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Creating our own browser
- Thread starter Geert
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Just because it's impossible...
isn't a reason not to try.
I have no time and can offer no help. As a matter of fact, I am not sure why I am posting, except to say that I deal with social/political issues that people say are "impossible" to solve. Sometimes they're right, but mostly for the wrong reasons (e.g., people get in the way because "no one does it this way" or support their own agendas rather than do what is most helpful). Mostly, though, they're wrong.
If you don't try, you will never know if it was possible or not. My bet is, none of you is so stupid as to think it will be a piece of cake. All of you know it will be a huge amount of work. So if you care about it enough to do it right, more power to you.
Chris
isn't a reason not to try.
I have no time and can offer no help. As a matter of fact, I am not sure why I am posting, except to say that I deal with social/political issues that people say are "impossible" to solve. Sometimes they're right, but mostly for the wrong reasons (e.g., people get in the way because "no one does it this way" or support their own agendas rather than do what is most helpful). Mostly, though, they're wrong.
If you don't try, you will never know if it was possible or not. My bet is, none of you is so stupid as to think it will be a piece of cake. All of you know it will be a huge amount of work. So if you care about it enough to do it right, more power to you.
Chris
Re: re: browsers...
use omniweb and it will only popup when you click a link.
Originally posted by eyelikeart
what I want is a browser that allows me to completely cookies from websites I desginate....and to block out those stupid pop-up advertisements for casino b.s & whatnot...
use omniweb and it will only popup when you click a link.
Re: Re: re: browsers...
use omniweb and it will only popup when you click a link.
also- it will let you block cookies from user designated sites. very nice bowser, shareware. only lack is in javascript somewhat.
i use it as my primary browser now.
use omniweb and it will only popup when you click a link.
also- it will let you block cookies from user designated sites. very nice bowser, shareware. only lack is in javascript somewhat.
i use it as my primary browser now.
Why not start working now to create a simple, working browser and when it works, we can start adding all the "extras" that we want...otherwise we're just going to have a bunch of ideas with no browser..
Re: Re: re: browsers...
does that work right for you? my experience with omniweb, when set to function this way, is that some links you do click on don't work... it was rather annoying, because i liked being able to surpress popups...
pnw
does that work right for you? my experience with omniweb, when set to function this way, is that some links you do click on don't work... it was rather annoying, because i liked being able to surpress popups...
pnw
...not to rain on any parades here, but...
What you guys are talking about is a fairly enormous task.
I used to work for a browser maker (hint, it's not IE) before they were purchased by an ISP (hint, its a crappy ISP).
The move from our 3.0 to our 4.0 release was the result of over sixty people working for 16 months.
If you guys are serious about undertaking this sort of adventure, I would suggest that you get involved with the Mozilla project.
Chimera is what one determined guy can do to make Mozilla better.
If all of you actually have time to do this, working from Mozilla source can make this a viable project, working from scratch makes this a pipe dream.
What you guys are talking about is a fairly enormous task.
I used to work for a browser maker (hint, it's not IE) before they were purchased by an ISP (hint, its a crappy ISP).
The move from our 3.0 to our 4.0 release was the result of over sixty people working for 16 months.
If you guys are serious about undertaking this sort of adventure, I would suggest that you get involved with the Mozilla project.
Chimera is what one determined guy can do to make Mozilla better.
If all of you actually have time to do this, working from Mozilla source can make this a viable project, working from scratch makes this a pipe dream.
One thing to consider, when version 1.0 of Netscape was written, it was called Mosaic, and it was written over several months by three guys (serious programmers).
When it was written, there were no graphics, no Flash, no JavaScript, no css, etc. Only text, and links.
It STILL took several months.
If you want this to be a success (something you can use with pride), you can:
a). Build off the foundation of Mozilla, and add to it
b). Get a warehouse full of engineers, and let them work for a months
If you just want to have fun doing some collaborative programming, you can probably piece together a crippled browser, which won't do anything new or special, over a year or so, from scratch.
A modern browser has at least 100 rule sets it has to adhere by (css1, css2, java, Flash, html rendering, url handling, dhtml, UI, text input, etc.), just to be a plain old browser.
Once you've accounted for those (no small feat), you need to begin addressing the features you want to add, with out breaking any of the existing functionality.
If your collective goal is to get together, and have fun doing a project, without expectation of ending up with a better browser, then more power to you.
If your goal is to create a product which is in some way better than the existing browsers, you will need to start with an existing codebase. Mozilla's is free...
Anyway, I don't really care either way, I'm just offering some advice that will save a lot of collective time & frustration, if indeed, a usable product is your goal.
Well let's get started...choice "a" seems to be the good option here since MR isn't exactly a "warehouse full of engineers"...we need better communication between each other still..but our advice can wait until the techs here come up with a simple browser...
I have ignored this post since it started because I feared it would be about, well, what it's about.
If you don't want to read negative comments that you've already read in this thread, skip to the next post.
You guys have no idea how much work this will be. I think there's been one person so far who's said they can program in Objective-C.
You guys have no idea how much work this will be.
You guys have no idea how much work this will be.
And, did I mention, you guys have no idea how much work this will be?
But, now I'll say what everyone else has said: if you actually start to do anything productive, I'll help.
And now I'll say what everyone else has also said: I can't program in Objective-C.
I'd put big money on us not ever being able to make a browser that can properly display http://www.macrumors.com. I'd love very much to be wrong.
Wait, I did say that you guys have no idea how much work this will be, didn't I?
If you don't want to read negative comments that you've already read in this thread, skip to the next post.
You guys have no idea how much work this will be. I think there's been one person so far who's said they can program in Objective-C.
You guys have no idea how much work this will be.
You guys have no idea how much work this will be.
And, did I mention, you guys have no idea how much work this will be?
But, now I'll say what everyone else has said: if you actually start to do anything productive, I'll help.
And now I'll say what everyone else has also said: I can't program in Objective-C.
I'd put big money on us not ever being able to make a browser that can properly display http://www.macrumors.com. I'd love very much to be wrong.
Wait, I did say that you guys have no idea how much work this will be, didn't I?
do i need to repeat?
you guys have NO idea how difficult this project is...
again?
ok...
you guys have NOOOOOOOO idea how difficult it will be...
just to continue from beej post...
anyway, if u really want to do this (why cant u just wait for chimera), then start-up with mozilla code...
if u actually understand what its written then i will be surprised
take care,
afonso
you guys have NO idea how difficult this project is...
again?
ok...
you guys have NOOOOOOOO idea how difficult it will be...
just to continue from beej post...anyway, if u really want to do this (why cant u just wait for chimera), then start-up with mozilla code...
if u actually understand what its written then i will be surprised
take care,
afonso
Just wondering if the developer's cd that comes with OS X 10.1 (retail) has tools that will be, or could be, useful. I have said cd and am willing to share it (for those that don't already have it or access to a copy).
If anyone wants a copy, use the email feature from here to let me know. Also, I would be very interested in seeing what comes from this. To have a browser that combines the look/feel of ie, but has the stability that is native to OS X would be sweet. Personally, I don't care for the look of either netscape, or the browsers built on the same core. If it could be skinned better, and made more stable, THAT would be a worthy project.
How many here would willingly take part of a project like this, with the potential to take more then a little while (several months) but could yield the ultimate browser (at least for us Mac heads)???
Count me in.
If anyone wants a copy, use the email feature from here to let me know. Also, I would be very interested in seeing what comes from this. To have a browser that combines the look/feel of ie, but has the stability that is native to OS X would be sweet. Personally, I don't care for the look of either netscape, or the browsers built on the same core. If it could be skinned better, and made more stable, THAT would be a worthy project.
How many here would willingly take part of a project like this, with the potential to take more then a little while (several months) but could yield the ultimate browser (at least for us Mac heads)???
Count me in.
10.1 DevCD has all sorts of programs that could come in handy in this project. The most useful one would be Project Builder but it also has various helpful tools (Icon Composer,Java Dev Tools,etc).
I would certainly be willing to put some time into this browser.
I would certainly be willing to put some time into this browser.
I've finished it!
I've made a Mac Rumors browser!
The installation is a bit tricky, but for those of you who want a sneak preview of the product, here's how to install it:
You can skip step 1 if you already have OmniWeb in your Applications folder.
1. Download OmniWeb (direct download) and copy the "OmniWeb" application into /Applications.
2. Download this tiff file (save to disk), and put it in your home directory
3. Open the Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
4. Type: cp Splash.tiff /Applications/OmniWeb.app/Contents/Resources/
5. Open OmniWeb
So there you go... it wasn't hard to do after all!
I've made a Mac Rumors browser!
The installation is a bit tricky, but for those of you who want a sneak preview of the product, here's how to install it:
You can skip step 1 if you already have OmniWeb in your Applications folder.
1. Download OmniWeb (direct download) and copy the "OmniWeb" application into /Applications.
2. Download this tiff file (save to disk), and put it in your home directory
3. Open the Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
4. Type: cp Splash.tiff /Applications/OmniWeb.app/Contents/Resources/
5. Open OmniWeb
So there you go... it wasn't hard to do after all!
I've got a better idea...
...how about people try improving Mozilla, or better Chimera (Mozilla's crippled by being cross platform), instead of starting on their own project. I'm making a simple text only adventure game, and so far I've been working on it 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week, since the start of school. I still have a ton of things to add. However, for those people that insist on making their own, read on. Otherwise skip this next part.
<skip>
What exactly would we change? I'd be willing to put in a vote for Chimera, stripped down to a URL bar, back, forward, and stop buttons, and autocompleting URLs as you type (in other words, a browser that could view pages, and only view pages, but do it really really fast [this is basically what Chimera is doing, but I'm suggesting taking it a step further]).
</skip>
btw, anyone know how to get Omniweb to auto-open the music samples on amazon.com?
...how about people try improving Mozilla, or better Chimera (Mozilla's crippled by being cross platform), instead of starting on their own project. I'm making a simple text only adventure game, and so far I've been working on it 45 minutes a day, 5 days a week, since the start of school. I still have a ton of things to add. However, for those people that insist on making their own, read on. Otherwise skip this next part.
<skip>
What exactly would we change? I'd be willing to put in a vote for Chimera, stripped down to a URL bar, back, forward, and stop buttons, and autocompleting URLs as you type (in other words, a browser that could view pages, and only view pages, but do it really really fast [this is basically what Chimera is doing, but I'm suggesting taking it a step further]).
</skip>
btw, anyone know how to get Omniweb to auto-open the music samples on amazon.com?
Re: I've finished it!
Ha! You know its kinda weird, you're browser has the exact same functionality as OmniWeb.
I've got one thing to say to all of you nay-sayers...you're killing my buzz, man.
It think I might have written this before, but by using Mozilla code, you really get a lot for free. All it would take is a few dedicated programmers with some knowhow of programming to get it running with Aqua. I've looked through the code for Chimera and it isn't all that complicated.
Also, a few of you are making the assumption that people here aren't at all familiar with programming or are incompetent. I, for one, am a programmer by profession and have designed and implemented many rather complicated projects. I have to imagine that others here also have experience.
While making a web browser is a rather complicated project, it is certainly no harder than a lot of the other projects out there. I think one of the reasons that there aren't more fully developed browsers out there is because it is simply not profitable to make them. There is only so much room in the browser market and IE and Netscape fill that room pretty fully.
From my experience and knowledge, I see no reason this task couldn't be tackled by some competent and dedicated programmers.
So who else out there is a programmer. Come on, admit it. Its not *that* embarrassing.
Taft
Ha! You know its kinda weird, you're browser has the exact same functionality as OmniWeb.
I've got one thing to say to all of you nay-sayers...you're killing my buzz, man.
It think I might have written this before, but by using Mozilla code, you really get a lot for free. All it would take is a few dedicated programmers with some knowhow of programming to get it running with Aqua. I've looked through the code for Chimera and it isn't all that complicated.
Also, a few of you are making the assumption that people here aren't at all familiar with programming or are incompetent. I, for one, am a programmer by profession and have designed and implemented many rather complicated projects. I have to imagine that others here also have experience.
While making a web browser is a rather complicated project, it is certainly no harder than a lot of the other projects out there. I think one of the reasons that there aren't more fully developed browsers out there is because it is simply not profitable to make them. There is only so much room in the browser market and IE and Netscape fill that room pretty fully.
From my experience and knowledge, I see no reason this task couldn't be tackled by some competent and dedicated programmers.
So who else out there is a programmer. Come on, admit it. Its not *that* embarrassing.
Taft
Agree, Where can I download the source file, asurace?
I'll try to mess around in it as well
Although, hang on, are we talking about the same thing here?
Is chimera same basically source code, or not, and where would I download the Chimera source code then if not.
Thxs Taft.
OK, I must admit, I'm not a degreed programmer( I'm embarrassed now), I did some programming in basic, VB, pascal, and Applescript is mastered real quickly. Not familiar with others (that I know of of course, although if you count ms-dos,) So I think I got a good base.
But I'm want to start on some real programming, that's why I started the create a browser thread to get in touch with some other interested folks where I could share some thoughts, etc... with.
Seems to me some of you guys really dig such a project, right?
I think we should really go for it.
asap as somebody gives me location where those source codes can be downloaded, I'll start to do some "serious" work hahaha, I mean mess around.