The Rumbling Edge

Written on 13 Jan 2008, last updated 20 Oct 2008.

With the conclusion of Thunderbird 1.5.0.x ending with the possible last major update to Thunderbird 2.0.0.x, it is now time to refocus on trunk development that has occurred ever since Gecko 1.8 got branched on 12 August 2005 >2.5 years ago.

I came up with a query that tracks development on trunk builds that did not make it to 1.5 or 2.0, and the following are some examples of notable fixes that have made it (or will be making it) into Thunderbird 3. Please note that the list is not meant to be comprehensive, and some bugs in the query itself may not be relevant. Work-in-progress bugs may not necessarily make it into version 3.

Fixed:

• 16913 – Filter news based on any headers
• 90584 – charset=… must be applied to non-MIME Subject:/From:/To:/etc. fields
• 203927 – [Mac] Make use of Mac OS X’s Address Book
• 226468 – "Add to BCC:" button added in Contacts sidebar
• 254031 – DOM inspector from AMO now works in Thunderbird
• 261512 – Show number of selected messages in status bar
• 308552 – [Mac] Growl Integration for Mail Alerts on Mac OS X
• 319778 – Replace MySpell with HunSpell
• 326469 – [Mac] Support for Cocoa widgets by default
• 379396 – Enable Breakpad Support In Thunderbird
• 381041 – Shift-Del Behavior Should Work On Toolbar Button and Menus
• 413077 – Fake server testing scheme for mailnews/
• 414674 – AMO integration for Thunderbird
• Remove pre-Win2k support – bugs 327675, 330276, 359808 (can be regarded as fixed)
• Remove 10.2+ (Jaguar) support on Gecko 1.9 – Gran Paradiso 3 Alpha 1 release notes announcement, bug 363629
• Remove 10.3+ (Panther) support on Gecko 1.9 – Gran Paradiso 3 Alpha 7 release notes announcement, bug 388444
• Lots of backend changes (Architectural cleanup) – bugs 33451, 71535, 115324, 132180, 250811, 257386, 287832, 379431, 387712, 397457 etc.
• More architectural changes can be found at Jesse Ruderman’s "Unofficial Firefox Trunk Changelog".

Work-in-progress: (Can be anything from enhancements to blockers)

• Global database
• Replace mork with something better (SQLite?) – bugs 11050, 382876 – possibly NOT making TB3
• Hide/Mute quoted text – bug 35929 – possibly NOT making TB3
• Make LDAP addressbooks editable – bug 86405 – possibly NOT making TB3
• Tabbed messaging – bug 218999 – possibly making TB3
• Thunderbird should use the new password manager – bug 239131 – possibly making TB3
• Add AND / OR searching to quick search – bug 240454 – possibly making TB3
• Build/run Thunderbird on top of XULRunner – bug 306324 – possibly NOT making TB3
• Show Address Book Contact Information in tooltips – bug 342580 – status unknown
• Add ability to "Copy Email Address" from Address Book Card Pane – bug 365421 – status unknown
• Lots of in-progress backend changes (Architectural cleanup) – bugs 377319, 379070, 394167, 395701 etc. – status unknown
• Clean up (and document) nsNNTPProtocol – bug 400331 – status unknown
• Refactor the Address Book interfaces – bug 413260 – possibly making TB3
• Outlook Express/Outlook parity bugs – bug 423488 – status unknown

The main query (~130 bugs) (~650) can be found here. A separate query similar to the main one, but for assigned and reopened bugs (~60) (~300) is also available.

<jargon>Main query goes like this: all thunderbird components + all mailnews components except installer, security and build config. No keywords: fixed-aviary1.0* fixed1.4* fixed1.8*, verified1.8*, crash, topcrash, regression, footprint, mlk. Marked resolved, verified, closed, fixed. Duration from 2005-08-12 to 2008-01-10, with resolution turning into fixed during this period. All have target milestone of mozilla1.9*, mozilla2.0, thunderbird 3 or future. -Edited to remove "footprint" keyword and target milestones.</jargon> (The focus is till 2008-01-10 trunk builds)

Sidenote: Eudora is now at version 8.0.0b4.

"Eudora is a mail and news application from Qualcomm based on the open source Thunderbird client from Mozilla. It’s *not* our intention to compete with Thunderbird; rather, we want to complement it." There may be a point in time in the future where Eudora features may make it into Thunderbird and vice versa, by complementing each other.

Feel free to add details below by posting a comment and providing a bug number if you see one worthy of making the list above.

Edit 1 (2008-01): Added more stuff. Incorporated changes suggested by James Napolitano. Split into fixed (green) and work-in-progress (red) categories. Added more bugs and architectural notes. Removed colours which made it difficult to read. Added demorkification & Mac Growl support bugs. Links to related blog posts about mork and its issues.

Edit 2 (2008-02): More bugs fixed. Mozilla Add-ons integration added. More in-progress bugs. Eudora 8.0.0b3 released.

Edit 3 (2008-03): More bugs fixed.

Edit 4 (2008-10): Updated statuses, Mac Growl integration and fakeserver testing bugs fixed. Eudora now at 8.0.0b4.