Received today. Please discuss, then someone can reply appropriately ;)
J.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:42:53 +0100
From: R-Comp <rcomp(a)rcomp.demon.co.uk>
To: jmb202(a)ecs.soton.ac.uk
Subject: Netsurf acting as plugin for HTML rendering in other applications
Hi there!
I hope I'm writing to the right person regarding Netsurf.
For a long time, WXL has offered itself as a "plugin" via Acorn's
Plugin API to allow other applications to render HTML if required -
indeed, it uses the API itself to do iFrames.
At the moment, if an application wants to render HTML content, it
needs to create its own HTML renderer, which (as we both know) is a
crazy undertaking. As a result, programs like Messenger don't have
much in the way HTML email facilities.
But of course, it isn't just Messenger - I was reading today about one
of the main new features in FileMaker database on the Mac - a database
object that showed web content. Yep, you guessed it, it was basically
an embedded browser object (presumably using whatever HTML renderer is
default on OS-X). A nice feature for DataPower 3, I thought.
And it goes beyond that - with plugin-based HTML rendering
applications could offer HTML-based content (eg. config screens or
other dynamic interface objects) as needed.
Assuming the Acorn Plugin-API meets with your approval, I suspect it
wouldn't be too hard to make NetSurf act as a plugin that other apps
could call to do HTML rendering. Support for this in the main free
browser would make it far more acceptable in terms of use, as everyone
would have access to a plugin-based HTML renderer.
Any thoughts?
Andrew
PS, the other reason I think this would be a great addition to Netsurf
is that for plugin-based rendering, lack of Javascript is actually a
benefit (fewer security issues), and speed is very important - again a
Netsurf strength.
--
R-Comp
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