My Mozilla

[sleddog]

Embarked on a Great Adventure this weekend -- to build my own Mozilla from source code. I can hardly believe it, but it worked :)

Browser and mail/news have been running flawlessly. If any adventurous soul would like to give it a whirl you can get it here:

http://sleddog.labradorstraits.net/mozilla

The download is a 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) self-extracting file. After download, double-click the file to extract it to a directory of your choice, then go to the /bin subdirectory and double-click mozilla.exe to run. Aren't we having fun? :)

[mjc]

I wonder how many different versions of Mozilla one can run before they all crap out?

I currently have FB, Moz and Kmeleon on here.....I am going to give your build a spin too.

I wonder if my favorite "themes" and extensions will work?

[sleddog]

Originally posted by mjc
I wonder how many different versions of Mozilla one can run before they all crap out?

I currently have FB, Moz and Kmeleon on here.....I am going to give your build a spin too.

I wonder if my favorite "themes" and extensions will work?

Whats you favourite theme? I use Smoke (http://mozthemes.tk/) (expand 'Themes' at left). No problem with any extensions I regularly use (Mouse Gestures, Prefbar, Paste and Go)... for kicks I added Tabbrowser Extensions, which sometimes causes problems, but it's been fine.

If you backup your Mozilla/Firebird profile now and then -- while it's working :) -- you can't get in too much trouble.

[sleddog]

Something else, perhaps you know, but... if you want to get rid of those 'Debug' and 'QA' menus on the menu bar, create a file "userChrome.css" in the "Chrome" subdirectory of your Mozilla profile and put this in it:


menu[label="Debug"], menu[label="QA"] {
display: none !important;
}


The 'Debug' and 'QA' menus appear in all builds except milestone releases of Mozilla.

[jeeza]

Originally posted by sleddog
Embarked on a Great Adventure this weekend -- to build my own Mozilla from source code. I can hardly believe it, but it worked :)

Browser and mail/news have been running flawlessly. If any adventurous soul would like to give it a whirl you can get it here:
I would try it, but is it any different from the official latest Mozilla release ? Because if it isn't, I suppose there wouldn't be any particular reason to try it out (I must admit I don't understand this yourself building from sourcecode business).

[sleddog]

Developers world-wide work on the code that constitutes Mozilla (the application suite, as well as the independent Firebird browser and Thunderbird email client). The code is stored and maintained via CVS (http://www.cvshome.org/). When a developer fixes a bug or adds a new feature, the new code is 'checked in' (added) to the CVS repository.

The main code is called the "trunk". All new developments happen here. Occasionally the trunk code is duplicated and a "branch" is created. Nothing new goes into the branch; instead all efforts are concentrated on fixing bugs and making the code as stable as possible. When the developers say "enough!", a build is made from the branch code and a "milestone" version of Mozilla is released, like versions 1.3, 1.4 and the most recent, version 1.5. These are the most stable and bug-free versions of Mozilla.

Meanwhile, back on the trunk, new code continues to be checked in. Some of this code brings new features and often -- along with it -- new bugs :) A Mozilla build made from the trunk code will have all the newest features and all the latest bugs.

Anyone can "check out" the Mozilla code (meaning, fetch it) from the CVS repository -- that's the idea of open source. That's what I did on the weekend. So the build I made contained the very latest Mozilla developments up to that time. Since then, new code has been added and bugs fixed in CVS... the process goes on. Next weekend maybe I'll "check out" again and make a new build -- I'll only have to fetch code changes, since the bulk of the code is stored locally on my machine.

[malcore]

While I like Mozilla, I don't use it anymore. I haven't the need for a full blown browser with mail/news capabilities. I just stick with Firebird. Any chance of a Firebird build sleddog?

That said, I have just downloaded and installed Your Mozilla for a try.
Haven't set it all up yet, but one thing I did notice was the IE Favourites did not transfer correctly. The folders are there, but the addresses are not filled in, or many of the links are just not there. Maybe this was intended. Doesn't matter really, as my Firebird bookmarks imported without worries. Would be nice if it didn't automatically import the IE Favourites anyway.


Going to experiment a bit with some extensions and themes. Browser is working nicely right now though.;)

[sleddog]

Originally posted by malcore
While I like Mozilla, I don't use it anymore. I haven't the need for a full blown browser with mail/news capabilities. I just stick with Firebird. Any chance of a Firebird build [B]sleddog?

Look for it in a few hours :) It's built, but I want to use it for a while to see if there are any major problems.

That said, I have just downloaded and installed Your Mozilla for a try.
Haven't set it all up yet, but one thing I did notice was the IE Favourites did not transfer correctly. The folders are there, but the addresses are not filled in, or many of the links are just not there. Maybe this was intended. Doesn't matter really, as my Firebird bookmarks imported without worries. Would be nice if it didn't automatically import the IE Favourites anyway.

Not intentional. The are a few open bugs filed on this, for example:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=222554
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=224539


Going to experiment a bit with some extensions and themes. Browser is working nicely right now though.;)

I've found that Tabbrowser Extensions causes a problem: after it is installed you can't edit/save an existing bookmark (OK button does nothing). Sometimes it'll work once, but not after that. Nice as it is, that extension has a history of causing problems.

[jeeza]

Thanks for your explanation, sleddog.
I understood the principles of the development process but did not know the details.
Is there any place where that trunk code and its "branches" can be seen ?
Some kind of map or directory ?
There is something I don't understand clearly. I would need you to define exactly what a "build" is.

[sleddog]

To "build" means to compile the human-written source code into a machine-readable format. This is the process that produces (on Windows) the "mozilla.exe" file and all the dynamic link libraries (.dll files) which it needs. Building, or compiling, is done by a compiler application (no surprise there, but it begs the question, "how do you compile a compiler?") Different platforms (Unix or Windows for examples) have different compilers. Indeed, there are different compiler applications available for the same platform. On Windows, the official Mozilla builds are compiled with MS Visual C++ (I think). In contrast my builds use Cygwin and MinGW software, which is open source and freely available. There are a few drawbacks but the end result is pretty comparable.

Very basically, the process is:

- Install the compiler software;
- Get the source code;
- Set some configurations;
- Start the compiling (building) process;

On the machine I'm using (Athlon XP 2400, 512mb RAM) it takes just under an hour to compile the full Mozilla Suite, and about 45 minutes to compile Firebird. Once the process is finished you have a complete Mozilla program, structured much like you'd get if you downloaded it. Except of course it's the very latest (and hopefully the greatest!).

Not sure about the first part of your question (the map). I'll look around and let you know if I find anything interesting.

By the way, a Firebird build is now available as well. Seems to work fine.

[jeeza]

Just a quick question.
Should such a build not be made available on the official mozilla site ?

[sleddog]

No. Remember that this is open source software. We are free to use it and redistribute it as we see fit, provided that the appropriate license text files are included (I forgot to check that!).

I am certainly not the only private individual making 'builds' of Mozilla. Lots of people do -- some do it daily and put them up for public access. If every privately-made build of Mozilla was available on the Mozilla website, it would be very confusing for people :)

I am building Mozilla primarily for myself because (a) I'm interested to learn more about the whole process, and (b) I like to have the "latest". Once I've tested a build, found it to work without any obvious problems, then I use it. And as I have confidence in it, I'll make it available for anyone that might be interested. If I find any problems with a build, then I won't put it up for download. Very basic QA :)

Mozilla.org produces "nightly" builds -- which are builds made every night from the current trunk code. (Though the process has had problems lately, with hardware failures and a lack of support people since Netscape cleaned house.) Those are produces automatically and are made available without any testing. They are available for you to try; they might work, they might not :) Generally though they do work. Have a look at http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ You'll see directories for 'mozilla', phoenix' (the former name for Firebird) and 'thunderbird'. Within each of those directories you'll find a 'nightly' directory containing automated builds for several different platforms.

[sleddog]

New Firebird and Mozilla builds are now available.

[mjc]

Open Source means not only is it free (usually--free as in free beer) but it is able to be used, changed and adapter by the end user, as long as any significant changes to the code (free as in freedom to do any/all of the following). Building without optional features or including some other otional ones, color or default options, if we wanted to have a PCGuide version it is well with the license agreement to do so...

Sleddog,

I did play around some with the first version, and no problems found, so I'll probably give some of these others a try too.

[sleddog]

I find it a little ironic that the official releases of Mozilla are built using MS Visual C, a closed-source (and rather expensive) development kit.

The building tools I use -- Cygwin and MinGW -- are all open-source and entirely free.

[sleddog]

Automated building process now in place:

Firebird: new build on Mon, Wed, Fri.;
Mozilla: new build on Tue, Thu, Sat.

http://sleddog.labradorstraits.net/mozilla/

[jeeza]

You are churning them out by heaps, it seems.

[sleddog]

Can't have those GHz sitting idle all night. I got tired of looking for aliens. ;)

[jeeza]

Quite right, sleddog. But I always say : better you looking for aliens, than aliens looking for you.

[pave_spectre]

Just out of curiousity, how long does a build session take?

[sleddog]

Firebird: 55 minutes
Mozilla: 70 minutes

Give or take a few minutes. That includes the CVS update to start.

On an Athlon XP 2400, 512mb RAM.