Mar 30 2005
Firefox Hacks by O’Reilly
While Firefox is the best browser on the web, Firefox is much more than a browser. Firefox is a project, community and a platform. As an Open Source application, the future of the browser depends on the support of people like you and I.
But wait, this is a book review right? True, and this is where Firefox Hacks comes in. Firefox Hacks is a powerful collection of ‘hacks’ that will let you get the most out of Firefox, and at the same time give the most back.
Firefox Hacks covers topics from basic installation of themes and extensions to cross-platform issues and even the creation of themes, extensions and other mods. Firefox Hacks isn’t a user’s guide. It is the most thorough and best organized collection of Firefox how-to’s available.
For example, in just the first hundred pages you’ll learn how to migrate profiles between platforms and versions, tear web pages apart with the DOM Inspector, detail security limitations and deploy Firefox on a network. In the next couple hundred pages you’ll get into advanced topics like working with XML-RPC, SOAP and other XML technologies, developing applications in Mozilla’s XUL and hacking into the core of Firefox itself modifying menus and behavior.
Like any good guide book, you’re warned before you get down and dirty as to the difficulty of the ‘hack’. While hacks get pretty complex, requiring an understanding of JavaScript and more, most hacks are usable by non-coders.
Which brings me back to the project, community and platform. There’s no doubt that there are a lot of zealous Firefox supporters out there. This book for them represents an opportunity to leave the sidelines and participate in the expansion and development of the application.
Reading this book, you’ll discover hands-on the brilliance behind the browser. And with a little work on your own, you’ll be able to hack an improvement into Firefox worth sharing. And after all, isn’t that the point of the project?
Firefox Hacks is written by Nigel McFarlane and published by O’Reilly.
Check out sample hacks, the table of contents and more here.
