Friend of Add-ons: Yuki Hiroshi

piro-photoPlease meet our newest Friend of Add-ons: Yuki “Piro” Hiroshi. A longtime add-on developer with 37 extensions and counting (he’s most proud of Tree Style Tab and Second Search), Hiroshi also recently filed more than two dozen high-impact WebExensions bugs.

Hiroshi recently recounted his experience porting one of his XUL add-ons to WebExtensions in the hopes that he could help support fellow add-on developers through the transition. He likens XUL to an “experimental laboratory” that over the past decade allowed us to explore the possibilities of a customized web browser. But now, Hiroshi says, we need to “go for better security and stability” and embrace forward-thinking API’s that will cater to building richer user experiences.

While add-ons technology is evolving, Hiroshi’s motivation to create remains the same. “It’s an emotional reason,” he says, which took root when he first discovered the power of a Gecko engine that allowed him to transform himself from being a mere hobbyist to a true developer. “Mozilla is a symbol of liberty for me,” Hiroshi explains. “It’s one of the legends of the early days of the web.”

When he’s not authoring add-ons, Hiroshi enjoys reading science fiction and manga. A recent favorite is The Hyakumanjo Labyrinth, a “bizarre adventure story” that takes place on an infinity field beyond space and time within an old Japanese apartment building.

Do you contribute to AMO in some fashion? If so, don’t forget to add your contributions to our Recognition page!

One comment on “Friend of Add-ons: Yuki Hiroshi”

  1. Noitidart wrote on

    Very nice. One of the most well known add-on devs. Yuki, I agree with you on a XUL-less and XBL-less future. I also support a no XPCOM future. I hope for Services.jsm to be rewired to Rust or whatever transformations as it happens – as I think it includes the bare necessities anything call itself a browser/browser-extension requires access to. But what’s your thoughts on native.js (framescripts, ChromeWorkers)?