Skip to Content

Submit your nominations for the Luxist Awards' Best in Decor
AOL Tech

xul posts

Filed under: Developer, OS Updates, Mozilla

Could there be a Mozilla Desktop Environment in the future

by Chris Gilmer Mar 21st 2007

mozilla desktop environmentCould there secretly be a Mozilla desktop environment in the works? We could always use another competitor in the marketplace, and we would love few things more than if that competitor were the Mozilla Foundation.

There's a discussion over at the Mozilla.dev.planning list that has stirred up the idea of building a Desktop Environment. The whole environment would be based on XUL (XML User Interface Language) and could become a reality much like extensions to the popular Firefox, Thunderbird, and the Minimo Mobile Browser product lines. Only time will tell if this discussion evolves into the build of the next generation cross OS desktop environment.

Tags: desktop, environment, firefox, mozilla, thunderbird, xml, xul

Filed under: Developer, Windows, Freeware

Building apps with AOL's Boxely

Windowsby Jordan Running Oct 25th 2006

Boxely
One thing I didn't know about AIM Triton before now is that the whole thing is built on AOL's Boxely, a toolkit for building full-fledged desktop apps with JavaScript and XML. This probably sounds familiar, especially if you're familiar with Mozilla's XUL (which Firefox is built on) or Microsoft's Avalon/XAML. Boxely was created by notable Netscape and Firefox developer Joe Hewitt. Hewitt has since left AOL, but Boxely is alive and kicking, and is now available as a free download from AOL. If you want to quickly get an idea of what Boxely is capable of, I recommend downloading the OCP (Open Client Platform) Preview from the Boxely web site and checking out the ocpSamples folder. It contains a bunch of demo applications that show off its various features, from windowing to animation to graphics. In a the third of three posts (1, 2) about Boxely's genesis, Hewitt writes about what sets Boxely apart from XUL and Avalon, and I must say between that, the Boxely documentation, and the demo apps, I'm definitely going to be checking it out if I ever decide to write a Windows app. I am in whole-hearted agreement with Hewitt when he suggests to AOL, "If you were to port Boxely to OS X and Linux, and maybe, oh I don't know, open source the library, I think you'd have a real winner on your hands!"

Tags: aol, avalon, boxely, desktop, development, javascript, windows, xaml, xml, xul

Filed under: Design, Developer, Internet, Mozilla

Webmonkey: How to write your first Firefox extension

by Ryan Carter Sep 13th 2006

XUL FirefoxCourtesy of that wacky WebMonkey we all know and love is a great (but short) introduction tutorial on how to make your own Firefox extensions. Since this tutorial isn't very long, and many Firefox users will want to get more in depth, WebMonkey links to a few great sites for more comprehensive instructions and information so you can extensionize your own Firefox experience! The links provided are a bit hard to find near the bottom of the post, so here they are: BornGeek, and XULPlanet. Both instruct you on how to use XUL to craft your own tools, apps, and plug-ins for Firefox. I am pretty sure that this ability is one of the things that sets Firefox above Internet Explorer, the ability to extend the program all by yourself.

Tags: exntension, Firefox, WebMonkey, XUL

Filed under: Audio, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Mozilla, Open Source

Songbird source now available

WindowsMacLinuxby Jordan Running Jun 27th 2006

SongbirdSongbird, the Mozilla-based web-enabled music player that has occasionally been causing a stir since late last year, has finally opened its source repository to the public, making it a really-and-truly open source project. Songbird is still very alpha software, meaning you shouldn't expect much, especially in the speed and stability departments, but for the brave  today's "not-yet-0.2" release is also available in binary form for Windows, Linux, and OS X. As always, the real action is on the Songbird blog.

[Via Slashdot]

Tags: audio, linux, mac, mozilla, music, opensource, osx, songbird, windows, xul

Filed under: Office, Web services

ajaxXLS: Web-based spreadsheet from ajaxLaunch

by Jordan Running Apr 13th 2006

ajaxXLSMichael Robertson's ajaxLaunch is trying hard to keep up the buzz from the launches of its web-based word processor ajaxWrite and drawing app ajaxSketch, and today it's launched ajaxXLS, a web-based spreadsheet app. ajaxXLS looks promising, and will no doubt look familiar to Excel users, but having spent a few minutes with it I can already tell ajaxXLS is far from finished. In fact, it's downright hard to use and seems like it would be infuriating to anyone trying to switch from Excel. Some of its issues might just be due to high opening day user load, but much of it just seems buggy or incomplete. Here's hoping Robertson can turn ajaxXLS into something usable; at present it's uninspiring.

Tags: ajax, ajaxlaunch, ajaxsketch, ajaxwrite, ajaxxls, excel, office, spreadsheet, xls, xul

Filed under: Developer, Windows, Macintosh, Linux

Browser Tip of the Day: HTML, CSS, and DOM reference right at your fingertips, plus a few more

WindowsMacLinuxby Jordan Running Aug 17th 2005

DevBoiDevBoi is a simple and cool extension with a silly name by Martin Cohen. It's a sidebar for Firefox that gives you quick access to the documentation for HTML (plus entities), CSS, DOM, XUL, Ruby, and Ruby on Rails. All that's lacking is a modern XHTML 1.0 reference (and adding PHP, Java, Python, JavaScript, and so on wouldn't hurt), and perhaps an about:config-style filter box. Hopefully those will be included in a future release.

Tags: devboi, dom, extension, firefox, help, html, reference, ruby, ruby+on+rails, RubyOnRails, xul

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

Most Commented On (7 days)

Recent Comments

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio