canmove, Confirmed users, Bureaucrats and Sysops emeriti
1,093
edits
DevTools/RoadmapJune2011: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 45: | Line 45: | ||
With that in mind, we do want Firefox to be a developer-friendly browser out-of-the-box. For a web developer, a browser without tools is useless. Every build of Firefox (Nightly, Aurora, Beta and final releases) should have functional tools. | With that in mind, we do want Firefox to be a developer-friendly browser out-of-the-box. For a web developer, a browser without tools is useless. Every build of Firefox (Nightly, Aurora, Beta and final releases) should have functional tools. | ||
Beyond just ensuring that tools are available, we want to provide some tools that offer "task-oriented" user interfaces. While it's important to dump the available information in some UI so that a web developer can figure out whatever they need to, we think the software can go farther to give the user direct solutions to common problems. | |||
More specifically, | More specifically, we aim to ship | ||
* Easy-to-use tools for diagnosing and correcting problems with page styling | * Easy-to-use tools for diagnosing and correcting problems with page styling | ||
| Line 62: | Line 62: | ||
# assist users in making good tradeoffs when they need to support older browsers | # assist users in making good tradeoffs when they need to support older browsers | ||
Most web developers are given constraints concerning which browsers they must support, with some developers saddled with a requirement to support a | Most web developers are given constraints concerning which browsers they must support, with some developers saddled with a requirement to support a decade-old browser. If we can help developers both provide support for the browsers they are required to support ''and'' take advantage of newer browser features, we will be making the web a better place. | ||
This won’t be easy, and I won’t even dive into specifics on how to do this here. I’m writing this as a guideline that we can apply and one more thing to think about as we design new tools. | This won’t be easy, and I won’t even dive into specifics on how to do this here. I’m writing this as a guideline that we can apply and one more thing to think about as we design new tools. | ||
| Line 82: | Line 82: | ||
The rapid release cycle adopted after Firefox 4 enables us to get new features out the door every 6 weeks. This is a huge change from a Firefox 4-style cycle and will enable us to iterate and improve built-in tools much faster than before. | The rapid release cycle adopted after Firefox 4 enables us to get new features out the door every 6 weeks. This is a huge change from a Firefox 4-style cycle and will enable us to iterate and improve built-in tools much faster than before. | ||
For experimental new tools, we will consider releasing the tools as add-ons first to get fast feedback. Once the tool is stable and appears to have broad appeal, we'll bring it into the product. | For experimental new tools, we will consider releasing the tools as add-ons first to get fast feedback and iterate on a cycle that is even faster than 6 weeks. Once the tool is stable and appears to have broad appeal, we'll bring it into the product. | ||
## Empowering Web Developers ## | ## Empowering Web Developers ## | ||
| Line 94: | Line 94: | ||
# Roadmap # | # Roadmap # | ||
We're nearly halfway through the year as I write this, so I will report on how the first half has gone and | We're nearly halfway through the year as I write this, so I will report on how the first half has gone and our plan to move forward in the second half of the year. | ||
## Looking back ## | ## Looking back ## | ||
In Q1, our main goals were to ship Firefox 4 with the Web Console and | In Q1, our main goals were to ship Firefox 4 with the Web Console and ensure that a Firefox 4-compatible version of Firebug was shipped at the same time. We hit those goals. | ||
We also released the "Workspaces" add-on which later evolved into Scratchpad, a feature in Firefox 6. | We also released the "Workspaces" add-on which later evolved into Scratchpad, a feature in Firefox 6. | ||
During the first quarter, we also | During the first quarter, we also came to an important realization: the Add-on SDK (Jetpack) is not the best platform at this stage for the kinds of tools we're building. It's great for extending the browser experience, but not the best vehicle for making tools that dive deep into the Firefox platform and run with every release. We wanted to spend more of our time building tools at this stage and less time on infrastructure, which is what the Add-on SDK would have needed to support our tools. So, we changed gears and started developing tools as standard Firefox features. | ||
With that new plan in hand, we went to work building new tools and improving the Web Console. The Firefox 7 Web Console is considerably more refined than that of Firefox 4 and the "console" object provided to web pages is now in line with the de facto standard. We also have a collection of tools to help developers work with the styling of their pages that will be shipping soon. | With that new plan in hand, we went to work building new tools and improving the Web Console. The Firefox 7 Web Console is considerably more refined than that of Firefox 4 and the "console" object provided to web pages is now in line with the de facto standard. We also have a collection of tools to help developers work with the styling of their pages that will be shipping soon. | ||
Finally, the Firebug 1.7.2 release is compatible with Firefox 3.6, 4 and the upcoming 5. Firebug 1.8 is due around the time of Firefox 5's release and is | Finally, the Firebug 1.7.2 release is compatible with Firefox 3.6, 4 and the upcoming 5. Firebug 1.8 is due around the time of Firefox 5's release and is compatible with Firefox 6 and possibly 7 as well. | ||
## Looking forward ## | ## Looking forward ## | ||
| Line 117: | Line 117: | ||
* mobile compatible versions of core tools (the Web Console, styling and performance related tools) | * mobile compatible versions of core tools (the Web Console, styling and performance related tools) | ||
These are substantial new areas that we will push into. We will also continue to add features to the tools built in the first half of the year. We will seek | These are substantial new areas that we will push into. We will also continue to add features to the tools built in the first half of the year. We will seek opportunities to start improving the developer experience for Jetpacks and Apps. | ||
Work has already started on getting Firebug ready for e10s and remote access, and we will continue giving priority to having a great Firebug experience with each Firefox release. | Work has already started on getting Firebug ready for e10s and remote access, and we will continue giving priority to having a great Firebug experience with each Firefox release. | ||