[sldev] [VWR] What about Dillo

[Argent Stonecutter]

On 07-Nov-2007, at 13:43, Callum Lerwick wrote:
> On Tue, 2007-11-06 at 20:05 -0800, SL - Farallon Greyskin wrote:
>> Using gecko/mozilla to do what we really really need right now is  
>> sort like
>> trying to hunt ducks with a howitzer. If LL can solve the above  
>> two problems
>> then maybe it'll work, otherwise maybe a simpler and safer  
>> approach might be
>> better.

> Stop reinventing wheels. Especially this one. Mozilla is fine.

Mozilla is not "fine". It's a big heavy library that's massive  
overkill for both applications Farallon mentioned. Enough overkill  
that it could prevent many useful applications of both from being  
practical. If Dillo has less overhead, then don't rule it out.

Not only that, but specifying the interface for web textures or text  
on a prim in terms of HTML precludes a more efficient API that  
bypasses all the HTML rendering overhead as a performance enhancement  
in the future.

It's like sculpt textures. Even if they're implemented as an offset  
map, they should really be maintained as a new asset type so that in  
the future other kinds of meshes or other geometry could be  
integrated without changing the API or UI.

Exposing too many details of the underlying implementation has been a  
recurring problem in SL. Hiding them doesn't mean abandoning open  
source or even any particular open source library, it's just good  
design.