Mozilla devs - you are being stupid!

[nimitzbrood]

July 20, 2011 6:59 AM 7/20/11

Just give us a “Allow incompatible plugins.” button already!

I’m damn damn damn sick of updating my browser and Thunderbird and LOSING FUNCTIONALITY!!!

STOP! IT!

I mean at _least_ allow two versions previous. That gives time for the plugin developers to catch up.

This keeps up and there will be no reason for me not to go back to Safari or Chrome and Apple’s Mail.app for my daily usage.

I’m pretty complacent about some of this stuff so if _I’m_ pissed off there’s got to be a whole lot of other users irritated by this.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

You do know that the majority of those 'incompatible' add-ons are the result of the .xpi having a line of code that defines which versions they are for, both lower and upper...

It's easy enough to fix, download and save the .xpi Open it with your archive manger and look for file called install.rdf, open that witha text editor and look for the lines:
3.0

6.0a1

and edit the maxVersion value appropriately, save the edited file [in the .xpi obviously] and then open the .xpi with firefox and install as normal.

Functionality isn't guaranteed, but 9 times out of ten it works.

[siliconshaman]

Oops, html fail.. ok look for lines reading
< em: minVersion > 3.0 < /em: minVersion >
< em: maxVersion > X.X < /em: maxversion >

Only without the spaces of course.

[nimitzbrood]

Oh I know that works and I've done it but there's no practical reason why I should have to hack my own plugins just to keep up with Mozilla's absurd update schedule.

I mean I can put maxversion == 50 or something but don't you think that's a little insane to have to do? *sigh*

Rant Mode Off.

[siliconshaman]

Ah.. ok I thought it possible you might know that, but it's best to be sure. and yeah, sometimes you look at the 'updated' versions and wonder what they changed..other than breaking stuff.

I guess someone forgot to tell Mozilla, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.