<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body smarttemplateinserted="true" text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div id="smartTemplate4-template">
<p>Why not - it's a start.</p>
<p>I don't expect everything to surface free of charge, but I am
currently incorporating a business. That means within the next
few months I want to start an indigogo fundraiser campaign to
*pay* developers to write the necessary APIs <b>and landthem in
TB Core</b>. I think landing them (having them approved for
general use) should almost be a requirement for payment, because
it is no good to fund something that is potentially only
temporary.<br>
</p>
<p>Once this has been approved, the next important question is,
will there be free mentoring from the Thunderbird team to get
people started? I would suspect people who already work at core
Tb patches are too busy to write APIs, so this may attract some
fresh commercial developers instead.<br>
</p>
<p>Axel<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<style type="text/css">
.myName {
text-shadow: 1px 1px 2px #DDD;
transition:font-size 0.5s;
}
.myName:hover, .myName a:hover
{ font-size:13pt; text-shadow: 3px 3px 4px rgba(200,250,200,0.7);}
.moz-signature {opacity: 1.0 !important;}
.myName a { cursor: pointer !important; transition:font-size 0.5s;}
.myLogo {
transition: all .4s ease-out;
}
.myLogo:hover {
transform: scale(3) translate(-30px,-5px);
}
#mySignature, :not(blockquote) #mySignature {
background: rgb(230,240,163);
background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, rgba(230,240,163,1) 0%,rgba(210,230,56,1) 50%,rgba(195,216,37,1) 51%,rgba(219,240,67,1) 100%);
color: #444;
box-shadow: 4px 4px 9px -2px rgba(0,0,0,0.65);
border-radius: 0.7em; padding: 0.8em 1.2em;
border: 1px dashed #8080A0;
font-size: 11pt !important;
font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;
width: 65%;
}
.AddonList a {
color: #666666;
font-size: 10pt !important;
}
</style>
<div id="mySignature"> <b class="myName"><a
href="mailto:axel.grude@gmail.com">Axel Grude</a></b> <br>
Music Production and Composition <br>
Thunderbird Add-ons Developer <span class="AddonList">(<a
href="https://addons.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/addon/quickfolders-tabbed-folders/">QuickFolders</a>,
<a
href="https://addons.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/addon/quickfilters/">quickFilters</a>,
<a
href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/quickpasswords/">QuickPasswords</a>,
<a
href="https://addons.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/addon/zombie-keys/">Zombie
Keys</a>, <a
href="https://addons.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/addon/smarttemplate4/">SmartTemplateā“</a>)</span>
<br>
Visit my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/thunderbirddaily">YouTube
Channel</a> for email productivity tips <img
style="margin-top: 1em; float: right; box-shadow: 1px 1px 2px
rgba(20, 20, 20, 0.4);" moz-do-not-send="false" class="myLogo"
src="cid:part8.46F30E61.1EB92F33@gmail.com" alt="Get
Thunderbird!" width="94" height="15">
</div>
</div>
<div id="smartTemplate4-quoteHeader">
<style type="text/css" scoped="">
#newHeaderAG1 b { font-weight:bold; color: #990033; min-width: 4.5em; max-width:none; display:inline-block;}
</style>
<blockquote type="cite" style="margin-bottom: -20px !important;
padding-bottom:20px !important;">
<div id="newHeaderAG1" style="font-size: x-small; padding:1em;
background-color:rgba(220,220,240,0.4); border-radius:3px;"> <b>Subject:</b>MailExtensions<br>
<b>From:</b>Ben Bucksch <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ben.bucksch@beonex.com"><ben.bucksch@beonex.com></a><br>
<b>To:</b><a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:tb-planning@mozilla.org"><tb-planning@mozilla.org></a> <br>
<b>Sent: </b>Friday, 12/7/2018 04:52 GMT ST +0000 [Week 49]<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:c7ff4acc-6240-a213-1ae9-473d3c108079@beonex.com"
id="mid_c7ff4acc_6240_a213_1ae9_473d3c108079_beonex_com" class="
cite">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<p>Let's rename "WebExtensions" to "MailExtensions" and
"WebExperiments" to "Addon API Experiments".</p>
<p>See below:<br>
</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:c38cfd81-8f4a-227a-30e5-5904ced336c3@beonex.com"
id="mid_c38cfd81_8f4a_227a_30e5_5904ced336c3_beonex_com" class="
cite">
<p> </p>
<p>I think WebExperiments are a also great opportunity for
grass-roots action.</p>
<ol>
<li>Individual addon developers can implement an API that they
are lacking, and use it immediately in their addon, without
waiting for Thunderbird.</li>
<li>Then, they can generalize the API, make it generic for
other addons to use</li>
<li>They can propose the API for inclusion, and seasoned
developers can look over the API, improve it. (This step is
important to keep the public APIs consistent, generic,
stable, and of high quality.)<br>
</li>
<li>It's included in Thunderbird<br>
</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>All addon authors: This is your call to action!</p>
<p>Go and try to implement your addon as MailExtension. You will
miss APIs left and right, everywhere. But with "Addon API
Experiments", you have all the access that you have from a
normal restartless XPCOM addon (without XUL), and you can
implement the APIs you need. Then, proceed with the steps
outlined above, and other addon developers can benefit from it,
and Thunderbird will start to develop a stable (!) API surface
for addons.</p>
<p>With stable addon APIs, the "my addon stopped working after
upgrade" should gradually stop as well.</p>
<p>Please don't expect somebody else to do it for you. The TB
Council or Core devs are too busy keeping Thunderbird running.
This is now up for the addon developers to do, bottom up, grass
roots fashion. Get your hands dirty and help!</p>
<p>FWIW, that's what we did with <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://addons.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/addon/owl-for-exchange/">Owl</a>,
too.<br>
</p>
<p>Ben<br>
</p>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
tb-planning mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tb-planning@mozilla.org">tb-planning@mozilla.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/tb-planning">https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/tb-planning</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>