Command Lines and the Future of Firefox 360
Barence writes "Mozilla has revealed how it plans to integrate plain text commands directly into future versions of Firefox. Dubbed Taskfox, the move sees Mozilla's Ubiquity project become part of the browser itself, allowing users to type commands directly into the address bar. You can, for example, type 'map cleveland street london' to bring up a Google Map of that location, or 'amazon-search the great gatsby' to find that book on Amazon, without visiting the website directly. 'The basic idea behind Taskfox is simple: take the time-saving ideas behind Ubiquity, and put them into Firefox,' the Taskfox wiki claims. 'That means allowing users to quickly access information and perform tasks that would normally take several steps to complete.'"
Official bookmark shortcuts (Score:4, Insightful)
Sounds like AwesomeBar 2.0 (Score:1, Insightful)
I hope it can be turned off.
Already doing that (Score:3, Insightful)
I would very much like... (Score:4, Insightful)
... for Mozilla to keep their filthy commands out of the address bar. They could easily add that to the search plugin bar without any problems. I had enough trouble last night when I was trying to troubleshoot a neighbor's internet connection issues and Firefox would repeatedly send the perfectly valid address (http://192.168.1.1) I was inputting off to a google search, which of course would return a blank page, since the ultimate trouble was the cable modem, not the router nor the connection to the router.
There needs to be a gigantic "FUCK YOU, LEAVE ME ALONE, LET ME SURF THE WEB AS THE FLYING SPAGHETTI WEASEL INTENDED" button in the settings.
That sounds like it should be an add-on (Score:5, Insightful)
Screenshot from article [mozilla.com]
The idea is interesting, but wouldn't this be better served as an add-on? That would keep Firefox true to it's add-on roots, IMO.
Return of the command line (Score:5, Insightful)
over the past 20 years I've been amazed at how the IT world first started scorning command lines (IE the rise of Mac, Windows and GUIs in general) only to come back to them (IE Mac OS X / spotlight / Quicksilver, Windows / launchy, smart address bars, and the increasing amount of people who started using Linux with Ubuntu and are nwo flocking to the command line).
This just proves what i'd known all along: command lines are more efficient, and although the learning curve might be a bit steeper, they just kick ass for things you have to do repeatedly. You of course learn the commands and then whiz by all those people whose motor skills barely allow them to use the mouse, yet they insist in their clickety-clickety ways.
Many operations are easier with a GUI but getting rid of the command line altogether (mac OS 1.x-9.x, I'm looking at you) is/was never a good idea.
Re:Sounds like AwesomeBar 2.0 (Score:5, Insightful)
Because new == bad [tvtropes.org]
We know.
No, seriously, at least give it a chance to be useful. Your prejudgment seems unwarranted, unfounded, and unnecessary. I know I'll at least try it out before either ignoring it or destroying it.
The article doesn't explain why this is necessary (Score:5, Insightful)
Users can already do that with the search text field. Example1 [google.com]. Example2 [google.com]. This new feature doesn't appear to bring any new value to the user over what is already provided.
I'd really like to see Mozilla spend one release where they stop working on new features and focus solely on fixing bugs. The results of such an effort would be more valuable to the end user.
What's next, an email client and html editor? (Score:5, Insightful)
.
If I wanted bloat I would use IE.
Firefox Redux? (Score:5, Insightful)
When Firefox was created, it was a spinoff of the Mozilla project for people who wanted 'just a browser' with extensions to fill in the rest.
Part of me wonders if it's time to do that again: spin something new off of the Firefox project for people who want 'just a browser' with extensions to fill in the rest. Firefox has done a lot of good, just like Mozilla before it, but it seems to me like it's starting to suffer from the same bloat-over-standards problem that made the original project necessary in the first place.
Maybe this is a cyclic thing; I don't know. Perhaps it's just plain going to be necessary to do this every few years: when a Mozilla browser gets too large, a lean child project emerges, eventually takes over, bloats up, and another lean child project emerges, and so the cycle continues.
Re:I would very much like... (Score:3, Insightful)
That sounds like a lie. I just tried what you said in FF3 and there was no problem. ip address, with or without a preceding http:// takes me to wherever it points, no google search.
Are you sure you're qualified to handle one of these machines?
Re:Already exists? (Score:3, Insightful)
Well Firefox is doing it, therefore it is innovative and cool and must be newsworthy. No one cares about us Opera users. We're such a minority.
But this does appear to be more robust than that. I use the hell out of it in Opera. It's really nice that you can set up custom ones, too.
Re:Even better (Score:3, Insightful)
Those things are right in your face when you use a browser, but if I can filter out certain things deep in a configuration setting or my registry, that'd be gold. Mainly, I want to be able to "show" someone a website without having to hammer out a URL really fast.
[rant]WRT other accounts, I've got plenty of computers that other people could (and do) use for general web browsing/what have you, but I've gotten sick of explaining to people who simply can't fathom how profiles personalize computers for their users that I don't want other people using mine and logging out of websites like myspace or facebook or igoogle and so on... It's like getting in your car and finding all the seats and mirrors moved around, but apparently I'm the only person I know who gets royally pissed off by that kind of stuff. [/rant]
what happened to firefox being a bare bones base (Score:3, Insightful)
Mozilla has revealed how it plans to integrate plain text commands directly into future versions of Firefox. Dubbed Taskfox, the move sees Mozilla's Ubiquity project become part of the browser itself, allowing users to type commands directly into the address bar.
ummmm...what happened to firefox being a bare bones base that you'd add your own addons to?
Re:Return of the command line (Score:3, Insightful)
This just proves what i'd known all along: command lines are more efficient, and although the learning curve might be a bit steeper, they just kick ass for things you have to do repeatedly.
I would say it differently: command lines are better or more efficient for some things. Trying to do those things with a mouse may make it easier for people who don't know how to do the same thing in a command line, but someone using a command line can sometimes do the same thing more quickly and easily. On the other hand, some things are better handled by those clickety-clickety ways that are used by people who favor a GUI.
I'm not sure we're disagreeing, but your post seems to focus on how it's a bit silly to try to get rid of the CLI, but without recognition that it's also silly to try to get rid of the GUI.
Stupid, stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not just BUNDLE SOME FUCKING PLUGINS, rather than ignoring the whole plugin-based architecture you've set up?
If you could do it just fine as a plugin, bundle the thing instead of removing the feature of not having it
Re:screenshots (Score:1, Insightful)
I was quite sad when they stopped including quick search bookmarks with the default installation of firefox. Having wikipedia search built in (and not from the search box where I have to explicitly set it, with the mouse no less!) to my friend's computers, the library computers, etc was so nice.
I just can't resist...I'm sorry (Score:2, Insightful)
Uninformed bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What's next, an email client and html editor? (Score:3, Insightful)
unneeded integrated features have more overhead than uninstalled add-ons.
Re:I was so excited, for like ten seconds (Score:3, Insightful)
Some things are very easily communicated by pointing & grunting. ("Please pass the salt", for example.) Other things are very hard to express by pointing & grunting, and require the expressiveness of compose-able grammatical elements. Your experience with the most crude machine and command set has blinded you to the latter.
Irritating (Score:3, Insightful)