Re: [tlug] Learning to Program

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 07/08/07, Simon Cozens <simon@example.com> wrote:

> I think for cross-platform GUI application development, [XUL]'s the least
> bad platform out there.

Well-put. :)

> The real problem is that a lot of heavy stuff you need to do comes
> through XPCOM, and some of the standard XPCOM components aren't
> particularly well documented.

Ah, I've never encountered any problems that big in my relatively
minor FF/TB hacks.

> (On the whole, though,
> developer.mozilla.org and xulplanet are fantastic resources.)

+1

> Grovelling through find Mozilla source - which is
> often the only way to work out how things like the notification system
> work

Yeah, but thank God that we have access to the code, right? :)

> Thunderbird is even worse. I had to write my own tutorial on how to GET
> THE TEXT OF A FRICKIN' EMAIL
> (http://simon-cozens.org/programmer/articles/thunderbird-js.pod) because
> the internals documentation of even very simple stuff is non-existent.

Agreed. I ported Rikaichan[1] to Thunderbird about a year ago, and it
took a trivial amount of effort... once I spent three days reading
source code to figure out what Thunderbird calls everything. Contrast
to my Firefox development, which has been fall-off-a-log-easy.

> If you're doing very simple stuff, it just works, and it's lovely. When
> you get onto more complicated stuff, expect to spend three times as long
> searching the web as programming.

Agreed. Have you tried any of these books? I found all of them useful
to some extent:

http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Application-Development-Mozilla-McFarlane/dp/0131423436/
http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Firefox-Hacks-Customizations-ExtremeTech/dp/0764596500/
http://www.amazon.com/Firefox-Hacks-Tools-Next-Generation-Browsing/dp/0596009283/

The first book on the list is probably the best, though it is a bit
dated now, and the author unfortunately passed away last year, so no
hope of a second edition, unless you and I write it. ;) [2]

Have you seen this book, by any chance?

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Firefox-Building-Internet-Applications/dp/0596102437/

It looks good, except that it has 2.5 stars on Amazon.com, which is
giving me serious pause.

Cheers,
Josh

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2471
[2] But not really. If you feel like writing an XUL / XBL / XPCOM
book, count me in for a couple of chapters or more! :)