[maemo-developers] [maemo-developers] Re: gpe-mini-browser for maemo

[From: Philippe De Swert]

Hello all,

First of all a big thank you to Jorge for his willingness to package
gpe-mini-browser for maemo. I didn't feel like jumping through all the
hoops/problems to get the maemo SDK to work with a recent kernel (as I need it
to use my RAID controller).

> Jorge Salamero Sanz wrote:
> > On Wednesday 10 January 2007 14:01, Alp Toker wrote:
> >> Why distribute a browser engine that is practically unchanged since
> >> 2004? You lose out on almost three years of performance, compatibility
> >> and security updates.
> > 
> > gtk-webcore last svn commit was 12 days ago:
> > http://gtk-webcore.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/gtk-webcore/
> > 
> > and well, this is the most usable *free* browser (might after minimo) ...
> 
> I reviewed the commit you mentioned. It seems to be a compile fix 
> necessary because nobody has attempted to compile the code for so long 
> that modern compilers won't build it.

That is correct. However there were some other fixes too. Some causes for
crashes and the UserAgent were fixed.

> However, if it works for you, that's great. What I was getting at is 
> that it's not much more effort to use the current WebKit code and take 
> advantage of the active WebKit developer community rather than 
> supporting something from the past, with the benefit that you get a 
> bang-up-to-date browser engine and someone to fix your bugs for free.

Not much more effort... Well I don't know C++ so I could not make any sense
how to link that stuff into a standard GTK C program. Of course somebody who
can make sense out of it is welcome to tell me how it is done. Personally I
would not mind dropping gtk-webcore in favour for webkit, unfortunately
gtk-webcore has a great and easy to use C interface. What I am missing are
functions like webkit_widget_new(), webkit_back(webkit_widget), ... Maybe it
is time for me to actually learn and understand C++, it is just that uni
disgusted me of OO programming.

> When the first exploitable security issue is reported in your browser, 
> believe me that you will take comfort in reporting it to a team of 
> full-time developers, and the value of that is huge. I have had to 
> support forked code-bases in the past and can tell you it rapidly 
> becomes an unpleasant affair.

That is indeed true for many projects and lets hope Nokia does not make this
mistake with all the forks it has made of existing software.

Cheers,

Philippe---
Scarlet ONE -  Combine ADSL with unlimited fixed phone and save 400 euros
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