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Mozilla Launches Browser Built For Developers
HughPickens.com writes "Mozilla announced that they are excited to unveil Firefox Developer Edition, the first browser created specifically for developers that integrates two powerful new features, Valence and WebIDE that improve workflow and help you debug other browsers and apps directly from within Firefox Developer Edition. Valence (previously called Firefox Tools Adapter) lets you develop and debug your app across multiple browsers and devices by connecting the Firefox dev tools to other major browser engines. WebIDE allows you to develop, deploy and debug Web apps directly in your browser, or on a Firefox OS device. "It lets you create a new Firefox OS app (which is just a web app) from a template, or open up the code of an existing app. From there you can edit the app's files. It's one click to run the app in a simulator and one more to debug it with the developer tools."
Firefox Developer Edition also includes all the tools experienced Web developers are familiar with including: Responsive Design Mod, Page Inspector, Web Console, JavaScript Debugger, Network Monitor, Style Editor, and Web Audio Editor. At launch, Mozilla is starting off with Chrome for Android and Safari for iOS. and the eventual goal is to support more browsers, depending on what developers tell Mozilla they want, but the primary focus is on the mobile Web. "One of the biggest pain points for developers is having to use numerous siloed development environments in order to create engaging content or for targeting different app stores. For these reasons, developers often end up having to bounce between different platforms and browsers, which decreases productivity and causes frustration," says the press release. "If you're a new Web developer, the streamlined workflow and the fact that everything is already set up and ready to go makes it easier to get started building sophisticated applications." Mozilla released a teaser trailer for the browser last week.
Firefox Developer Edition also includes all the tools experienced Web developers are familiar with including: Responsive Design Mod, Page Inspector, Web Console, JavaScript Debugger, Network Monitor, Style Editor, and Web Audio Editor. At launch, Mozilla is starting off with Chrome for Android and Safari for iOS. and the eventual goal is to support more browsers, depending on what developers tell Mozilla they want, but the primary focus is on the mobile Web. "One of the biggest pain points for developers is having to use numerous siloed development environments in order to create engaging content or for targeting different app stores. For these reasons, developers often end up having to bounce between different platforms and browsers, which decreases productivity and causes frustration," says the press release. "If you're a new Web developer, the streamlined workflow and the fact that everything is already set up and ready to go makes it easier to get started building sophisticated applications." Mozilla released a teaser trailer for the browser last week.
I thought so too, but it's not. They link the previous announcement in TFS; this is the actual release.
I just kinda wish it was Chrome that came out with it.. In general I just prefer the layout of their development tools. I'll definitely give this a try though.
Hmm, the humour and sarcasm seem to have been be lost on you.
So, they're running Android and iOS on your computer to run the same binaries as those platforms? If not, it's only emulation and when someone says they're emulating another browser the result is usually not worth it and nowhere close to the actual results on the other platforms.
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Instead of developers fixing websocket traceability, they focus on making a new theme. Firefox has clearly too much designers. It's enough that every two or three versions the color of the developer console changes (and its design), and now an extra browser? I hope they don't transport the developer features into that browser, leaving firefox as a "customer only" product. When I was at places where I couldn't install software (libraries etc) I have been always happy to debug websites with the standard browser.
Yeah, how dare an organization that is, essentially, politically minded in the first place take a principled stand for acceptance, respect, and equality instead of falling on Eich's sword for him.
Also:
Yeah, fuck them for even thinking about changing the status quo. People should just accept their lot in life, even if that means they get shit on for no good reason. Just so long as you don't have to care!
Yeah, a better organization would defend bigotry and turn a blind-eye towards abusive behavior. /s
Now the Firefox team can remove all the developer crap from the regular browser.
Removing even the most basic JavaScript console from the standard browser would be a bad idea. It'd encourage some developers of prominent web sites to block users of the developer browser as a "security" measure. Facebook and Netflix, for instance, already block use of the JavaScript console out of "self-XSS" worries; removing even "view source" would make it even worse.
Please don't. Even non-developers are increasingly using the basic devtools to manage the modern web (defeating right-clicks, removing elements that get in the way, etc). And far more practically, the dev tools let devs diagnose bugs with users as they happen, without having to frustrate them with lots of extra steps that might lose their session entirely. At this point it would be like removing images from the browser core just because blind people have no need for them.
If the site needs Turing complete code, run it server side.
Under your proposal, how would a collaborative whiteboard work? Would users have to reload the page in order to see others' changes, and then click-click-click, reloading the whole thing every time as a submission to a server-side image map, in order to add lines to the whiteboard? Or ought the whiteboard to be released as a native application? That would exclude users of OS X, GNU/Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, because these systems can't run a Windows .exe.
Developers aren't marked from birth. The WWW took off because non-developers copied the html of various pages and made their own pages. Eventually some of them became developers. It's important to maintain at least some of these on-ramps.
I'm no web dev but I often view the page source (e.g. so I can download a video instead of viewing it in my browser) or use "inspect element" (e.g. to get rid of some bar at the top or bottom taking up too much screen or being too distracting).
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I'm most interested to see if this means the release will be without a number of firefox's more annoying features, for example will I be free to disable warnings about third party extentions, and turn off the annoying messages about apps going fullscreen? Those alone would make me consider using it full time.
I get the impression that much of this was integrated into the browser because half the criticisms of Firefox came from people who had tools like Firebug installed - itself infamous for bloating the footprint of any browser it was running in.
I seriously doubt any of the dev tools that come built-in to Firefox, Chrome, or IE are doing much if anything to bloat them. What I suspect is happening is that webdevs themselves are making use of features en-mass that are turning out to have some disastrous memory side effects - unconstrained closures due to widespead jQuery use would be a good example.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
He has a right to his beliefs, same as everyone else. An organization like Mozilla should be especially careful not to take sides on politics. Now they can legitimately be seen as a social justice organization. They now have a record of using someone's personal information against them. Who knows what person will be their next target or whether or not they'll use their software products to snoop on whom they perceive to be the enemy. There were plenty of people on the left who didn't like what happened because it is very much counterproductive. A free and open Internet isn't served by this kind of behavior.
We still use a Firefox 24 install for debugging GWT.
http://www.gwtproject.org/miss...
An organization like Mozilla should be especially careful not to take sides on politics.
Even when one of the sides is obviously wrong? Good 'ol dose of false equivalence?
Ah, so now Mozilla is responsible for the actions of others? Or do you have evidence that Mozilla (the corporation) took action against Eich? As it stands, Eich chose to step down of his own volition and there's no evidence against it.
Given Eich wasn't opposed by Mozilla, I don't expect anyone will.
And now we delve into paranoid bullshit territory.
What they have "released" is just the Aurora channel with the Dev Tools theme covering all the browser.
Everything else seems to be just the same that it used to be, the only improvement is the ability to run it side by side with another Firefox profile but if you used work with Aurora like I did, all this means that you must go back to the beta channel to keep an usable Firefox with a normal UI (after applying the Classic Theme Restorer)
Their "mobile emulator" is quite simple, I don't understand why anyone would like to use it to debug Chrome on Android instead of using Chrome on their computer as it has better tools and surely it will always be integrated better.
And for CSS tweaking I prefer to use Firebug or even the IE11 dev. tools thanks to its great CSS Changes pane.
If you think FFOS development is bad, I'd hate to see what you think about Android development!
Required reading for internet skeptics
Cue the "we're being oppressed!" Pac-Man pie-chart...
I love how people in the majority pretend that they're an oppressed minority to make themselves feel more important. Look, we get it. Despite having every advantage, you still can't compete with people who are significantly disadvantaged. That's got to make you feel terrible. I'm so sorry.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Native applications of course.
A halfway decent programmer would make your "whiteboard" cross platform.
Use of native applications leads to three roadblocks, and I'd be interested in how you would recommend to solve each:
Or if you're a really shitty programmer, you use a virtual machine language like java.
Is there a way to get an application onto Xbox 360's Xbox Live Indie Games or Windows Phone 7 at all without using a virtual machine language?
It's imperative that when I develop, that I'm developing and testing using the same browser an end user will have. Introducing differences where you have a developer and a non-developer browser is a bad idea.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Even when one of the sides is obviously wrong?
That's your belief. It's not shared by everyone, or even the majority. In fact, most places that have voted have voted against your opinion. It's only some of the courts that are in your favor, and that kind of lawmaking from the courts should be abhorrent to all of us.
That's not even the point. It could have been any political issue. What was done by activists in getting him removed was completely inappropriate.
Eich didn't stand down on his own, he was forced to. We all know it. He didn't accept the job and then just suddenly change his mind. He was forced out. Rather than take a long battle through the courts, he walked away to move on to something else, rather than get stuck on this issue for years. He's the only one involved that had any dignity.
As for paranoia.. no. If they are now in the business of social activism, they cannot be trusted. CA law states that workers cannot be punished for political donations, but that didn't stop anyone. There is no reason to believe that they would not go data mining for other people to punish under the mantra of "progress". Their organization and their products are toxic.
Actually, they hid Aurora and went back to one of the older square layouts!
I had to use Classic Theme Restorer to add back a couple of minor buttons and colors though.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
No, I care about free speech and people's right to privacy. I don't see that Mozilla did anything to keep Eich in place and they allowed things to get out of control to the point where he couldn't continue. He was under fire from people within the organization just as much as he was from the likes of OkStupid. There were people there that posted about it, that they were too scared to speak up within the organization because they didn't want to be next. Are you assuming they were all shameless opportunists too? That's the atmosphere he was faced with. Mozilla failed. Eich was taken out by friendly fire as well as by the liberal propaganda machine. The fact that I'm still pissed about it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
I might not like their partnership with Google, but it's a valid business decision. Letting Eich's situation go the way it did is not valid and is 100% against a free and open Internet. To act like this is no big deal is shameless.
If you want to have a real conversation, stop posting as AC. It's rude.
They should have stood up for their CEO and their organization. It's painfully obvious that being seen as a social justice organization is not good for them. They have alienated a good number of people. Attacks like this do not serve to protect a free and open Internet. Mozilla should have explained this in plain terms. You can disagree with the man's opinion in his role as an individual, but it should not spill over into his workplace. You say he still commits code, why hasn't OkStupid gone after him again then? Because it had nothing to do with his role, it was a personal attack. The liberal machine knocked him off a high perch and that's all this was ever about. Mozilla let it happen.
You want to know what they could have done? Read up on "Arthur T DeMoulas". He was a CEO of a supermarket chain here in New England. He was fired from his position in a power grab, and the employees walked off their jobs for weeks on end to defend him. They stood by their CEO even as it cost them their livelihood, because they believed that much in what they were doing and believed so much in their former CEO. They ultimately won. What happened to Eich should not have happened, and it could have been stopped.
Frankly, you prove my point. If what you hint at is true, that Mozilla was unable to rally their workers to defend their CEO, then that validates the general opinion that Mozilla is, in fact, an organization in pursuit of social justice. It may not be in the mission statement, but it's in the heads of the people working for them. Hence my point that their brand is toxic, and so is their software.
Now run along AC, go sign up for an account. They're free. Fortunately, Dice doesn't shun people for their political beliefs.
Just for the record, I just today quit FFOS development because of mnt's comment.
I joined just so I can see why you are all quitting..
The GUI is very bad. Black on black, nearly no contrast... I'm back to Pale Moon.
Oh, and why is there no migration path between old sync and new sync? It's just a new authentication, everything under the hood is the same. If i run Pale Moon (old sync) and Firefox (new sync) i cannot have both of them, i'm forced to choose.
If you think FFOS development is bad, I'd hate to see what you think about Android development!
Android development is why i quit my job and moved on to something more sane.