How obsolete is "Creating Applications with Mozilla"? (the book)

Question

I have the book "Creating Applications with Mozilla", though I haven't read it yet. According to the book's web site at http://books.mozdev.org/, It is "very out of date."

How out of date is it? Is it a decent reference, but doesn't cover new APIs, or is the stuff it covers things you shouldn't be using anymore? Is it decent as a XUL/XBL/X?? Language reference, or has that moved on so much that it's no good. Can I even run the examples, or will I have to downgrade to an older version of mozilla?

Answer 1

It's (c) 2002 and the name (Mozilla instead of Firefox) should tell you something. Programming Firefox (c) 2007 is probably a better idea if you are looking for an O'Reilly book on XUL.

(edit: the XUL Tutorial is pretty decent and is free online. There's a PDF version of it that was created in 2006)

Answer 2

It's slightly less obsolete than Notepad for Dummies.

Answer 3

I do quite a lot of app development on the Mozilla platform. That book was never very good even when it was up to date.

Unfortunately the Mozilla platform is changes very frequently and it is difficult, even for it's developers, to keep up with it. The best resource, and getting better all the time, is the extensive documentation wiki:

https://developer.mozilla.org/

However, the frequent changes mean the platform is alive and doing well, and I would really recommend getting to know it better.

Answer 4

I totally agree that Mozilla platform changes very frequently! I am developing XUL-based WCMS myself for about 5 years and I am running in troubles with every Gecko upgrade.

But the very basic things didn't change. I guess that you can refer to the book for the beginning but once you will need something more complex use the Mozilla Development Centre.