Bit Stampede

Here, for your amusement/enjoyment/derision, is my log of the more noteworthy things I accomplished this week.

• Updated the HTML5 audio element doc for the new preload attribute, and updated the nsIDOMHTMLMediaElement documentation to match.
• Documented the new :valid, :invalid, :required, and :optional CSS pseudo-classes.
• Documented the document.mozSetImageElement() method.
• Updated docs for the JavaScript NaN, Infinity, and undefined global objects to note they’re now read only.
• Documented date.toJSON().
• Documented the new tabbrowser.getIcon() method, and, while I was at it, the previously undocumented tabbrowser.setIcon() method.
• Documented the aysncClose() method, and added a bit about closing database connections.
• Documented the tabs.tabbox XUL property.
• Documented HTTPS Strict Transport Security.
• Fixed documentation of related to bug 11011 by cleaning up the :-moz-broken documentation and adding docs for :-moz-user-disabled and :-moz-suppressed. These are old Firefox 3 (Gecko 1.9) items that were mis-documented due to a communication snafu.
• Documented :-moz-placeholder.
• Documented :-moz-loading.
• Documented :-moz-handler-blocked, :-moz-handler-crashed, and :-moz-handler-disabled.
• Documented the new drawintitlebar XUL attribute.
• Updated a number of pages with minor notes not worth mentioning specifically.
• Cleaned up a bunch of pages.
• Copy-editing!

That’s a lot of miscellaneous stuff written up this week! On top of that, we rolled out the next phase of the big MDN upgrade this week (which admittedly I personally had very little to do with, other than some very minor fixes to the skin for the documentation wiki pages).

There are plenty of big things left to document, but even more little ones. My tentative plan for next week is to start by working on the new audio API documentation now that that’s landed.

Obviously, Janet and I are heads-down working on Firefox 4 documentation these days. I thought today would be a good day to share a bit about what’s going on there.

Help us help you help others

First off, my traditional plea: if you’ve got code you’re working on that even might impact documentation, please add the “dev-doc-needed” keyword to the relevant bug or bugs. This will bring it to the attention of the writers. If there isn’t a relevant bug (or the relevant bug is extremely arcane), you can alternatively just add a blurb to the Firefox 4 for developers page or the New in JavaScript 1.8.5 page, as appropriate.

New and updated documentation

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s see what I’ve been up to, writing-wise. Having finally battled my way out of a crippling, multi-month writer’s block attack, material has finally started pouring out in quantity again in the last week or so.

• The js-ctypes documentation is now finally complete. I’m not yet totally satisfied with the organization of the material, but it’s got all the facts in place now. I’ve requested a technical review of that documentation.
• The buffered attribute on audio and video elements is now documented, as are the underlying XPCOM and DOM interfaces.
• The DOM window.mozPaintCount property has been documented.
• I’ve written up the X-FRAME-OPTIONS HTTP response header.
• Added the new page Securing your site, which provides convenient links to articles about web site security.
• Updated the documentation for the JavaScript Date object to indicate the new support for ISO 8601 dates.

That’s some real progress. Lots left to do, of course, but that’s always the case, right?