Re: :wtf: How can this be so wrong??? (AKA the Discopocalypse thread)

anotherusername

@boomzilla said in How can this be so wrong??? (AKA the Discopocalypse thread):

@Jaloopa said in How can this be so wrong??? (AKA the Discopocalypse thread):

They really need an actual API

Or at least a way for plugins to identify which version they work with.

It worked so well for Firefox!

TwelveBaud

@anotherusername It worked reasonably well when the Firefox update tempo was every couple of months and you could reliably use Beta as a testbed for what next month's release would be like. It's only when they started doing Every Six Weeks, committed to breaking compatibility with each and every release, backported stupid bullshit all the time, Cascade of Attention-Deficit Teenagers-ed their plugin model three times, killed off ~~Aurora~~Developer Edition and suggested Beta as the new Generally Available (so there's no middle ground between ~~Minefield~~Nightly and "what users should run")...

blakeyrat

@TwelveBaud I liked it when they dropped the old PlugIn API and adopted the new one (which used to be called Jetpack, no idea what it's called now) in between two Long-Term Support versions. Meaning, if your organization used LTS versions, you had an overlap of zero days where both types of plugins would work with it.

What a giant middle-finger to every company that was trying to use Firefox in good faith.

TwelveBaud

@blakeyrat Jetpack was based on the old API and got jettisoned too when they switched to Chrome Extensions, now renamed WebExtensions.

Even for non-LTS users, there was an overlap of zero days where both types of plugins would work with it. While it was possible to wrap an old-style plugin wrapper around a WebExtension, the WebExtension API support was so terrible (and made worse by the wrapping) that there wasn't really much point.

anotherusername

@TwelveBaud I still remember the "None of your extensions will work anymore! But never fear, we'll help you search to see if there are replacements available" update.

That was pretty stupid. Especially since it had no way to automatically upgrade extensions when the same extension was already available as a WebExtension... it couldn't even find the extension automatically; you had to search for it by name.