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Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 07:40
by Moonchild
Reading through the planned features if Firefox 17, now in beta, a number of features are listed that may or may not make it into this version.

Pulling some easier description from Softwarecrew:
The most exciting development is “Firefox Social Integration”. This is Firefox’s attempt to better integrate social networking tools into the browser. Planned changes include integrating social notifications and a share/recommend service into the main toolbar, plus developing a dedicated sidebar for news feeds, tickers, buddy lists and so on. Also planned is a docked or floating window for integrating chat – including video and audio.

Also undergoing development in version 17 is an improved display of Location Bar results as the user types words into it – some changes have already been implemented, and can be found in version 16 of the browser, namely no separator line and search terms highlighted in grey rather than marked in bold. Features still being developed – and not yet visible in v17 – include larger icons, the ability to delete search results by hovering the mouse over them and the removal of the scrollbar.

The final new feature under development in version 17 is the addition of extra features to the HTML Tree Editor, which currently only allows users to delete nodes via the Page Inspector’s HTML pane.
Now, let's line this up with Pale Moon's approach:
  • Social integration: As mentioned before, this is not part of Pale Moon's goals - in addition, the list of integrated social services will probably be very short, and biased towards "the big few", further snowing under less mainstream alternatives. If people want extra social UI buttons, they can make their own choice in the plethora of social add-ons, so this does not belong in the core.
  • Awesome bar changes: grey instead of bold - and this makes the search terms stand out more... how? You'd want to highlight the search terms, not make them less visible. The "weak grey" background is hardly highlighting, but I guess Mozilla is afraid to use any color these days. Already present in v16, so not new for 17.
  • Awesome bar changes: No separator line - not sure why this is a big deal. Already present in v16, so not new for 17.
  • Awesome bar changes: Larger icons - why? People are going to want to focus on the text when searching.
  • Awesomebar changes: No scrollbar - so, I gather you can only page through results with the arrow keys then; how cumbersome :P
  • HTML tree Editor update: More web developer tools that people never use...
  • Ionmonkey planned: This will be early stages and probably buggy as hell. Ionmonkey was pushed back to v18, apparently.
And that's all there is to it. Result: No,no, ?, ?, no, n/a and not yet.

So.. Am i inclined to look at the Firefox 17 code base, reading this? Nope.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 08:23
by dark_moon
So we wait for firefox 18.

Don't need a social integration or more unused developer tools. I have all tools.

Thanks mozilla, so Moonchild you have more time to optimize pale moon with VS 2012 :) and maybe a MailNews update to 16.0.1

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 09:40
by stravinsky
More UI changes :lol: :clap:
Well done mozilla. :evil:

Those 'features' are complete bullshit. except for ionmonkey, that is.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 10:41
by Night Wing
Social integration in a browser doesn't make a browser safe in my opinion. This is strictly a nod for Facebook and nothing more. Facebook has been hacked at least once that I know of so why would a company put social integration into a browser which will make their browser unsafe? The only logical explanation which I can think of off hand is "money", but the Mozilla head honchos have already put out the public relations spin on the "exciting aspects of social integration", but this feature is a deal breaker for me. Exciting........my a$$. :x I wonder how much Facebook is paying Mozilla to put this social integration crap into Firefox?

I'm hoping there will be a way to disable (turn off) this social integration feature in Firefox via "about:config". I'll have to look on YouTube or ask the power users on Mozillazine if this feature can be turned off. If it can't be turned off, then version 16.0.1 of Firefox will be the last version of Firefox, which is my backup browser on both of my two computers, I'll have on both of my computers. I did this exact same thing, when it came to the hated "new Data Manager" which I despise with a pink purple passion and which SeaMonkey put into (v2.1) and later versions. This is why I still have the old and outdated SeaMonkey v2.0.14 on both of my computers because I like the "old data manager" in this version.

Like I said in my first paragraph, it's a deal breaker for me which will cause me not to update to a v17 of Firefox. This is why I update my bowsers via the installers and always keep two browser installers for Pale Moon and Firefox in a browser folder on my Desktop. In case I mess up and update to a browser I dislike, I can revert back to the last version of any browser I did like. Just back up my bookmarks and make a new profile.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 13:28
by Rohugh
If Mozilla feel that incorporating social integration and all the other extra crap stuff then it is fine with me, they are obviously looking at appealing to the widest user base possible and I hope it works for them. I have Fx as a back up browser and it is interesting to see how it goes and the changes they make, I am certainly not going to slate them for the changes, Fx served me well for a good many years and had it not been for finding Pale Moon (which suits my needs much better) I would probably still be using it.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 13:48
by Moonchild
I just honestly don't understand why they would want to spread so thin across different disciplines. I don't slate them either for the direction they are going in, it's just not what I think is wise, nor what I think is suitable for Pale Moon. Heavy focus has been given to Firefox for Android (Google OS). Also heavy focus has been given to redesigning the interface to be more like Google Chrome (with Australis pending to make this complete). Social integration will probably have (very) a short list of providers with Google+ a prominent member. It's clear who is footing the bill and determining these directions, IMNSHO. It currently seems to be a battle between Mozilla-forged developments (e.g. IonMonkey) and Google-instigated developments (like the ones stated above).

Now, to be clear: there is no hate towards Google as far as I'm concerned, nor Mozilla (apart from frustration about the things and arbitrary removals I have to revert for Pale Moon), but I simply don't see a glorious future for Firefox if things continue to go in the direction they are going now. The Firefox code base is already very complex, and adding more and more miscellaneous things on top of it will make things increasingly unstable. It may eventually also lead to "locked" base code because too many things would depend on a certain module or library, preventing further improvement.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 14:40
by stravinsky
Moz corp is short on manpower. They cant afford to do heavy focus on evertyhing. They are focussing a lot on FF for android and B2G (which is based on FF18 code)+ the ever present Rabid schedule. No wonder quality goes down, with lesser number of meaningful patches per release.
Snappy was supposed to be a short-term, stopgap measure for the "project electrolysis". But now, it has taken a complete life of its own, with no end in sight.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-12, 17:03
by tribaljet
Social integration? There are both addons and browsers dedicated to that, so no thank you.

I find basically all Awesome bar changes to be detrimental to productivity. And I already set icons as small as possible to get more screen real estate.

Having no scrollbar is as severe as when Mozilla decided to entirely remove the status bar. What were/are they thinking?

Ionmonkey does look interesting, though.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-13, 00:51
by megaman
Scrolling with a pan hand like Acrobat Reader? Ouch.
No scroll bar, surely aimed at Fennec, but oh wells.

I love the improvement on IonMonkey, although I agree that it is unstable.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-13, 01:03
by lyceus
Really Mozilla team want to hijack their product with tons of non wanted or needed changes like these ones. XP

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-13, 04:49
by Ryrynz
Benched 17 beta a little and it was slower than 17 alpha, figured things went this way. Only thing to look forward to this year now is VS2012 PM 15.3/15.4 as 18 is released after xmas.
Is there a time frame on the XP patch for VS2012?

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-13, 06:06
by stravinsky
^ file a bug, if you found performance regression in the 17 branch. Moz devs are actively hunting regressions.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-13, 10:30
by Moonchild
Ryrynz wrote:Is there a time frame on the XP patch for VS2012?
No word yet, I'm waiting for it.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-14, 00:21
by Ryrynz
stravinsky wrote:^ file a bug, if you found performance regression in the 17 branch. Moz devs are actively hunting regressions.
Not sure mentioning a 5% performance drop in xyz html5 benchmark from 17 alpha to beta is really going to help.. I tend to notice this while performance testing alphas anyway, they're usually faster except Firefox 18 and 19...
they're pretty bad ATM.. Pale Moon wipes the floor with them in benchmark results, One thing tho..I use a fair amount of plugins and it lags in Gmail bigtime, just switching between emails, deleting, marking as read.. laggy as hell.
Firefox 18 with ionmonkey however is a DAMN sight better and I'm quite looking forward to it, Firefox is finally getting good.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-14, 04:46
by stravinsky
^
File a bug. Add the profiler trace, if possible.The devs can decide if its important or not.

Re: Firefox 17: First look at planned features

Posted: 2012-10-20, 12:13
by Ryrynz
VS2012 update coming in November