THEY'RE REWRITING THUNDERBIRD IN JAVASCRIPT >Summary:
> * Our base goes away. Gecko will change dramatically in the future, > and dropping many features that Firefox does not need anymore, but > that Thunderbird relies on. > * Our codebase is now roughly 20 years old. It heavily and > intrinsically relies on those very Gecko technologies that are now > being faded out, more or less aggressively. > * JavaScript and HTML5 have evolved dramatically. Entire applications > in JS are now realistic, and have been done. There are several > existing JS libraries we might leverage. JavaScript is an efficient > language, which allows fast development. A rewrite in JavaScript > makes sense now. > * We will learn from shortcomings of existing Thunderbird, and solve > them, for example a more flexible address book, and cleanly > supporting virtual folders without overhead. > * The goal of the rewrite is to be close to the existing Thunderbird, > in UI and features, as a drop-in replacement for end users, without > baffling them. They should immediately recognize the replacement as > the Thunderbird they love. It will install and run as normal desktop > application, like Thunderbird does today. It keeps user data local > and private. > * We can also make a new, fresh desktop UI, as alternative to the > traditional one, for new users. The technology also gives us the > option to run it as mobile app. > * While we implement the new version of Thunderbird, the old codebase > based on Gecko will be maintained until the rewrite is ready to > replace the old one. > * I expect this effort to take roughly 3 years: 1 year until some > dogfood (usable by some developers and enthusiasts). 2 years until a > basic feature set is there. 3 years until we can replace Thunderbird.
Why wouldn't they rewrite it in Rust? It's a meme language, but that would at least make sense for a desktop application, and would fit in with Mozilla's decision to use Rust for their new CSS engine in Firefox.
Nicholas Lopez
mutt is a console client, isn't it? What are good GUI mail clients?
Henry Smith
Anything more concrete than a few proposals and discussions in a mailing list from march 2017?
Looking at the most recent messages mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/tb-planning/2018-February/005807.html >So de facto it is very likely that Thunderbird is betting on a future based on Gecko and the current code base All in all it sounds like they still haven't figured out what to do and where to head.
Nicholas Mitchell
Claws is half-decent, but DESU, nothing is as comfy as Thunderbird.
Lucas Sullivan
This seems to be as close to official news as it gets. Though most of it is uninteresting mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/tb-planning/2018-February/005797.html >As mentioned earlier, we are now hiring for one or more developers. >This is part of the plan to provide Thunderbird with a bright >future, but it will require some experimentation and prototyping. >There has been discussion on a full rewrite vs. a gradual change and >the opinions are a bit split on this. To make progress on this issue >we are going to test the options with the Thunderbird address book.
So OP is definitely wrong. There is no rewrite in JavaScript planned at this point.
Eli Roberts
Sylpheed?
Nicholas Foster
With the recent Firefox curbstomp, I can't say I'm surprised they lined up the best mail client for the same treatment.
Robert Long
>the faggot that gave interviews for that jew idiot promised this wouldn't happen >they are doing it anyway hahahaha, i literally trust nothing and no one that has ever touched sjwzilla shit, bunch of fucking backstabbers
Justin Green
guessing this means electron
rust doesn't have mature bindings for any graphical toolkits
Isaac Price
>>they are doing it anyway Proof? OP's 'source' is a year-old discussion from a mailing list. It doesn't mean anything.
Ethan Ward
>using an email client the last time i used a client was outlook in the early 2000s'. much easier and secure to just log into the website. what if someone gains access to your computer? then they have all of your emails too. fuck that.
Logan Mitchell
?
Anthony Cooper
>JavaScript is an efficient language Holy fucking shit. Dis must be b8.
Samuel Morales
It is. You fell for it.
Carson Anderson
never us a GUI client. use NMH. MIME was a mistake.
Carson Hernandez
Hello Sup Forumsentoomen I have been using Thunderbird for ages and I dont know what the fuck Javascript even is, tell me if this is good or bad.
Aiden Robinson
>"what if someone gains access to your computer? then they have all of your emails too" >not using IMAP
Logan Jenkins
might as well use the webmail client then.
Jaxson Howard
currently got 6 adresses with important content. A native client is mandatory if I don't want to lose my mind with 6 differents windows open at any given time in my browser.
Ian Hall
This is the perfect time for Mozilla to make something similar to Electron but backed by Firefox.
Gavin Reyes
That's just one guy's opinion. There is still time to do something else, but only if some developer somewhere takes action instead of bike shedding.
Write it in C++ and be done with it.
Lucas Sanchez
I think that's fine. I've been using thunderbird for years but it's clear that they're just scraping by on older devs who are still knowledgeable about Gecko/XUL work. In a few years what was already a niche skill will just be gone. Their option is to adapt or die out because there won't be anyone left to contribute to the project.
Christopher Kelly
god forbid
Jack Richardson
>JavaScript
Nolan Turner
Outlook 2010 Master Race Who tf need thundermeme
Jacob Lewis
>what if someone gains access to your computer? If someone has physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore.
Samuel Myers
To be fair, modern JS isn't nearly as bad as it was 10 years ago. Still, that doesn't justify what we're currently seeing. JS should be phased out everywhere, not metastasized throughout the industry.
I blame webdevs who want to pretend like they're real programmers.
David Jackson
Criticizing technology choice isn't bikeshedding.
And a full featured e-mail client isn't written by one person.
