Tag: firefox

• Popup Blocker UI is a yellow bar on top notifying the user. They can simply click on it to get a contextual menu with options. That’s good. XPI blocker is the same yellow bar, but you have to click on a button to get option. Should be 1 interface.
• When you save an image to a disk, there’s no need for the download manager. It’s bothersome more than helpful. People use the download manager to track download times. An exception should be large (>500k) images perhaps. But not all images
• Extensions, and Themes shouldn’t be listed separately in the tools menu. Should be 1 option. The dialog that opens should have 2 tabs. One for extensions, one for themes.
• While were at it, we should have one for plugins to, since people are confused about the difference between plugins and extensions. That’s a 3rd tab. Same format. about:plugins content, but formatted for consistency. No it’s not unnecessary duplication. look at about: and the about dialog.
• Smooth Scrolling should be enabled by default. This just ticks end-users off. They don’t see it.
• Download Manager gets slow as heck when it’s full of downloads (100+). This delay is annoying, especially with small files that should be done in the bat of an eye. Should notify user first time they exceed the threshold, and allow them to ignore (forever), or purge.
• Preferences (especially in privacy) should contain a little ‘?’ icon that opens up the help and takes them to relevant document ion, so they can make an informed choice should they want more info. Ideally, it should popup a specialized shortened detailed explanation of the option, and it’s consequences
• Viewsource should show line numbers. Goes good with “Go to Line” menu option.
• Auto-Update should have option to automatically install (at a minimum) security patches. As MIcrosoft learned, people aren’t inclined to do it themselves. Stuff like this can easily be automatic. We are asking for trouble if we don’t. People will still credit Mozilla as insecure, even if it is their fault for ignoring requests to upgrade. This should be a default, and warn if you disable it.
• When not using auto-update you should get a dialog clearly stating if it’s a security fix. Perhaps a different color.
• Wikipedia should be an included search option. Were looking to get end users. End users like searching stuff like that. We want them to have stuff they like. We aren’t Microsoft after all.
• A script as follows is in the page
  <script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript">

  var $x = ‘@’;

  var $a = ‘accettura.com’;

  var $r = ‘robert’;

  document.write(‘<a href="mailto:’ + $r + $x + $a +’" title="Email Robert Accettura">‘+ $r + $x + $a + ‘< \/a>‘);

  </a></script>

  When you view source of the page, you see:

  <script language="Javascript" type="text/javascript">

  var $x = ‘@’;

  var $a = ‘accettura.com’;

  var $r = ‘robert’;

  document.write(‘<a href="mailto:’ + $r + $x + $a +’" title="Email Robert Accettura">‘+ $r + $x + $a + ‘< \/a>‘);

  </a></script><strong><a href="mailto:robert@accettura.com" title="Email Robert Accettura">robert@accettura.com</a></strong>

  That’s not right. The output isn’t in my source. The script is. Only the script. Grr.

There bugs for some, no bugs for others. Feel free to link to relevant bugs, feel free to create bugs (cc me if you do), feel free to link to this post to advocate some things mentioned. Bla bla bla. Gripe, disagree, debate, as long as it’s peaceful, and done with an open mind…. you know the deal.

After some insanity, and some resistance, finally some reason. The two biggest mistakes have been avoided. Not only that, they come back better than ever.

And who says design through committee doesn’t work? This was a whole community debate, and in the end we got better than if either side “won”. Improved Style Sheet Switcher.

1.0 PR1 Candidates should be backing soon.

Jesse Ruderman as usual has a great list of change on his Bigger Picture page. Awesome resource for everyone, hard to beat the work that went into that list.