Comments on: The Jetpack Debate

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:13:14 +0000

@Robert: a good comparison – certainly, JetPack should be able to do anything GreaseMonkey can, and probably more cleanly given the availability of JQuery syntax. I think it’s niche is a little higher than that, though – like I said before, it also compares well with IE8′s Accelerators, which allow very simple extensions to browser behaviour. JetPack is more capable than those too, but that’s till the space I see it in – good for writing simple browser hacks, not well suited to anything really sophisticated.

By: Robert

Robert — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:49:56 +0000

@Majken “Lucy” Connor: It does, but I think to a lesser degree. I’m not sure if I’d attribute it to market-hype flooding the iPhone ecosystem to a greater degree, or something else.

@Simon: I view Jetpack as more complementary (similar to Greasemonkey) because of pretty much that.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:42:46 +0000

This reminds me a bit of Valgrind, which also provides facilities for building program analysis tools. There are similar frameworks out there that make it really easy to write a really simple analysis tool. In Valgrind simple tools require a bit more effort. But really simple tools are boring, it’s the complicated/powerful ones that are interesting. And that’s where Valgrind shines in comparison to these other frameworks.

IMHO, the ability to write a really simple tool (or Jetpack) in 5 lines is overrated.

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:50:38 +0000

Yes, one thing someone else commented on is that the Jetpack extensions can only use features that have been exposed to it through APIs like jetpack.slideBar, whereas regular extensions can do practically anything. That may be a good security model, but would seem crippling to many of the extensions currently available.

That said, I’ve played with it a bit, and one thing is does* seem good for is simple ‘helper’ scripts. One of IE8′s nicer features is what they call Accelerators, letting you do things like select an address from a page, right-click, “map with live search” to show that address on a map. Or select some foreign-language text, right-click, “translate with live search” to get an English translation.

I think of them as “micro extensions” – a very simple addon, not requiring any sophisticated UI, and ideally, something that can be coded in a dozen lines or less. That seems to be a good match for the Jetpack model…

By: Majken "Lucy" Connor

Majken "Lucy" Connor — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:21:44 +0000

“There are indeed some great apps and I say that as an iPhone user myself, but for each great application there are 1,000 that aren’t worth the price (which is often free).”

I’m not sure how this statement doesn’t also apply to AMO…