[libvoikko] Voikko and upcoming changes to Firefox extensions

[Andris Pavenis]

On 03/28/2017 11:52 AM, Henri Sivonen wrote:
> Mozilla has announced that Firefox 57 will only run Web Extensions
> (i.e. Chrome/Opera/Edge-style extensions)
> (https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2017/02/16/the-road-to-firefox-57-compatibility-milestones/).
> That is, it will not run XPCOM extensions like Mozvoikko.
> Additionally, at present, there exists no way for a Web Extension to
> provide a spell checking engine.
>
> I'm interested in finding a solution that would allow Firefox 57 and
> beyond to use Voikko for spell checking. I'm not proposing any action
> yet. First, I'd like to understand the licensing situation, since
> licensing has a direct effect on the potential solution space. I'd
> also like to understand the applicability of Voikko beyond Finnish and
> the code size, which are relevant for analyzing the cost and benefit
> of shipping libvoikko in Firefox itself. (To be clear, this is not a
> proposal to do so. At this time, I'd just like to understand potential
> solution space.)
>
I guess the best could be change Firefox to use enchant. It has been discussed in bugzilla.mozilla.org:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=366427
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=422399

It seems that my old

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=364035

which enabled to add additional spellchecker using addon has slowed down related development (why to
change when one can implement it using  an addon?).

Andris