Javascript

Desktop Firefox added native support for a subset of the window.console API. It’s a subset in that only the following API methods are supported:

So much to do, so little time. My workspace is littered with projects I started but couldn’t find the time to keep going. It’s kinda sad and I do feel guilty.

Recently, we released Fennec Beta 3 for Maemo (Alpha 3 for Windows Mobile is very close). The new release has several internal changes that might be of interest to add-on developers - or people curious as to how the darn thing works.

Trying to debug problems in Fennec while running on a mobile device can be a pain. Using the JavaScript Error Console is one way you can track down problems, especially JS coding errors. Some applications, like Firefox, have a UI to launch the Error Console. Other applications don’t. You might not know this, but any Mozilla-based application automatically supports displaying and using the Error Console. Simply launch the application using the -jsconsole command line flag, and the Error Console will open.

Mozdev and Mozilla Europe have teamed up to create a Firefox Mobile (Fennec) Add-ons Challenge. The goal is to create or port add-ons to Fennec. You only need to propose a concept for now, but you’ll need to get the add-on ready for the upcoming Mozilla/Maemo developer weekend in Copenhagen on May 30-31.

Recently, we have seen good discussion on the W3C Web Storage specification. There has been some recent push back on the use SQL, in particular “SQL as SQLite defines it”, in the specification. Counter proposals have been popping up using JavaScript-ish APIs, many using JSON. Some of the APIs store the data as a JSON document or blob, even using the HTML5 localStorage/globalStorage system to persist the data. BrowserCouch and TaffyDB are two nice examples. Both are very JavaScript-oriented, client-side and offer some very nice functionality.

Felipe Gomes has been busy. We talked on IRC a short time ago about adding a gesture engine to Fennec. He made a video of the current version. The results are very cool. His work is being tracked in bug 476425. The engine is currently packaged as an extension, so you can play with it yourself. Just pull from Felipe’s repository and put the code inside your extensions folder in your profile.