Talk:Firefox/Feature Brainstorming

Why the revert?

I'm wondering why user:Benjamin Smedberg reverted my addition to this article. He gave no reason, and the page itself says "This page is intended to collect ideas...", so I see no reason why I shouldn't put things here. The page is for collecting ideas, and I gave an idea, so it certainly doesn't seem like vandalism to me. If there is a good reason, then someone please TELL ME, and point me to a page where it does belong. Until then, I'm putting back my text. -FunnyMan3595 20:28, 25 Aug 2005 (PDT)

FunnyMan3595: I created a page off your User page and then linked to that, as it's how we're hoping to catalog all the design thoughts for the various issues. Thanks! -Beltzner 10:45, 31 Oct 2005 (PST)

Tabs switching via Mouse Scroll Wheel

This is one of the absolutely coolest Features of KDE/Qt Widgets.

It would be nice, if Firefox would allow this also, so it is blending more nively into a KDE Environment.

Tutorial Mode

I think that relying on a tutorial mode (or indeed any online help) to train anyone is a waste of time. The trouble is that all users, regardless of experience expect to be able to sit down and start using the software. People are never in the frame of mind to read documentation and instructions on how they can improve their experience, they have their own ideas about how things work. Did you read the instruction manual for your car cover to cover? For your microwave oven? No.

That said, I think much of the online help could be /replaced/ (instead of augmented) by some thoughtfully designed audio/visual tutorials that linked to various help buttons, the start page, etc. E.g. a discussion about being safe online, etc. Ben 21:20, 18 Jan 2006 (PST)

All users? I know with games, I find it inconvenient frequently enough when I am thrust into the game without a tutorial mode, and furthurmore when it's hard to revisit the tutorial mode to brush up. Though I do expect to be able to skip freely around the tutorial though, addressing your "cover to cover" statement. Hackwrench 11:58, 13 October 2006 (PDT)

Mockups

Since uploading is disabled there is no way to put mockups up. Change the description in the page or turn uploads on. :-) Rauh 16:29, 2 Mar 2006 (PST)

Adding feature

I'd like to add the idea "'Make Copy' in tab context menu", but I'm not sure how to add it. Do I put it in the already-existing Tabbed Browsing cell, or do I make my own row of cells? If anyone would like to put in correctly for me, or tell me how to add it, I would be very grateful. --Svank 18:37, 11 June 2006 (PDT)

Autoupdate

When I tell the browser to restart it still asks me to close tabs for every window. Actually, I find this a nuisance whenever I want to close the entire browser. Hackwrench 11:44, 13 October 2006 (PDT)

Printing

I added some references to Printing, Print UI, and Page Setup. Wildman 12:46, 13 October 2006 (PDT)

How about LESS Features?

Here's a thought: Why not focus less on adding features and more on stabilizing and slimming down the browser? There are lots of things that can be done to Mozilla that can be provided by add-ons and don't need to be in the core product. If the goal is an easy-to-use, slim browser, then we should be taking design cues from Epiphany more than Galeon (to use a Linux metaphor).Stray 21:07, 13 October 2006 (PDT)

• • What about just giving the user the option to install the non-essential features during the install? This way the minimalists can have their lean browser while it will also be able to scale up for the feature-hungry user. This would actually make the "custom" option during install capable of actually customizing the browser. I think this would be a better option than just removing everything and leaving advanced features to extensions. Extensions can be intimidating for the average user and are somewhat cumbersome to maintain between browser releases. --Cloudkiller 09:38, 14 October 2006 (PDT)

• • How about packaging those non-essential features as extensions, and have the installer able to install those if you want the full version? You could then put as many features in extensions as you like and still have the lean browser many want. You might need to extend the extension interface to do everything necessary but that's not necessarily a bad thing, I don't know what's possible or not at the moment. --CRedpath 17:53, 14 October 2006 (BST)

• • @Cloudkiller, I think that'd be great, but in addition to the Custom mode, I think that there should be multiple installs. A lot of installers these days have complete, minimal and custom options for installation. You could have a minimal option, a luxurious and feature-packed option, a developer option and a complete installation in addition to the custom. I don't think having four options there would be too intimidating. @CRedpath, the only problem with that is that the extensions don't update with the browser. I really hate how I have to wait sometimes months after updating to a new version before a particular extension will work with my browser again. However, users being able to make extension packs is a great idea. Ayavaron 20:49, 14 October 2006 (PDT)

Better memory management

I'm not sure if this is already planned... But at least Firefox 1.5 is not good in memory management. For example, if a page has an applet and the Java VM is called, I seem to not be able to get rid of it, and it eats a lot of memory. If I kill the java process, Firefox dies! This and other little things make Firefox very slow and unstable for me (I usually hit the machine's memory limit). I wish Firefox was faster and used just the amount of memory it needs, and /only/ when it needs it.

Arabic language and complex scripts

I user:Alharaka do not know who this is acutally addressed to, but I am part of a i18n group called arabeyes.org that does Arabic translations of FOSS stuff. I referred people to the Slashdot.org article about this list of suggestions. I have had several Arabic language suggestions:

Implementing of the bidirectional algorithm *1 if it isn't already implemented so that Firefox could render Arabic phrases embedded in English texts correctly.

There were another thing which happens when you type Arabic text in the location bar and click 'Go' .. the text gets converted to something called 'byte indicators' *2 which is very annoying ... if that could be fixed it would be great.

Please contact me if you want to get in touch with our group about any of these issues.

Cleaner Uninstallation/Extension Management

Almost a year ago, I somehow broke my Firefox installation and when I uninstalled/reinstalled the program, all my extensions and settings were back to normal. I made sure the install directory was emptied and tried again. Eventually I figured out I had to delete the Firefox registry values in order to fix it. I know that there is a portable version of Firefox [1] so there is no reason I should need to muck around in my registry to uninstall things.

If extensions could install to a folder like the plugins in Photoshop, they'd be much easier to deal with. I have no idea how technically possible that would be and I'm almost certain that it'd break a lot of existing extensions. There could be an option to delete the extensions and settings folders during uninstallation too. It'd be nice also to be able to manage extensions in the file browser just by deleting them from the extensions folder. Ayavaron 21:10, 14 October 2006 (PDT)

Message for Microsoft

Each time Firefox loads it could send a request for this non-existant page, http://microsoft.com/firefox_rulz_OK or something similar (but not accept any data in return of course). :-) Rossnixon 21:53, 14 October 2006 (PDT)

Backgrounds Management

How about Backgrounds Management . The main source for desktop Backgrounds is the internet . Why don't we build Backgrounds Management that hold all the recent backgrounds that the person download .We can add a preview to background that the muse is on top of it . maybe we can have folders organization in it as well . shortly jast have a Backgrounds Management ...

Minimize tab

Keep it open, but hidden in list. Notify when title changes.

Fast bookmark search

Auto-complete style, by keyword/name/address/description.

Form navigation via keyboard on Mac

On windows, I can tab through not only text fields, but check boxes and form buttons, and change or activate them using the space button. On the mac, I can only do checkboxes and buttons with the mouse. Please provide an option to be able to tab through these things on the mac. Thanks.

Javascript-Div-Update-Replacement (Ajax topic)

It would be great to have mechanism to define a panel, where data may be send to a server and its response is rendered into a certain area like:

<asynch-panel refpanel="myPanel" refid="test" /> <asynch-panel name="myPanel" target="http://blabla.de/bsp.jsp"> <input type="text" id="test" value="<%="blabla"%>" /> <input type="submit" /> </asynch-panel>

Of course such panels would allow nested panels and form elements to have maximum control.

I know that such an extension would be only usable for Firefox users, but it would speed up asynch development at leat in closed user groups with certain system requirements.

What do you think about this?