Just finished my new web browser!

[guitarmaster18]

I have entitled it Lightbrowser. Lightbrowser is, as the name implies, a very light web browser. It very fast and renders web pages faster than Safari or Firefox. I developed it using leoaprd. The rendering engine is WebKit. Bookmark capability will be added shortly. You can download it here.


My website is: http://www.xiotios.com

I hope you like it!

Hey, has anyone tried this out yet? I just updated it and the new version has bookmarks...

 

[Mechcozmo]

On the website, by "we" do you mean "I"? There's no shame in being a single-man development team.

It crashed when I clicked the "+" button on the toolbar. That is the zoom-in button, right? I couldn't really tell...you should make those buttons more visually distinctive.

 

[guitarmaster18]

On the website, by "we" do you mean "I"? There's no shame in being a single-man development team.

It crashed when I clicked the "+" button on the toolbar. That is the zoom-in button, right? I couldn't really tell...you should make those buttons more visually distinctive.

What Mac OS are you using?

Do you have any other comments? Recomendations?

thanks

 

[lallenlowe]

Quick suggestion

I really like your browser, so small so fast so clean. Great. One thing though, the forward button does not work. Keep up the good work!

 

[Mac OS X Ocelot]

No problems with the + button for me. Although, you should make CMD+[ and CMD+] go back and forward like Safari and the Finder. That's how I have my mouse set up. Tooltips on the toolbar would be nice, as would the option for smaller icons. What is the X? All in all, it is very fast.

Edit: is it using my Safari cookies? It had me logged into MR already.

 

[guitarmaster18]

No problems with the + button for me. Although, you should make CMD+[ and CMD+] go back and forward like Safari and the Finder. That's how I have my mouse set up. Tooltips on the toolbar would be nice, as would the option for smaller icons. What is the X? All in all, it is very fast.

Edit: is it using my Safari cookies? It had me logged into MR already.

Ok, I'll add that command into the app, and yes I programmed it to import your safari cookies. I'll fix the forward button too.

Thanks so much for all of your comments!

PS: The X is the stop loading button...

 

[gojaromeiginla]

Wow. Great browser. That's a sweet piece of work. I'm still sticking to Firefox for most things, but if I require speed, I'll use your browser.

 

[Mac OS X Ocelot]

Ok, I'll add that command into the app, and yes I programmed it to import your safari bookmarks, and I'll fix the forward button too.

Thanks so much for all of your comments!

PS: The X is the stop loading button...

Ah. I'd have gotten that if I used that function more. It's easier for me just to press the Back button on my mouse. That's just one of my things though.

 

[guitarmaster18]

Ok, I have a new build with a fixed forward button, back/forward commands, and greatly improved bookmarks (a bookmark bar). I'm just wondering, which do you prefer to configure them, a pop out drawer or a window?

 

[Mac OS X Ocelot]

Ok, I have a new build with a fixed forward button, back/forward commands, and greatly improved bookmarks (a bookmark bar). I'm just wondering, which do you prefer to configure them, a pop out drawer or a window?

I prefer in window. Also, the browser has crashed several times when I try to click the Lightbrowser menu in the menu bar. What about a home button and keyboard shortcut? History and bookmars menus?

EDIT: Also, it's not remembering window size/position. That'd be great too.

 

[guitarmaster18]

New build!

I've now finished the new build, Lightbrowser v. 1.0!

New:
- Cmd+[ and Cmd+] back and forward support
- Bookmarks Bar!
- Home button
- More bug fixes
- History coming soon!

Thank you again for all the comments, and please also test this version to help me add features and fix bugs.

Well, thanks!

My website: http://www.xiotios.com

Download link: http://www.xiotios.com/Lightbrowser.dmg

 

[Mechcozmo]

What Mac OS are you using?

Do you have any other comments? Recomendations?

thanks

10.5

Downloads should integrate with Growl so that I know when they're done.

 

[admiraldennis]

Oh look, another WebKit browser.

Pretty cool as a learning experience, but man are those some ugly buttons.

Wow. Great browser. That's a sweet piece of work. I'm still sticking to Firefox for most things, but if I require speed, I'll use your browser.

It's not going to be any faster than Safari; they both render using WebKit.

 

[guitarmaster18]

10.5

Downloads should integrate with Growl so that I know when they're done.

Ah, good idea. Thank you for the suggestions.

About the ugly buttons, would it make them look better if I put them inside of a button, like the ones in safari?

 

[twoodcc]

hey, i'll try it out when i get back to my mac

 

[neonblue2]

It's not going to be any faster than Safari; they both render using WebKit.

Not necessarily. A browser using a more recent version of WebKit will most likely be faster. But I don't see anything to say that Lightbrowser is using a newer version. One thing that does make it a little faster though is that it doesn't support RSS feeds (using more bandwidth to process the feed links).

 

[Mechcozmo]

Ah, good idea. Thank you for the suggestions.

About the ugly buttons, would it make them look better if I put them inside of a button, like the ones in safari?

Safari's buttons are very good because they distinguish themselves from the background while also communicating their purpose in the foreground without being distracting to the eye. Apple knows how to make pretty GUIs . I don't have graphics software (I used to have an old version of Photoshop, but it isn't a UB, and I have nowhere near enough money to buy a copy of CS3) otherwise I'd make you a mockup of a button for your browser.

 

[Cromulent]

Safari's buttons are very good because they distinguish themselves from the background while also communicating their purpose in the foreground without being distracting to the eye. Apple knows how to make pretty GUIs . I don't have graphics software (I used to have an old version of Photoshop, but it isn't a UB, and I have nowhere near enough money to buy a copy of CS3) otherwise I'd make you a mockup of a button for your browser.

GIMP is free and very good .

 

[Mechcozmo]

GIMP is free and very good .

Ever try using it? I'd love to, but Photoshop and GraphicConverter's interface have spoiled me. I know that there is a plugin but haven't really researched it much. Plus, it uses X11 last I heard... which I'm not so keen on. I like my Aqua (even though it isn't very Aqua-ish anymore, can I still use that term?).

But let's not get off-topic. I'm keeping my eyes on ChocoFlop which is pretty cool looking, but also pretty alpha.

 

[lofight]

nice! not going to use it, because it lacks a lot, but it's very nice if you worked alone or with some friend on it! the load icon stays there even if the page is loaded

 

[maxrobertson]

Here's some feedback:

• It's really fast
• It's really ugly (mainly the toolbar buttons)
• You should make the bookmark system more like other bookmark systems
• Use the standard system toolbar. I don't like where the buttons are placed, and using the normal toolbar would alleviate that problem.
• Make the toolbar icons more visually distinctive. Don't use + and - for zooming in, because + has been used for bookmarks and many other uses. In most applications, there's an A with an up arrow for bigger text, or a big A for bigger text and a smaller A or A with a down arrow for smaller text.
• Your menus are not standard. For example, New Window should be at the top of the file menu. A lot of the time people like me don't even look at the menu, we just know where they should be, especially in apps like web browsers that try to be similar to eachother.
• You need tabs

Good job! and good luck with it

 

[spyker3292]

Ever try using it? I'd love to, but Photoshop and GraphicConverter's interface have spoiled me. I know that there is a plugin but haven't really researched it much. Plus, it uses X11 last I heard... which I'm not so keen on. I like my Aqua (even though it isn't very Aqua-ish anymore, can I still use that term?).

But let's not get off-topic. I'm keeping my eyes on ChocoFlop which is pretty cool looking, but also pretty alpha.

The Naked Light beta comes out in... 15 minutes. www.naked.la

 

[guitarmaster18]

Here's some feedback:

• It's really fast
• It's really ugly (mainly the toolbar buttons)
• You should make the bookmark system more like other bookmark systems
• Use the standard system toolbar. I don't like where the buttons are placed, and using the normal toolbar would alleviate that problem.
• Make the toolbar icons more visually distinctive. Don't use + and - for zooming in, because + has been used for bookmarks and many other uses. In most applications, there's an A with an up arrow for bigger text, or a big A for bigger text and a smaller A or A with a down arrow for smaller text.
• Your menus are not standard. For example, New Window should be at the top of the file menu. A lot of the time people like me don't even look at the menu, we just know where they should be, especially in apps like web browsers that try to be similar to eachother.
• You need tabs

Good job! and good luck with it

Wow, thank you for such a huge list of recommendations!

*Gives himself a slap in the forehead* Why didn't I use a toolbar in the first place? Duh!

Good point about the menu items

Tabs will be coming out in probably around a month or so, I'm swamped with other stuff right now.

Sorry about the uglyness, I am not much of a graphic designer (obviously).

So, over all, awesome feedback and very useful too. Just what I was looking for. I will certainly implement some of these features in 1.1!

Thanks,
Guitarmaster18

 

[isleofjib]

very cool. i have a lot of respect for people who are able to do this kind of thing. kudos to you and great job. my critique is that the interface is bland and somewhat counterintuitive. i certainly wouldn't call it ugly. but it could be spruced up a bit. things i'd like to see are cmd+enter automatically adds .com when typing in the address bar. delete go back a page. bookmarks. tabs. adblock (lol). it is very fast loading most pages. i'll certainly be following your work to see where you take it. keep it up!

 

[guitarmaster18]

very cool. i have a lot of respect for people who are able to do this kind of thing. kudos to you and great job. my critique is that the interface is bland and somewhat counterintuitive. i certainly wouldn't call it ugly. but it could be spruced up a bit. things i'd like to see are cmd+enter automatically adds .com when typing in the address bar. delete go back a page. bookmarks. tabs. adblock (lol). it is very fast loading most pages. i'll certainly be following your work to see where you take it. keep it up!

Maybe you missed it, but it has bookmarks and I configured the go back command to be Cmd+[. Also, the back arrow does work when pressing delete... Good idea about the .com thing, I'll get to work on that right away. Adblock is also a very good idea.

Thanks