On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Myk Melez <m...@mykzilla.org> wrote: > Nicholas Nethercote > 2018 March 9 at 20:02 > > What's your definition of XPCOM? > > This is basically what I'm asking Kris. I define it as the system that > Firefox uses to make intra- and inter-language calls between C++ and JS via > XPIDL and XPConnect. I'm interested in what else it provides that makes it > so indispensable. > > Look in xpcom/, there is a ton of stuff in > there that is unrelated to XPIDL... > > Indeed, but that doesn't tell me how much of XPCOM would remain essential to > Firefox if we no longer used XPIDL. > > For example, XPCOM supports component registration and overriding at > runtime. But it isn't clear that Firefox needs those features, now that it > no longer supports XUL extensions (unless perhaps for system extensions).
Just a quick note on this point - we shouldn't make any special concessions for system add-ons (or any other Mozilla-published add-ons like Test Pilot, Shield Studies, etc). Legacy add-ons kept us in a confusing compatibility bind for many years, so I want to make sure nobody feels that they need to be careful to preserve any form of compat here. While the overall compat story should be much simpler as everything continues to migrate over to WebExtensions, there will still be the possibility of bundling experimental WE APIs inside add-ons published by Mozilla (which contain chrome-privileged JS code). The authors of these add-ons will continue to be responsible for ensuring that the release(s) of Firefox they are targeting can support their needs. That said, there are tests for in-tree system add-ons (in browser/extensions/) so any potential bustage for add-ons that implement Firefox features (activity stream, screenshots, pocket, etc) can be quickly found and fixed. > And xpcom/ contains a ton of stuff, as you say. But it isn't clear how much > of it is core to XPCOM and how much just happens to live in that directory. > > I'm not playing the devil's advocate. I'm genuinely curious about the extent > of XPCOM's feature set (and how well it aligns with Firefox's current > requirements). > > -myk > > > _______________________________________________ > firefox-dev mailing list > firefox-...@mozilla.org > https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/firefox-dev > _______________________________________________ dev-platform mailing list dev-platform@lists.mozilla.org https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-platform
