Australis-Why doing visual refreshes of Firefox is hard

[itisomegakai]

Australis

Why doing visual refreshes of Firefox is hard

http://www.gijsk.com/blog/2014/04/why-doing-visual-refreshes-of-firefox-is-hard/

[Frank Lion]

Why doing visual refreshes of Firefox is hard

http://www.gijsk.com/blog/2014/04/why-doing-visual-refreshes-of-firefox-is-hard/


How is any of that any different from making a third party theme?

Well, I'll tell you how it's different, in addition to all of the above, Complete Themes -

#1. Don't have the luxury of a having a purpose made theme for each platform, as default does, and have to incorporate all platform differences within the one theme, via OS specific manifest flags + OS specific coding.

#2. Many themes maintain backwards compatability and so work not just with the current version, but also previous Firefox versions. Sometimes UI changes are quite radical and so that has to be dropped.

#3. A number of current third party themes out now, not only have to work on Firefox 29, but on 30 and 31 as well.

#4. These themes are made in anything from 2 days to 2 months. Certainly, none take years.

#5. Most theme writers, unlike those working on default, only have personal access to 2 OS (Win + Linux) platforms and maybe 2 Windows versions. Additional info is provided by betatesters, who also relentlessly test the theme UI in endless combinations.

#6. Unlike Mozilla employees, theme writers do not have a cushion of anonymity and collective responsibility between them and the user, but are personally responsible.

All in all, it’s been an interesting first year as an employee at Mozilla (I started April 1st, 2013)

#5. Third party theme writers and their betatesters do not get paid. Well, the theme writers on AMO don't.

Why doing visual refreshes of Firefox is hard

Indeed. Why not try your hand at creating and making a third party theme sometime?

However, I would advise you, graphics and coding skills alone are not sufficient, you will also have to be one mother of a disciplined, ruthless and determined SOB to do it right.