[sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

[David Van Assche]

Hi,
   We (I) are indeed porting Gears to browse (the main reason being offline
Moodle), and I'd like to be informed if the standard browser for the XO
changes, so I know what else to port to, but for now, the majority of the
work has been done, and the source code allows for integration with a wide
variety of browsers (from konquerer and safari, to Opera and IE6) so using a
custom browser (as long as its based on XULRunner 1.8 or 1.9) is no problem.
There has also been some thought as to whether to make a plugins/extensions
capable attachment to browse (for now the plugins seems to work ok) that
would be compatible with FF3 extensions... but this has not been decided
yet. Documentation on all of this is not only lacking, its non existent on
the web too... I'll try to remedy some of this, after the plugin has been
implemented... for future projects with similar goals...

Kind Regards,
David Van Assche

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:06 AM, Carol Lerche <cafl at msbit.com> wrote:

> The UI seems pretty important to me, but obviously that's a matter of
> taste.  Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.  Correct operation of websites
> that fail with the extant browser.  Direct availability of plugins and
> addons.  One example:  scrapbook, a superb research tool.  Another example
> Google Gears (according to a recent mail being ported, presumably  because
> the browser is not standard).  I am not familiar with the Firefox codebase,
> and perhaps all these things are directly available so long as the Firefox 3
> engine is there, but if so, there desperately needs to be a detailed body of
> documentation telling how to access these capabilities.
>
> On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:56 PM, Bobby Powers <bobbypowers at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> 2008/7/7 Carol Lerche <cafl at msbit.com>:
>> > Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox
>> > browser or an Apache server.  GTK based as well as web based software to
>> > create certs also already exists.   What sort of patch are you looking
>> for?
>> > I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate
>> a
>> > request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser.   The issue
>> of
>> > certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is
>> > difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it
>> is
>> > important to be clear about the requirements.  When you describe the
>> > overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs?  Examining
>> them
>> > when someone first logs on?
>> >
>> > I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a
>> > requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server.  To
>> me,
>> > the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this
>> > trade off should be considered.
>>
>> Can you explain these benefits?  Both Gecko and WebKit are standard
>> browser engines.  I don't see much to be gained from a UI perspective
>> (which presumably is what you're taking about?) by switching to FF3.
>> Performance is the only compelling reason I see.
>>
>> Bobby
>>
>> > On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff <
>> martin.langhoff at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche <cafl at msbit.com> wrote:
>> >> > Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
>> >> > certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
>> >> > (assuming a properly configured server).
>> >>
>> >> I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am
>> >> fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead
>> >> and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get
>> >> to implement it.
>> >>
>> >> Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this
>> >> is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some
>> >> fantastic patches :-)
>> >>
>> >> cheers,
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> m
>> >> --
>> >>  martin.langhoff at gmail.com
>> >>  martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
>> >>  - ask interesting questions
>> >>  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
>> >>  - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on
>> the
>> > roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> > Devel at lists.laptop.org
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>> >
>> >
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the
> roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin
>
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