[Greasemonkey] Greasemonkey or a filtering proxy?

[Jeff Barr]

Let's not overlook some seemingly simple yet important 
differences between GM and an extension:

1 - GM contains infrastructure and UI to control which pages 
    are processed by each script. Simple enough for anyone 
to build, but having this centralized certainly makes it 
easier to get started.

2 - GM scripts are distributed in plaintext. Getting at the 
script inside of an XPI takes a couple of unzips. Again, 
simple, but an obstacle to "view source" sharing, learning, 
and innovation.

3 - To write a GM script, all you have to do is to create a 
text file. You don't have to write any XML, RDF, or anything 
else. There's no packaging step. Yes, once again, simple, 
but a barrier.

IMHO, the fact that GM obviates the need to negotiate each 
of these small barriers makes it materially easy to develop 
a GM script than an extension.

Jeff;

Jeremy Dunck wrote:
> On 9/10/05, Aaron Boodman <zboogs at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>What becomes the difference between Greasemonkey and an extension. Why
>>have both? Does this philisophical question even matter?
>>
>>Well, Greasemonkey becomes a system optimized for creating
>>site-specific extensions. Hopefully they would continue to be easy to
>>install, not requiring a reboot. 
> 
> 
> Extension reboots are gone in Deer Park, right?
> 
> 
>>The development model continues to be easy, we guess as much as we can
>>and don't require a bunch of boilerplate code. We still support the
>>single installable script.
> 
> 
> So.  Perhaps Greasemonkey becomes a jail, extension compiler, and
> simple/useful API provider.  Same user script code, same API, same dev
> approach, just different way to run the code.
> 
> Sometimes, philosophy is all that keeps you from seeing clearly.
> 
> Well over a year ago, Simon and I discussed making a user style sheet
> sharing tool, with the idea that a few people contributing style
> sheets for the masses would succeed; Zen Garden for everyone.
> 
> Of course, when GM came out, that idea died, because you can add CSS
> with a user script quite easily.  But no one's been sharing style
> sheet flavors since mostly GM's used for feature tweaks.
> 
> Life is funny.
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