Programming Firefox

Chapter 1. Firefox and Friends

The Firefox browser is a collection of C++ libraries designed to be assembled into any number of applications that you can run on machines with any of the major desktop operating systems (Windows, OS X, Linux, etc.).

A browser’s functionality combines what the user sees—through web content—and underlying technologies used to access information and to decode, render, and stylize content. Although much of this book focuses on the XUL interface language to build application interfaces, it also touches on the evolving Internet standards that extend the breadth and depth of information available through the Web.

Mozilla to Firefox and Thunderbird

Most people say the World Wide Web was “born” in the spring of 1993, when Jon Mittelhauser and Marc Andreesen, working out of the University of Illinois, developed what would become the first widely acceptable graphical interface to the Internet.

The software was known as Mosaic, and its widespread acceptance provided the first indication that the Internet was something that could interest (and provide value to) business users and the public.

Marc Andreesen went on to start Netscape Communications Corporation, a company that focused on the commercialization of the Netscape Navigator browser. In 1998, Netscape turned development of the browser over to the open source community in the form of the Mozilla Organization. The Mozilla community rewrote the Netscape code base and released the first commercial product in the ...