Blair’s Brain And Other Unfocused Things

Status update

Bit of a weird week - very busy, but not a lot of coding.

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• UI works better now
• Initial work on proper integration into nsPlacesAutocomplete

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Finish autocomplete work
• Preferences UI
• More unit tests
• More unit tests
• More unit tests

Target for next week

• Finish autocomplete work + preferences UI

Binding for untrusted text in security dialogs

Status

• No change

Miscellaneous

• Had my first day as a Sheriff on Tuesday - worked out pretty well
• Also had my first security review on Tuesday, for the Plugin Update Awareness project  - that went pretty well too
• New Windows box arrived on Wednesday - now running Windows 7 as my main OS
• Working on moving all my development over to Windows

Reflections

• Having the right tools can make a difficult job into a trivial job
• Pizza and coffee are always the right tools

Status update

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• Refactored
• Experimented with strategies for implementing different UIs in the URL bar

Loose ends

• Should tab matches be weighted differently? Need to experiment & discuss

Next steps

• Solidify UI work
• Flesh out autocomplete matching behaviour
• Experiment with weighting tab matches

Target for next week

• Implement keyword & mode to match only tabs

Binding for untrusted text in security dialogs

Status

• No change

Reflections

• When life gives you lemons... give life to Lemonstein!

Status update

My cat ate my homework last week. So this week you get double update goodness.

Tab matches in Awesomebar

Status

• Started working on project
• Read through a lot of previous work and feedback
• Proof-of-concept code done, matching Limi's design

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Turn proof-of-concept into a real patch

Target for next week

• Refactored
• Start proper integration into places autocomplete and related prefs

Binding for untrusted text in security dialogs

Status

• Started working on project (low priority)
• Read background information

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Gather more information

Target for next week

• Discussions with Jesse and Johnath

Miscellaneous

• More miscellaneous wanted bugs for 3.6 (and some not).
• Worked on patches for bugs 435726 and 397937, which have been a personal annoyance for a long time

Reflections

• Technology, like biology, has a word for stable: dead

(Quote from Mike Shaver)

Status update

Oops, forgot about last week's status update. Usually when that happens, I catch it on Monday; so the rest of the world sees it appear on Sunday. Anyway, here's last week. In retrospect, it was a much calmer week.

Plugin Update Awareness

Status

• Everything has smoothly landed on branch and will be in Beta 1
• Blogged about it - read it here if you haven't already
• Closed project

Miscellaneous

• Working on various blockers/wanted for 3.6

Reflections

• To learn is to live

Firefox 3.6 knows when your plugins are out of date

You may have noticed that both Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.0.14 will warn if an outdated version of the Abobe Flash Player plugin is installed.

Outdated Flash warning

This is because old versions of plugins can cause crashes and other stability problems, and can also be a significant security risk. But this was just one of the first important steps in providing a safer and more stable experience when using plugins.

Additionally, the awesome WebDev team have been developing a Plugin Check web page that will look at all your plugins, and warn you which ones are out of date and therefore potentially have security or stability issues. And since finding and installing an updated plugin can also be tedious, that page will also provides a link to the latest version of each outdated plugin. They're still testing to make sure the majority of plugins are detected correctly, so are asking for your help in testing it. You can help out and try it yourself, by visiting https://www.mozilla.com/plugincheck/

Firefox 3.6 will have this integrated to make sure users know when they have an outdated plugin installed, without having to manually visit the Plugin Check page. Whenever you load a page that uses a plugin that is out of date, you'll get this warning:

Clicking on "Update Plugins..." will bring you to the Plugin Check page. Additionally, the Plugins tab of the Extension Manager (Tools -> Add-ons) will indicate which of your plugins are out of date. You can also get to the Plugin Check page from there.

This is in the latest nightly builds of Firefox (trunk and branch), and will be in Beta 1. Since the Plugin Check page is still being tested, and not yet available via the main mozilla.com site, the URL that the nightly builds of Firefox have is to a non-existent page. This will of course be fixed once the Plugin Check page has had more testing.

Updated 30/10/09: Changed the URL for the Plugin Check page to point to the production-version.

Status update

Plugin Update Awareness

Status

• Landed on trunk
• Small fix needed in bug 520295 (awaiting review)

Loose ends

• Once the URL of the plugin update page is finalised, the pref may need updating (bug 520444)

Next steps

• Land bug 520295
• Fix/close bug 520444
• Land on branch
• ???
• Profit!!!

Target for next week

• Blog about this (hopefully today)
• Get everything landed on branch

Miscellaneous

Blockers/wanted fixed on trunk:

• 519486 - Some themes are illegible with the text shadow implementation
• 467601 - long bookmark names (page titles) will hide tagging icon and tags' text in location bar dropdown list (overlaps, covers up)
• 432213 - Bookmark dialog position incorrectly when bookmarking frame
• 468881 - Save Frame As… option appears when not necessary in File Menu

Reflections

• Mistakes are only bad if you fail to learn from them

Status update

Plugin Update Awareness

Status

• Been through a couple review iterations so far, patch is getting more and more solid
• More unit tests
• Fixed potential pref regression on startup
• Liaised with QA

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• More unit tests
• Refactor the mess in browser.js

Target for next week

• More unit tests
• Fix outstanding reviewer comments

Reflections

• Don't blindly trust comments in code
• I need to get better at estimating how long the review process will take
• I work faster when its not raining

Status Update

Plugin Update Awareness

Status

• Parts of the patch have been reviewed - things are being fixed as reviews come in

Loose ends

• Waiting on review of changes in the plugin module

Next steps

• Fix things based on reviewer's comments

Target for next week

• Finish review process

Reflections

• *ah-choo!*

Status update

Eep, I forgot about this on Friday. Better late than never!

Plugin Update Awareness

Status

• Implemented in-page notification
• Implemented startup check and opening on webpage
• Wrote unit tests
• Submitted patch for review

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Fix stuff that comes out of review, if any

Target for next week

• Close project

Taskfox

Status

• Passed the reins to Labs for more Labsy iteration

Reflections

• Spaghetti tastes good, but spaghetti code doesn't

Status update

Plugin Update Awareness

Status

• Filed bug 514327
• Strings landed for toolkit string-freeze today
• Backend done
• Integrated with extension manager
• Integrated with update checker (Help -> Check for updates)
• Started integration with in-page notification

Loose ends

• None

Next steps

• Update the wiki page
• Finish in-page notification
• Implement startup check and opening of webpage
• Tests
• Catch up with how webdev is progressing

Target for next week

• Finish everything and get review

Taskfox

No change.

Reflections

• Not all assumptions are temporally stable
• Working at the beach makes for a very relaxing hacking session