Like any other major software project, Firefox 1.5 has bugs. It's a sad, unavoidable fact of life. And because I'm a bit cheap, I use Microsoft's free command-line compiler. Unfortunately, Firefox 1.5 in a pure state won't compile with it.
Thanks to Mook via #developers for pointing out to me bug 241528. Unfortunately, it didn't get approval for the 1.8 branch. Even if it had been requested once the patch received r+sr, though, there probably wouldn't have been enough time. RC3 (which became Firefox 1.5) was spun from the 1.8 branch just four days after the patch was checked into trunk. With the extended, absolute-zero freeze in place, it was pretty unlikely to get approval and land on branch, even if someone had tried. Too bad no one thought to request a blocking flag a few months ago.
I'm actually not upset about this, and I don't want anyone out there to be. I'm writing this blog entry for information. It's my own fault I used a compiler that isn't tier 1, and is pretty much unsupported. It's also my fault for never compiling Firefox on this machine before. I'm disappointed, sure, but I'm pragmatic. So the product didn't compile without an extra patch. The patch was readily available, I was pointed to said patch in ten minutes, and it applied cleanly. In open-source, you can't ask for much better than that.
This blog is just for your information, ladies and gentlemen who are also cheap BOFH's and PFY's. If you're using the free Microsoft compiler (2003 series) on a Mozilla Firefox 1.5 tree, watch for this patch.
That is all.
For all the people who busted their butts on Mozilla Firefox 1.5, thank you. This isn't your fault; it's nobody's fault. Sorry to rain on your parade with a little compiler failure. Firefox is guarding the henhouse just fine.
Posted by WeirdAl at November 29, 2005 11:27 PMWeirdAl, did you try setting up the latest Visual Studio 2005 Express edition ? It's free.
(From Alex: Not yet, although that is definitely on my to-do list!!!)
Posted by: Caleb at November 30, 2005 6:26 AMChris: actually, that's sorta not true. The trunk will have Gecko developments, but the branch (or another branch?) will have Firefox 2.0 development, most of which will be in the front end and not in Gecko. It's not absolutely clear what's going to be happening -- I suspect they'll be discussing this in greater detail during next week's meetups -- but there's definitely still merit in being able to build the 1.5 codebase long-term.
Besides, there probably are people who want to have the experience of building Firefox themselves without also having to run unstable trunk code. That group will be pretty small, but it won't be non-existent.
Posted by: Jeff Walden at December 1, 2005 7:08 AM