1182625 - [meta] Rewrite commonly used/seen Firefox XUL pages in HTML, so they can be printed

Status: NEW

(Core :: Printing: Output, defect)

Description

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

This bug is spun off from bug 102485 comment #17.

For most of Firefox's existence, it hasn't been possible to print pages that have no web content -- for example the about:config page and (more recently) the Preferences page.  The reason is that these pages are written in XUL, and we've never succeeded in making those pages printable.

Some of these pages are heavily used by many people (for example about:config and Preferences), and it would convenient to be able to print them (or parts of them) -- if only to a PDF file.

We're on our way to deprecating XUL (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=&hl=en#!topic/firefox-dev/fStTYl4sxc8).  So we're not likely to be willing to spend any more time making XUL documents printable.  But (on the other hand) if we *do* "kill" XUL, we'll need to rewrite large parts of the browser currently written in XUL, presumably in HTML.

I suggest we start with the most user-visible of these resources, including the about:config and Preferences pages.

Comment 1

[Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) (use needinfo?)]

We could make this a meta bug for converting any current XUL-based content UI into HTML. Not just for printing, but because we want to deprecate XUL and move toward more HTML, as you mention in comment 0.

If that is a good plan of action, we might want to move this bug to Firefox, turn it into a meta bug and file some bugs for any about: page implemented using XUL. newtab and addons also come to mind.

NI to Dolske for some thoughts/direction.

Comment 2

[Justin Dolske [:Dolske]]

(In reply to Mark Finkle (:mfinkle) from comment #1)
> We could make this a meta bug for converting any current XUL-based content
> UI into HTML. Not just for printing, but because we want to deprecate XUL
> and move toward more HTML, as you mention in comment 0.

We could, or just file a new once specific to that purpose when we're able to focus on actually starting the work in earnest.