27202 - RFE:gecko object in navigator

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Core :: DOM: Core & HTML, defect, P3)

Description

[Henrik Gemal]

After seeing the new user-agent proposal what about a gecko property in the 
navigator object.

This property would give me the "GeckoVersion"

So if you have:
Mozilla/5.001 (windows; U; NT4.0; en-us) Gecko/25250101 
then
document.write(navigator.gecko);
would give me:
25250101

Perhaps even make gecko into a object so that you could do:
navigator.gecko.version

Comment 1

[vidur (gone)]

How important and useful is this information in actuality? Cc:ing Eric Krock to 
get a reaction. Also moving to M17, since it's a RFE.

Comment 2

[ekrock's old account (dead)]

WONTFIX. The developer can get the exact same information by parsing the 
userAgent string, and we'll be updating our client sniffer sample code to make 
this easy. It's true that it would a modest convenience not to have to parse the 
userAgent string, but:

1) we're less sure that set top box and device vendors would emulate 
navigator.gecko than that they'll comply with the userAgent string 
recommendation, so it's safer to tell developers to parse the UA string
2) we're in ship mode and have many, many higher priorities, so I don't want to 
dilute engineering time and attention with "nice to have" enhancements

Thanks for your input, though, and please keep the ideas coming!

Comment 3

[Prashant Desale]

Verified.