I almost never screw up a testcase. Almost. But, I screwed one up, on XBL, and sent a bunch of Mozilla VIPs on a wild-goose chase.
That hurts. Particularly since I take pride in making damn sure that I have a valid bug to file before I file one.
Even more embarrassing, I filed bug 117469 ages ago for almost exactly the same kind of bug, but which at the time was causing a crash. (Bug 231396 is the bug where I fouled up, and the similarities between the two bugs are startling...)
I'm ecstatic. The last one was absolutely wonderful.
No details yet; I heard about it from one Marcia Knous of the Mozilla Foundation via the project-owners@mozdev list. She's incidentally the one who announced the last one.
It's semi-official: we are going to have a Mozilla 2.0.
I'm happy about that, somewhat. Sure, the number itself doesn't mean a whole lot. But there's been a lot of work done since 1.0.
Given that we are indeed going for 2.0, maybe mozilla.org's contributors should consider adding new XUL (and XBL-based) widgets to the mix.
For instance, I'm working on an <xul:form/> element so that XUL can be a client-side user interface for a server-side application. XUL was originally designed to be the Mozilla chrome language, but HTML forms occasionally leave something to be desired. It's a worthwhile goal, I think.
Seriously, I'd like to start creating widgets in XBL+JavaScript which Mozilla App Suite and its child applications (Mozilla Firebird, Mozilla Thunderbird, Composer++ to name a few) can start using. I'd really like to see others contribute such widgets, and maybe we can get a few of them in for Mozilla 2.0.
There are of course good reasons to not add every widget we come across (think code bloat). But a few good ones would be beneficial. I invite you to comment not only on whether or not widgets should be added for 2.0, but also widgets you can implement (but not widgets you'd like to see and haven't got a clue how to do).
UPDATE: Turns out <xul:form/> wasn't such a bright element name, so, here is a partially tested demonstration XUL file for <xul:serverpost/>.
Probably won't work until Monday noon PST (thanks to bsmedberg for graciously hosting, though I had to fix a couple bugs and the corrected version won't be there until then)
SECOND UPDATE:
I filed Bug 231833 to implement this widget. Keep your fingers crossed...
There's three separate applets here, none of which is a full-fledged application. But it's getting closer...
One of them, mathOverlay.xml, I introduced here back in June 2003. So that hasn't changed.
The MathML_test.xul file is intended as a controllable user-interface for actually editing MathML expressions; the idea is that the selected overlay will replace a white textbox in the master expression, and the text in the master will go to the matching white box in the overlay.
The templateEditor2.xul file is the basis for a template, or overlay, editor. Ideally, contributors will write overlay templates for multiple human languages, multiple XML languages (SVG, or XHTML, anyone?), and simply multiple presentation templates for any one human-XML combination (translation: alternate texts).
Using parallel MathML markup, we can have one content MathML section cross-referenced to as many presentation MathML (or other markup languages) fragments as you desire (for your language and preferred wordage).
That's the concept. Implementation is taking a bit longer, and I'll probably have this file available on abacus.mozdev.org with documentation within two weeks. Please do play with it; it's offered under the Mozilla tri-license (MPL/GPL/LGPL) scheme. I just didn't put that in the files yet.
Warning: This may not work yet in your Mozilla. It depends on a patch which fixes XUL DOM's insertBefore and replaceChild methods (which are definitely broken)
The Open Source Convention has just put out a call for speakers at its 2004 Portland, Oregon event. As my parents live right across the Columbia River in Vancouver, WA, I'm going to be there.
For some time I've been working solo on a project to edit MathML in Mozilla, using an XUL interface. There's nothing released yet, but the (empty) site is at abacus.mozdev.org .
Basically I'm seeking advice on whether I should set up a session to talk about this project. My inclination is "yes", because MathML editing in Mozilla is something that would benefit a lot of technical people. Daniel Glazman (formerly of Netscape, and lead engineer for Nvu.org) has called the concept a "killer app".
I'd like your opinions as well. Is it worthwhile?