[sldev] [VWR] llmozlib and xulrunner

[Callum Prentice]

 > With all these changes to mozilla, are any of these being submitted to
 > the mozilla project to improve the browser in embedded environments?
 > so may be one day mozilla xulrunner will do the things we require of
 > it?

There was some (brief) talk about this but it never happened. Now that 
FF3/Gecko 1.9 is approaching release, our changes, based around 
FF2/Gecko 1.8.1 have little chance of being accepted.

 > Is the mozilla's embedding API absolutely not up to what is required
 > of it? So there is no alternative but to patch the mozilla code? I
 > remember there are issues with native controls being displayed
 > incorrectly and it seems that a whole bunch of embedding call backs
 > need to be added to mozilla to do some basic things? So is mozilla
 > just broken, or are we trying to do something with it it was never
 > designed to do?

The Mozilla embedding API we are using isn't, in its unpatched state, 
able to do what we need. Opening a browser pane in a native OS window 
and  make it interactive is straightforward. In our case, rendering off 
  screen, making everything work under these conditions and fixing the 
things that break is more involved.

The story might well be different with FF3 - I haven't had chance to 
look yet. I know that the components we use internally are substantially 
  different so there will be significant work involved but it's possible 
  the end result will more straightforward.

 > Something i really don't understand so please correct me here, is how
 > can a firefox 3 be built on (an unmodifed) xulrunner core but loads of
 > patches and hooks are needed here do what seems lilke standard tasks?

I haven't looked in depth at FF3 but like I said earlier, the FF2 code 
we use, doesn't natively support the things we need to do.

 > Webkit keeps being mentioned as an alternative. Is there any real
 > interest in this at all? Any one know if it is capable of achieving
 > the same *without* being patched?

People here are indeed looking at Webkit and there is significant 
interest. The discussions I've seen suggest that we will try to get the 
functionality we need into the WK trunk rather than having to maintain 
patches,

I'm in the process of moving LLMozLib2 development out of our internal 
SVN repo altogether and into the external one. Hopefully, that will make 
  things better for all of us. I'm currently 'grid monkey' for a week so 
I've some distractions to deal with but I'm hoping to have it set up by 
the end of next week at the latest. I'll post here of course when it's done.

Thanks for preserving with this Robin and I'm sorry it's been so painful.

--Callum.