581119 - Make firefox the default application for cfx

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Add-on SDK Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

XULRunner was selected as the default application for cfx to ensure that developers didn't inadvertently introduce firefox-specific code into code that didn't absolutely need to run on firefox. This was in light of previous mistakes that had been made in Labs projects along these lines, which made it harder to port experiments to other Gecko-based apps like Thunderbird.

However, it's rapidly becoming apparent that Firefox is the primary platform that the Jetpack SDK is being developed for, so much so that many developers frequently run into problems when they forget to add "-a firefox" when running cfx. We might want to just make it the default, although this certainly doesn't mean that supporting other apps is irrelevant--bug 560716 is still a priority, for instance.

Defaults are meant to support the most conventional/common use cases; developing Firefox addons seems to be the most common use case for the Jetpack SDK, so it should probably be the default.

Comment 1

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Note also that changing the default will likely mean changing some SDK documentation, too.

Comment 2

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Attachment: patch for cfx, but not docs.

Comment 3

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Comment on attachment 459517 [details] [diff] [review]
patch for cfx, but not docs.

Myk, any thoughts on this?

Comment 4

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Comment on attachment 459517 [details] [diff] [review]
patch for cfx, but not docs.

I totally agree! f=myk

I would just list firefox first in the list of apps to run.

Comment 5

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

Atul: what does it mean that the patch is not for docs?  Doesn't |cfx docs| always open the documentation in a browser instance?  After all, it doesn't seem like opening it in XULRunner would be particularly successful.

Comment 6

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Nah, I just meant that I remember, when writing the tutorial and other parts of the initial SDK docs for 0.1, mentioning specifically that XULRunner is the default app, and telling users to use '-a firefox' if they wanted to use Firefox instead. If those docs are still in there, we'll need to change them to reflect the changes in this patch so users don't get confused.

Comment 7

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Would be great to get this in the next release. Are you going to update this patch w/ the doc changes?

Comment 8

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Sure, I can bust that up. Assigning to me now.

Comment 9

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Attachment: display firefox first in list.

Comment 10

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Attachment: fixed cfx-tool.md docs to reflect new default app.

Comment 11

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Attachment: more documentation changes.

Comment 12

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Attachment: fixed xul-extensions.md docs.

Comment 13

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Comment on attachment 462818 [details] [diff] [review]
fixed xul-extensions.md docs.

Noelle, can you review this? The functional fix is a one-line change and has been reviewed by myk, so this is mostly a documentation update.

Comment 14

[Noelle Murata]

Comment on attachment 462818 [details] [diff] [review]
fixed xul-extensions.md docs.

Looks good!

Comment 15

[Atul Varma [:atul]]

Thanks!

Pushed:

Bug 581119 - Make firefox the default application for cfx (r=noelle, r=myk)
Atul Varma
http://hg.mozilla.org/labs/jetpack-sdk/rev/1dd02c9af542

Comment 16

[Myk Melez [:myk] [@mykmelez]]

The Add-on SDK is no longer a Mozilla Labs experiment and has become a big enough project to warrant its own Bugzilla product, so the "Add-on SDK" product has been created for it, and I am moving its bugs to that product.

To filter bugmail related to this change, filter on the word "looptid".