Two years ago I began using Mozilla as a platform for application development.  Non-developers may not realize that Mozilla is more than Firefox, or more than Firefox and Thunderbird.  It certainly can be confusing - after all, Mozilla includes a non-profit foundation and a subsidiary corporation.  It is an open source project, and Firefox is certainly their flagship product.

Firefox (and other Mozilla products) are built using web technologies like Javascript and CSS - and something else called XML User interface Language (XUL).  XUL provides the ability for the user to describe and create a interface in a simple fashion using XML.

Beyond using XUL to create Mozilla applications, Mozilla also offers the technologies up for other people to create their own applications.  In 2007, I began working along-side another developer to use XUL to create a new front-end for an application.  In this series I will share what I've learned and make observations about the use of Mozilla as a platform for application development.

Read Part 2.