The future between Pale Moon and WebExtensions

General project discussion.
Use this as a last resort if your topic does not fit in any of the other boards but it still on-topic.
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This General Discussion board is meant for topics that are still relevant to Pale Moon, web browsers, browser tech, UXP applications, and related, but don't have a more fitting board available.

Please stick to the relevance of this forum here, which focuses on everything around the Pale Moon project and its user community. "Random" subjects don't belong here, and should be posted in the Off-Topic board.
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frostknight
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Re: The future between Pale Moon and WebExtensions

Unread post by frostknight » 2025-05-02, 10:41

Moonchild wrote:
2025-04-30, 19:53
I was talking about platform support, as in, not being able to run them/have them interface with the browser. Not "providing support for them"
Oh, okay I guess I misunderstood and I guess I did go on a rant too...


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sinfulosd
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Re: The future between Pale Moon and WebExtensions

Unread post by sinfulosd » 2025-05-06, 21:25

moonbat wrote:
2025-05-02, 01:07
I wonder if one could use AI code generators to convert web extensions to XUL ones though.
I tried doing that, only for me to face A LOT more bugs than not knowing what can I do with them (I wasn't even creating an extension from scratch, I was just updating an old extension on Pale Moon up to the latest upstream Webextension version of it, and no, it's not uBlock, but it's an extension that is much lighter and simpler). It seems that these "AI code generators" just copy some code from stackoverflow.com and paste them onto the chat, which, of course is not going to be compatible and it's gonna be like a variation of frankenstein spaghetti code. Most of these "AI code generators" aren't completely aware of Pale Moon's UXP technology and how it functions, so don't try your luck in asking it how can it write a .xul file that would not crash, the moment you open the browser with it.

I'd say you could give these AI models another year to mature more, but in this year frame, you could do your research to know more about coding XUL extension and you'd STILL do a much better job than whatever the AI models could do the next year.
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Re: The future between Pale Moon and WebExtensions

Unread post by suzyne » 2025-05-06, 21:50

Off-topic:
sinfulosd wrote:
2025-05-06, 21:25
I'd say you could give these AI models another year to mature more
Wouldn't the AI models have already absorbed up (stolen!) all the knowledge about XUL? I don't know, but would they ever improve their output about a topic that they aren't getting significant on-going new feedback about?
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sinfulosd
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Re: The future between Pale Moon and WebExtensions

Unread post by sinfulosd » 2025-05-06, 22:44

suzyne wrote:
2025-05-06, 21:50
Off-topic:
Wouldn't the AI models have already absorbed up (stolen!) all the knowledge about XUL? I don't know, but would they ever improve their output about a topic that they aren't getting significant on-going new feedback about?
Off-topic:
Some of these models are able to access RealityRipple's MDN archive, which is a sign of them achnowledging that such technology exists and currently being used for Pale Moon. I assume that, in the current time, their ability to develop a Webextension has little to no hassle, in comparison to developing a XUL extension, but that's because the amount of resource online on how to develop Webextension is much more than developing a XUL addon (You'll be finding a lot of outdated resources about XUL addon development anyways). The AI models know the difference between UXP and Webextension, it knows what to replace Webextension APIs if you'll write XUL extension, but it is not yet to be reliable in making them.
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