MDC:Documentation Wishlist

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[edit] Make a wish

Is there a specific article or piece of documentation we're missing that you really wish we had? Add it to the list below. Unless you're sure there is no documentation on the topic you're interested in, please ask in the relevant newsgroup and/or on the MDC mailing list first. Also, please make your request easy to understand; add a link to a longer description of the request if needed.

[edit] Fulfill a wish

Do you want to contribute new content to the MDC, but aren't sure where to start? Pick a topic from the list below, research it, and write it up! When you're finished, please delete the item from the list.

If you would like to contribute but don't want to write a whole new document, check out our to do list.

For more information on how to help or how to get started see how to help.

[edit] Wishlist

Read the Make a wish section above before editing.

• JavaScript
  • E4X
    • Introduction to E4X (Is this different than the tutorial?)
    • List E4X functions available/JavaScript (Gecko) Release. (It's in the spec, but we could use some documentation on the website.)
    • E4X tutorial done
  • Introduction to Object-Oriented JavaScript (done)
  • Modifying Object Prototypes in JavaScript
  • Add any missing execCommand commands there may be. "enableInlineTableEditing" for example.
• Introduction to AJAX (we have AJAX:Getting Started, but could use something more elaborate maybe)
• SVG
  • Introduction to SVG: Part 1 What is SVG and how do I create SVG content
  • Introduction to SVG: Part 2 How can I (dynamically) handle/modify SVG content
  • SVG tutorial

• CSS
  • Using CSS Counters (started, but needs expanding)
  • pseudo-class description in CSS
  • CSS Reference (this is under development already, but could use a lot more content)

• Fix the DOM Reference.
  • An entry for document.createElementNS (done)
  • Rework of the documentation, so that you will not end up with phrases that are completely undocumented like "DOM client area" for example (6 google hits, all of which are pure references, non being a definition)done DOM client area.

• Extensions
  • Developing Mozilla Thunderbird Extensions (started: Extensions:Thunderbird)
  • add Signing an XPI to Extension Packaging

• Platform
  • Enable ClearType for easy reading. [1]
  • Writing an Options dialog using Firefox 1.5's new Preferences System
  • Multithreading in JavaScript
  • Reading binary data in JavaScript see File I/O
  • Writing binary data in JavaScript see File I/O
  • wrappedJSObject trick in XPCOM components [2] [3] See wrappedJSObject.
  • Generating hashes in JavaScript using nsICryptoHash See nsICryptoHash
  • SQLite Storage API documentation started
  • Realistic examples of working with protocols. Mozillazine's «Extending the Chrome Protocol» suggests redirecting to «data:» URLs, and Rosenberg's «Adding a New Protocol to Mozilla» suggests redirecting to «javascript:» URLs, but a real example would involve returning a new custom channel, altering asyncOpen, using nsIScriptableUnicodeConverter for UTF-8 output, as Brian Fernandes inquired.

• Mozilla development
  • Short page talking about the subset of doxygen markup that we use in IDL files
  • Docs for tree-wide preprocessor macros (NS_ENSURE_SUCCESS, NS_ASSERTION, NS_SUCCEEDED, NS_ADDREF, NS_RELEASE, etc.) -- probably their definitions if not too abstruse and a brief description of use
    • Some of these docs have been started, see Category:XPCOM_Macros
  • Docs for tree-wide types (PRBool, PRUint32, nsresult, whatever other non-class non-standard types are used)
  • 'Bird's-eye view' articles on the architecture of the browser, of mail&news, etc.
  • An up-to-date article outlining the process contributing code, linked from Developing Mozilla. (making sure the bug you're fixing is not invalid or wontfix, maybe checking that overall direction of the fix is correct (e.g. when implementing UI), making changes, testing, Creating a patch, picking r/sr/ui-r people, getting the patch checked in). See also Hacking Firefox --Nickolay 01:15, 27 January 2007 (PST)
  • step by step mozilla development on scratcbox

• Misc. Unclear requests will be eventually deleted. This is not the place for Firefox feature requests.
  • Tips & Tricks for creating usable interfaces
  • Drag and Drop of objects within tabs (what does this mean?)
  • some doc/example for selectedIndex in Javascript DOM (which selectedIndex?)