Mozilla is ...
- An open source project with thousands of contributors
- The makers of the Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email client and XULRunner development platform
- A global effort to promote choice & innovation on the Internet
- The foremost advocate for users on the Web
Mozilla is ...
Committed to Free and Open Source software. Some projects Mozilla has contributed:
- Cairo graphics
- SQLite
- Dojo
- Perl
- OSL
- OpenBSD and OpenSSH
- GNOME accessibility
- many others...
Firefox Numbers
- 150+ million users worldwide
- 21% worldwide (28% european) market share [xiti monitor]
- 2,500+ community-contributed extensions
- 47 languages (and growing)
- 1,600+ contributors to code base
- 1,000s of volunteers and evangelists
- 150+ employees
Prism is ...
- Single purpose web browser
- Host for desktop-enabling web applications
- Built on the Firefox (Gecko) rendering engine
- Experiment into new browser directions
Prism is not...
- General purpose web browser
- Proprietary stack of technology
- Full-privilege runtime
Desktop-Enabled Web Apps
- Use some OS convenience features
- "Fit in" to the user's model for applications
- Interact with local data and other applications
Who's Who
- Numerous XULRunner and Webkit wrappers
- WebRunner / Prism
- Bubbles
- Fluid
- Adobe AIR
Basic Ideas
- Separate process
- Minimal UI
- Simple & easy desktop integration
- Open external links in browser
- Platform for customization
Possible Features
- Build on a solid framework
- Launch & run in isolation
- Specialized icons and shortcut support
- Popup (toaster) alerts
- Dock (& badging), tray support
- OS dependent CSS styling
- Local drag/drop and file handlers
Don't Hurt the Web
- Web is a powerful platform
- Web is an open platform
Identify and facilitate the development of enhancements that bring the advantages of desktop apps to the web platform
Firefox 3, A Web App Platform
- Offline and Storage capabilities
- New DOM methods
- JSON support
- JS1.8 features
- SVG and declarative graphics
Firefox 3, A Web App Platform
- Performance
- Numerous JS improvements
- Rendering and Graphics
- Adding native support
- Improved timer support
- Better GC scheduling
- SVG filter optimizations
- Over 300 performance related bugs fixed
- Memory
- Reduce memory consumption and allocations
- Use a faster / better allocator
- Better at releasing unused memory
- Better at running for long periods of time without spiking memory
- Over 300 memory related bugs fixed
Firefox 3, Future
- JS2 / Tamarin
- 3D Canvas
- video / audio support
Desktop Enable, Don't Hurt the Web
- Specifying icons for shortcuts
- Specifying CSS for OS styling
- Push data to the browser chrome
- Support other popup alert notifications
- Register local file handlers
Example
<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/whatever.jpg"/>
<link rel="shortcut.icon" title="32x32" href="icon32x32.png"/>
Desktop Enable, Don't Hurt the Web
- Specifying icons for shortcuts
- Specifying CSS for OS styling
- Push data to the browser chrome
- Support other popup alert notifications
- Register local file handlers
Example
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="win32" href="win32.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="linux" href="linux.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="mac" href="mac.css">
Desktop Enable, Don't Hurt the Web
- Specifying icons for shortcuts
- Specifying CSS for OS styling
- Push data to the browser chrome
- Support other popup alert notifications
- Register local file handlers
Example
// too specfic
window.prism.setDockBadge("10");
// more generic
window.desktop.postMessage("10", "unread");
Desktop Enable, Don't Hurt the Web
- Specifying icons for shortcuts
- Specifying CSS for OS styling
- Push data to the browser chrome
- Support other popup alert notifications
- Register local file handlers
Example
// too specfic
window.prism.showGrowlNotification(...);
// more generic
window.desktop.popupAlert(...);
Desktop Enable, Don't Hurt the Web
- Specifying icons for shortcuts
- Specifying CSS for OS styling
- Push data to the browser chrome
- Support other popup alert notifications
- Register local file handlers
Example
window.desktop.registerContentHandler("application/vnd.ms-excel", "http://url/for/upload");
Links
- Prism Wiki - Starting point for Prism information
- Firefox 3 for developers - What's new in Firefox 3
- Planet Mozilla - Mozilla related blogs and information
The End
