WeeklyUpdates/2009-06-22

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Development Updates

Branch work: Firefox 3.0.x / Thunderbird 2.0.0.x

• Firefox 3.0.12
  • Missed blockers for code freeze a week ago
  • Still trying to get in a couple more
  • Pushing out release by one week due to blockers missing code freeze
• Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 / Gecko 1.8.1.22
  • Shipping today!

Gecko 1.9.1

• Dan Witte now full time! He's initially working with Taras on static analysis.
• Check out Chris Jones' post on a very raw demo of our ongoing multi-process browser work. This work completes Phase I, and we're really excited to see such great progress so quickly.
• Last week, Andreas Gal, David Anderson, and David Mandelin were in Dublin for PLDI to present their paper Trace-based Just-in-Time Type Specialization for Dynamic Languages, which describes some of the guts of TraceMonkey, the new Javascript engine and a key feature of Firefox 3.5.
• Oh, and no new blockers holding the release. So far.

Firefox 3.5

Firefox 3.5 Release Schedule

• first version of the RC went to 800,000 beta testers on Monday
• second version of the RC went live on Friday afternoon PDT
• will make ship/no-ship evaluation on Wednesday of this week
• still on target for last week of June

Firefox Front End Work

• moved on to .next work

Namoroka

• moving on to TSnap bugs which aim to make Firefox observably faster
• also returning to polish bugs and exploratory sprints
• reminder to review and add your comments/feedback on the discussion page or in the dev-apps-firefox thread

Release Engineering

• FF3.5rc1build1, rc1build2, rc2build1,rc2build2...and today rc3
  • another MU FF3.0.11->FF3.5rc2build2 handed to QA
• TB2.0.0.22 going out today
• converted almost all the talos slaves from "dedicated" to "pool-of-talos-slaves"
  • reduced/eliminated wait times?

QA

Test Execution

• Shipped 3.5RC1 [Testplan], and next day, shipped 3.5RC2 [Testplan]
  • Extra thanks to qa team, build team, and the fx-team for pulling short notices for builds and tests!
• Tested Thunderbird 2.0.0.22
• Investigated bugs for 3.0.12
• Tested Firefox 3.0.11 to 3.5 Major Update
• Worked with Microsoft to test the .NET Framework Assistant patch for Fx3.0, Fx3.5, and Fx3.0->Fx3.5. See results (Thanks AaronMT, tchung)

Web Dev Testing

• Tested and shipped Mozilla Service Week 1.0!
• AMO: Verified 5.0.6 bugs. Testing the new 1.3 version of the Add-ons Collections extension. Created a 5.0.7 test plan
• SUMO: Tested metrics and screencasts
• Spread Firefox redesign: Worked on testing the "Let's party" page

Metrics, Accessibility, Localization, Community

• Community
  • QMO has simplied its homepage and usability. See here. Remember, you can log into #qa channel via the mibbit client on QMO right here.
  • There was a Test Day about MozQA's Website Testing Project on Friday, June 19th. See the results. 5 bugs filed (2 security, of which 1 has severity:critical)
  • There is a Testing Web Properties meet-up - Wednesday, June 24th, 6:30pm in Mountain View, CA. Please RSVP!
  • There is a Berlin Meet-up on Wednesday, June 24
• Accessibility
  • Trying out the new Window-Eyes 7.1 public beta. Marco will include it in his WAI-ARIA shootout.
  • Worked on a number of 3.next bugs
• Metrics - Working with Simon on modifications to warehouse transformations. Working with RE to get the mochitest splitter into code coverage runs set-up. Created checks-in vs bugs data table for review by Robert Strong.

Test Development

• Javascript Ref Tests for browser based tests are up for review: bug 469718
• Mozmill Tinderbox integration is getting closer many thanks to bhearsum and catlee! bug 457265
• Mozmill 1.2 development is still ongoing - in a find fix mode, 3 blockers remaining.
• Got FennecMark up and Running on Tinderbox bug 493057
• Will be having a Fennec Testday on Friday!

Marketing/PR

Firefox 3.5 Launch

• Firefox 3.5 Launch Parties: Call to Action (CTA) is live on the home page of SFx. Directions on how to host a party are here.
• Regional Social Network outreach. We need help updating regional social networks and Mozilla/Firefox groups. Please sign up here if you would like to take on one.

PR'

• Firefox 3.5 RC1 released! Coverage highlights include WIRED, PC Magazine, ZDNet and TechSpot
• Firefox 3.5 press tour coverage in SJ Mercury News, WIRED, TechFlash, CNET, PCWorld, InformationWeek, CNET and NewTeeVee posts about open video
• Sitepoint chats with Nick Nguyen about Jetpack
• New Content Security Policy posted in PC Magazine
• Mozilla Service Week in ReadWriteWeb
• Thinking about upgrading to IE8? Think twice in InfoWorld

Events

• Velocity 2009, June 22-24, 2009, San Jose, CA - Speakers: Dion Almaer, Ben Galbraith & Chris Blizzard. Schedule here.
• FISL 2009, June 24 - 27, 2009, Porto Alegre, Brazil - Kicking off later this week.
• Renegade Craft Festival, July 18 - 19, 2009, San Francisco - Looking to showcase add-ons and demonstrate how to make a persona.
• Maker Faire Africa August 14 - 16, 2009, Accra, Ghana - Working out level of participation. Check out the wiki for early details. Let Sarah know if you are interested in helping. To sign up visit the wiki.

Fastest Firefox

• we're accepting video submissions until 6/28, so please send yours in! Details at http://www.fastestfirefox.com.
• releasing the 3rd world record holder video today - the world's fastest banjo player. Will be on the Fastest Firefox site soon, but you can also view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzgTmF01VL4.

Joining the Team

• we're excited that Jeff Zeller has joined the marketing team as a summer intern. He comes to us from Stanford and will be working on various community marketing projects, including launching the Mozilla Creative Collective.

Evangelism

• Mozilla Developer Center
  • Documentation work is now focused on organization and cleanup work rather than Firefox 3.5 specific material, but we're watching the 35 Days posts to be sure anything they talk about is documented cleanly.
  • Working on developing new plugins for MDC to start augmenting its functionality.
  • Tracking ongoing work for this summer's planned MindTouch wiki software update.

• Chris Blizzard, Mark Surman + Paul Rouget at the open video conference
  • Tons of people there from various segments of the industry - producers, hosters, codec people, companies, browser vendors
  • Great conference, great to work with the open video conference people
  • Got a lot done with the Xiph folks on Theora
  • Got to give a few great demos - great feedback from people as well

Developer Tools

No updates this week.

Webdev

• on-site last week
• AMO 5.0.7 -- work continues

L10n

Firefox 3.5

Web

Tools

Foundation Updates

• We'll be representing Mozilla at FISL in Brazil, where Mark will be speaking about Mozilla Education and open video.
• We continue to prepare for the relaunch of www.mozilla.org:
  • Files on the staging server are being tweaked
  • Current site editors should be aware of the upcoming transition to Subversion
  • Archiving has reduced the number of files from roughly 24,000 to 14,000
  • Pages are being updated to tell more of the Mozilla story
• The discussion about improving Bugzilla is ongoing, check the newsgroup thread and wiki page for the latest.
• We're continuing to work with new Mozilla Education partners and plan new projects:
  • Universidad Rey Juan Carlos will soon be starting its Mozilla technologies course.
  • On next week's Mozilla Education call we'll be discussing a proposed Mozilla course at the University of Evry.
  • We're considering contributing to a proposed textbook on teaching open source.
• Based on Kathleen Wilson's recommendations, we approved CA requests from Kamu SM and Buypass (bugs 381974 and 477028 respectively).

Roundtable

New Interns

We have 3 new interns joining us this week:

• Jeff Zeller (Marketing)
• Pejman Pour-Moezzi (Legal)
• David Keeler (Security)

Show & Tell

Starting this week, we'll have a Show & Tell session at the end of each All-Hands where a small group of interns will give an overview of the progression of their project(s). This week we have the following interns:

• Chris Howse (AMO)
• John Ford (Build)
• Arzhel Younsi (IT)
• Matthew Noorenberghe (FFx)
  • Improved form history
  • Doorhanger notifications