Why there will be no PmW-Fx 3.x

I got asked multiple times now if I will create enhanced versions of the Mozilla apps, especially of Firefox 3. And some people were sad when they heard that I don't want to create a custom version of PmW-Fx 3. It was rightfully pointed out that I should announce my decision on these pages.

Let's take a look why the PmW-* products exist: They are "enhanced" with respect to the "official" OS/2 packages to include some extra features, that originally were not part of the code in the Mozilla CVS repository. This was mainly because there is a high bar (with code reviews) to get something into that code. In addition, one needs certain hard to get privileges to "checkin" code to that repository. When I started PmW-* a few years ago I was only a contributor with very little experience in these matters, so it was easier to just maintain patches outside Mozilla. Since then I have gained a lot of experience and even understand some parts of the codebase very well, so that in effect I lead the development effort of Mozilla on OS/2 now (this seems to be still largely unknown by people not visiting mozilla.dev.ports.os2), and have privileges to directly put code in CVS and builds on the Mozilla FTP server. So I was finally able and tried hard to push all OS/2 changes into the main codebase.

Let's take a look at the enhancements:

1. EA URL tagging of downloads (Rich Walsh's code)
2. SVG and Canvas support
3. better WPS integration (Rich Walsh's code)
4. high memory support
5. included ipluginw.dll for plugin support
6. some random experimental feature (like support for Ukrainian codepages or corrected menu spacing in SeaMonkey's MailNews)
7. MNG/JNG support

Going through these items, I can tell you that with the exception of the last one (MNG/JNG), all are part of the official codebase of Firefox 3.0 on OS/2, that was released this week. MNG/JNG is basically dead now, it's use on the web has diminished even more. Instead, Firefox 3 contains support for the new Animated PNG format, that contains some of the features of MNG. So even though there won't be a PmW-Fx 3.x, you don't lose any features!

Feature 1 has been part of the "official" build for some time, too (starting with Firefox 2.0.0.8 and SeaMonkey 1.1.6 respectively). Feature 2 (SVG/Canvas) is now supported in the "official" build of SeaMonkey 1.1.8 or later (that I create), and could be activated in the "official" build of Firefox 2.0.0.x (just remind Mike Kaply often enough).

I will try to support all my PmW-* products as long as there is user demand for them, so hopefully as long as the corresponding "official" versions are supported by Mozilla. (The current end-of-service for Gecko 1.8.1, on which they are based, is foreseen to be mid December 2008.)

If you are still worried, please post in the newsgroup mozilla.dev.ports.os2 on the server news.mozilla.org and we can discuss.