:Bloat !!!!!

[TheDarkMaster]

You picked up a very bad example. It is perfectly possible to make very good applications using VB6 when you know what you're doing, and the same goes for any other programming language. But when you have a "script kiddie developer", he will make trash code in any language.

Re:Bloat !!!!!

[NotInHere]

If this wasn't /., I'd have fed you... Doh!

Re:Bloat !!!!!

[ArcadeMan]

What they're doing is adding an 18-wheeler, a backhoe and a bulldozer to a kid's tricycle.

RIP firefox, lean and fast

[martin-boundary]

We hardly knew ya. Too bad you learnt nothing from your dad, Netscape.

Re:RIP firefox, lean and fast

[colfer]

That's long gone. The download (29MB for win32) is now larger than Seamonkey (20MB). At least half the development is focused on mobile and other projects. Thunderbird and Seamonkey have no paid developers. I assume the mobile products do have to be lean and fast though. That's been the big turnaround in browsers, back to small screens, low memory and slow chips!

As for desktop. Still a good browser, needs one process per tab. Still good to have a compliant rendering engine besides Chrome. Still good to have privacy and security policies competing with Chrome.

Re:Antitrust...?

[colfer]

Not that.

Right now this protocol is useful for Firefox Desktop, Firefox Android, and Firefox OS. But we aren’t stopping there. We’re working on a protocol adapter that will allow clients using the Firefox Remote Debugging Protocol – including the Developer Tools and WebIDE – talk to all mobile browsers, regardless of rendering engine or runtime. Our first targets are Chrome for Android and Safari on iOS.

Nescape Composer anyone?

[Giorgio Maone]

Netscape Composer, A.D. 1997.

Mozilla II

[kimvette]

Mozilla.org is very quickly expanding Firefox to becoming Mozilla II. Remember when the suite was split apart into its various components, leaving Firefox a very lightweight-but-extensible browser, and Thunderbird a lean and mean yet also expandable email client, and if you still wanted the monolithic build you downloaded Mozilla instead?

Not any more. Firefox is very quickly edging its way toward becoming a heavyweight web development suite again. I think if users want that, they will either install the Web Developer extension or maybe just go straight to installing the Mozilla suite. Why are they "bloating" Firefox again instead of making the IDE an optional add-on via extensions?

Re:Mozilla II

[Tridus]

Because the people that run Mozilla seem to have no idea what Firefox users actually want. That's the only explanation I can come up with for what they've been doing.

decouple and load dynamically with minimal impact

[amn108]

I think we would all agree that code bloat goes beyond web browsers, it's a problem for every piece of software, a problem from the future, waiting to happen, somewhere there along the development timeline, when someone with insufficient life wisdom decides for yet another feature, and as features become less related to the core functionality of the original product, the code bloat becomes more of a nuisance.

Since the psychology of developers can hardly be changed fast, especially the inexperienced ones (wisdom does not equal competency here - you can contribute to libevent, but not have a clue about the kind of wisdom I am talking about), I think another solution is necessary.

This solution is to at least try to decouple the features from the core product in such a way that these do not impair loading and runtime times, can be distributed/added/removed separately and generally do not impact the core product. Dynamic library loading, etc - all these things can be used with good measure to combat perceived bloat. But we still need to educate each other on these things.

The good and related principle of high-cohesion low-coupling should also be applied.

My point is, in itself, a gazillion addons is not a problem, as long as a person not wanting one single addon can use the product to their satisfaction where mere existence of plugin/addon/dev-IDE system does not impact his experience negatively. And it shouldn't - if you can load libraries on demand, you can decouple the IDE from Firefox, so that people who never heard of it or do not want it, can live in blissful ignorance of its mere existence.

Priorities

[alexo]

How many FF users want this WebIDE? It's built-in.
How many FF users want a status bar or tabs not on top? Must use an add-on...