The Tinsmith wrote:
Well, I moved on to 'what' over 2 years ago now and not regretted it once.
And yet you still maintain your Themes and are active here. I am impressed.
Normally I wouldn't reply to that, simply because there would be no need to.
However, on this occasion I will expand on this, as it may well give people an insight into the mindset of many theme and extensions authors (or 'devs, if you insist) and thus how many view this latest stuff.
#1. Loyalty - I have zero loyalty to any software program that I make themes for (I've done a few minor extensions as well). Maintenance-wise, yes, it is helpful if I also personally use a program, but it is not essential. To me, this is purely a graphics and intellectual exercise for myself.. Same applies for my Linux OS themes and 'commercial' stuff that I am asked to do.
My only loyalty and responsibility is to my users, both en masse to ensure that come program version Release that they have a fully working and tested version of my stuff ready to go and also individually, i.e. the old guy who can't see too good and would like a userChrome snippet, etc. Hardly a chore, as my users always seem a pretty nice bunch and I have also made good friends with a fair number of them over the years.
And yet you still maintain your Themes
Well, yeah, back in 2014 when I came back into Firefox theming, I didn't fancy spending the 40+ hours a month maintaining a Complete theme, as other authors were doing, due to Rapid Release. Plus, I should also add that I'm incredibly lazy.
So, I devised a brand new way to make Complete themes, quicker to make, maintenance down to a hour or two an month and they flex and adjust automatically to most changes caused by Firefox updates. The template engine for those 4 Firefox themes is the same I later used for my 2 SeaMonkey and Thunderbird ones.
I'm only explaining this last part as I don't want people thinking that I live and breathe this stuff and am constantly working away on it...because I'm not. Same applies to many other devs.
I'm not saying I'm representative of theme/extension writers. Some do think and work pretty much like I do, whilst others beaver away for many, many hours and also fret about stuff. Fretting is not good for people. So, the 'average' dev is probably in that grey area between those extremes. There's also the commercial extension writers (extension is just to direct people to certain websites, etc, but who cares about what they do.)
So, having read the above, when Firefox tells, and I mean tell, extension devs that in order to be able for them to host your extension/theme that you must now jump through this hoop, then that hoop, then another hoop, then learn a new way of programming your stuff and then jump through more hoops......well, we are just like you reading this, so turn it around, what would your reaction be?
Hopefully, you found that useful, as many people seem to have some weird ideas about why we do this - and that definitely includes Mozilla. In reality, some people find it amusing to play chess, whilst I find it amusing to design and code themes for software programs. It is no more complex than that.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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