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From: "hyatt@mozilla" <rssfeeds@spamassassin.taint.org>
Subject: A Line in the Sand
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:27:41 -0000
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URL: http://www.mozillazine.org/weblogs/hyatt/#85443841
Date: Not supplied
Bug 22056 has to do with enabling different toolbar modes. It's a pretty basic
browser feature that has been missing from Navigator for years. Even simplified
browsers like Chimera have this feature. Neil did some excellent work in 22056
and his code finally landed. It naturally spiked startup time and window time
slightly, and so it ended up being backed out because of Mozilla's no tolerance
policy for regressions.
While this "line in the sand" policy is in many ways a good one, I feel like it
misses the point. There is a natural tendency when designing applications to
add features in every new version of the software. Only rarely do you see
features removed. With each passing version, you get more and more bloated,
relying on faster machines and more memory to save the day. Who cares if the
user interface is now full of 3000 menu items? You still support every last
feature since version 1.0, so no customers can possibly be dissatisfied!
You can really only cram so many features into a product before its size
requirements and performance requirements have to change. This is an obvious
rule. It's like you start with an empty elevator that says "Capacity: 10
people." The elevator stops at the first floor (version 1.0) and a bunch of
people (features) get on. Continuing on its journey, the elevator stops at the
second floor, and still more people get on. The elevator is now full, and it
continues to the third floor (version 3.0). Unfortunately the elevator is full,
but there are a bunch of people waiting at the third floor to get on. Some of
them squeeze in anyway, past the fat person from the first floor (the Mozilla
sidebar feature) who is taking up enough space for 3 people. Everyone wishes
he'd get off at the third floor or even the fourth floor, but he doesn't.
Someone (the Mozilla wallet feature) from the second floor cuts one on the way
to the third floor, so he's useless, and everyone wishes he'd get off too. He
doesn't though. Nobody does. People keep piling in at floor after floor, until
eventually the elevator support cable snaps and everybody dies.
We need to forcibly eject people from the elevator. Remove the features that
nobody wants and replace them with the features that matter. Cull out the
features that didn't work in Mozilla 1.0 and make sure they aren't there in
Mozilla 2.0. Make more of the features optional plugins so that geeks who want
some of the more obscure features (and that have powerhouse machines) can go
download them on their own. Only if we actively fight the trend towards bloat
will we finally produce an awesome Mozilla browser.