Mozilla Jetpack, an API For Standards-Based Add-Ons 42
revealingheart writes "Mozilla Labs have released a prototype extension called Jetpack: An API for allowing you to write Firefox add-ons using existing web technologies to enhance the browser (e.g. HTML, CSS and Javascript), with the goal of allowing anyone who can build a Web site to participate in making the Web a better place to work, communicate and play. Example add-ons are included on the Jetpack website. While currently only a prototype, this could lead to a simpler and easier to develop add-on system, which all browsers could potentially implement."
Cough*Chrome*cough (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:What? More ways to hack a browser? (Score:5, Insightful)
Just what we need - more ways to mess up a browser. I thought we were supposed to be working towards standards not adding more extensions!
The idea *is* to use standards! People already make add-ons, they might as well be interoperable too.
Does this not make sense to you?
-Taylor
got xul? (Score:2, Insightful)
They just re-invented Greasemonkey (Score:3, Insightful)
I think they just re-invented Greasemonkey. But not well.
At least with Greasemonkey, there's a well-defined language. It's all Javascript. This thing seems to have some horrible mess of intermixed Javascript, CSS, and HTML. Plus it has JQuery built in, and a special symbol ("$") for it. (For a moment, I thought I was reading Perl.)
Having done some non-trivial work with Greasemonkey [sitetruth.com], I'm not sure this thing is a step up.
Re:They just re-invented Greasemonkey (Score:4, Insightful)
1 Mozilla uses Javascript for all addons, so I guess they have some idea of it.
2 You can't program native UI-Elements with Greasemonkey, and even if, they would live inside the website as Greasemonkey is more for "patching" existing websites.
Browser addons should survive a website navigation.
This thing seems to have some horrible mess of intermixed Javascript, CSS, and HTML.
This is called the web.
Re:They just re-invented Greasemonkey (Score:2, Insightful)
That may be a valid criticism, but "For a moment, I thought I was reading Perl" indicates ignorance of JS in general?