HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS in 2014

HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS in 2014

News and articles about Web standards in 2014.

Firefox without XUL?

One comes to Firefox with an HTML 5 interface again. In fact the browser in this case becomes a web page, Firefox.html! It is no seriously question of replacing the browser and thus to abandon XUL, this is just an experiment by an employee of Mozilla. But the project whose code is available on GitHub might inspire developers for their future interfaces...
December 11, 2014.

Update January 6, 2015. The project has been renamed Browser.html and moved to a new repository. The link has been updated.

The future of HTML 5 and beyond

The W3C CEO gave an outline of what is to come, now that HTML 5 has become a standard recommendation ...

HTML 5 is just the beginning, a web OS is booming ...
December 3, 2014.

How Mozilla is spending its money

The budget for 2013 has been published by the editor of Firefox. Reported revenues were of $ 314 million of which 85% came from Google in return for being the search engine of the browser.
197 million are spent on software development: Firefox and the JavaScript compiler, Firefox OS, programming languages... Apparently the developers are well paid.
46 million are used to promote the brand and its products! 30 million for general and administrative expenses. This leaves a profit of 20 million...
We have to wait until 2016 to know what the partnership with Yahoo (in 2015) will bring, unless there is some leakage before...
November 22, 2014.

Firefox and Google: the separation

The search engine in Firefox was Google for 10 years, in exchange for the sponsorship of Mozilla. Discussions were underway for a renewal and... lead to a partnership with Yahoo for 5 years!
Three years ago, it was Bing who had disputed the place so Google had mounted the auction.
In 2010, Google paid $ 77 million for the year and a three-year deal in 2011 worth 300 million dollars (250 million euros). It was mainly for not letting Bing take the market that Google had outbid. This time again Google was willing to renew the partnership, but Yahoo gave more freedom to Mozilla and in particular allowed searches without the use of personal data (such as previous pages visited). Yahoo also promises a new tool for search from December.
In Russia it is Yandex that replaces Google as default search engine et Baidu continue to be the default search engine in China. In other countries, Google remain the default option with nothing in return.
November 20, 2014.

HTML 5 is a recommendation

Was expected for 2020, but it happens earlier. HTML 5 is now a recommendation. Version 5 will not change for the W3C. The previous recommendation HTML 4.01 dated 1999!
There is already a 5.1 version in development however, and the WHATWG version that evolves continuously.
The existence of two versions creates a conflict, WHATWG blaming the W3C for "copying" is work! The first would want the second recognize it as a standardization body and refers to its work as such. Actually WHATWG's editors worked together on the W3C and WHATWG version from 2008 for several years.
The problem is mainly due to the URLs of the specification, the W3C favoring its own documents, even if there is link somewhere to the WHATWG site.
Besides this need for recognition, there is a conflict on the mode of operation. The WHATWG is in phase with publishers of browsers which add functions continuously, while the system of versions of the W3C is best suited for companies that need to rely on well-defined standard for interoperability.
The W3C version also has a key role because of the involvement of major players in the Web and their commitments, it guaranteed the total absence of patent on the HTML code, and thus the freedom to use it without any fear.
October 28, 2014.

JavaScript, the language of reactive programming?

RP is a simpler approach to programming. It is not really new since it is the same principle that operate spreadsheets and this goes back to 1961, but with frameworks such as React.js, created by Facebook, it finally gets the popularity it deserves. Extensions are created for most languages ​​including C# from Microsoft.
In the Scriptol language, it becomes even easier since we do not need to add extension: the language support reactive variables, whose value is updated whenever the variables on which they depends are also changing. Creating HTML 5 interface become more intuitive since the scriptol compiler produces JavaScript code. JavaScript due to its portability is essential, despite its many flaws, but they are gummed when using another language in front-end and the list of languages ​​that are compiled into JS never ceases to expand. The addition of RP makes it even more essential.
September 24, 2014.

jsDelivr, a service for webmasters

Inspired by the CDN (Content Delivery Network) service from Google that is to allow sites to include JavaScript libraries and fonts from its servers, two enterprise, MaxCDN and CloudFare offer their version, free and infinitely larger ...
Because anyone can add its own library to the list via GitHub ... Developers can therefore offer their JavaScript framework to include directly into a page from the network the project specially designed to cope with the load and all eventual attacks through the transfer of traffic between servers around the world ...
March 19, 2013.

A standard for all applications to communicate

This data exchange standard between applications, called OData is a specification made by Oasis, an organization that works for standard communications.
The OData specification 4 has support for many big companies, including Red Hat, IBM, Microsoft.
The new standard provides a communication architecture of REST type to create Web services and applications that can communicate with other applications and devices, including mobiles.
And it also provides a data format based on JSON, which is the container of data that applications would exchange. It can be used with any programming language.
So an Android phone can use data from an online service from Microsoft, and send them to a social network to a user displays them on his personal wall.
March 18, 2014.

Mozilla refuses to move in the Metro

Although it worked for months to develop a version of Firefox for the Modern UI interface on Windows 8, whose codename Metro is still used, Mozilla has decided not to distribute this version or continue to develop it.
The reasons are many. A major development work for a not so popular platform. Closed platform while Mozilla works to promote free and open products. And lack of interest of testers for Firefox on Metro.
Besides that, to put a browser in an interface that can run itself in a browser, as demonstrated by ChromeOS does not make too much sense, even if Microsoft considers this the greatest finesse. And serving its financiel interests also since it takes a percentage of the revenues of Metro applications.
In short, on Windows 8, you can use Firefox in desktop mode, and if desired, why not use a tiled interface as Tiloid in the browser?
March 15, 2014.

The end of XULRunner

The SDK which allows you to create applications based on the XUL interface language will soon be no longer available. Developers are asking the question of its existence in the newsgroup Terminating XULRunner? because despite the efforts of a few to keep it functional, the SDK is no longer maintained.
This does not mean that its content, including XUL, are no longer used, they are always in Firefox. But that will no longer exist as an independent library.
Some propose to replace it with Firefox itself, ie linking applications to the code of Firefox to use its features. This is already done with Chromium. This implies virtually integrating a version of the code in the application which would make it very heavy.
Note that new versions of XULRunner are available online in January and February 2014 nightly builds with Firefox Aurora.
January 18, 2014.

A wolf in the sheep

This is worse than a fox in the henhouse, especially if it is a fire fox. The Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, the organization that defends the rights of copyright owners, enter the board of the W3C.
This will make one more member to defend ideas such as the integration of DRM in standard formats, why they come there and against what Mozilla opposes. This is not good news for open formats, which may become much less open in the future.
January 8, 2014.

Firefox OS for the desktop

At the same time it develops Firefox OS for the larger screen of tablets, Mozilla advance in the realization of a version for the desktop, where it could compete with Chrome OS, but also Modern UI from Microsoft and Android as this system seem called to coexist with Windows.
Two initiatives were launched: Rock, a motherboard to install a barebone, whose specifications are rather those of a competitor to Raspberry Pi. We regret the lack of USB 3 and the presence of a VGA port! It is no longer 2005.
Paper is another product of the same manufacturer. It has a cardboard box, and got rid of VGA this time. Both machines are powered by a VIA processor who is interested in this OS and contributes to the code.
If performance is satisfactory, Firefox OS could easily replace Chrome OS on laptops or Android on nano-PC.
January 7, 2014.

© 2014 Xul.fr