Roll Your Own Browser

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Posted by timothy on Wednesday September 25, 2002 @05:37AM from the picture-your-own-throbber dept.

davidwboswell writes "Oreillynet is running an article about how to create your own browser with Mozilla. This is a follow-up to a previous article that surveyed many of the alternate Mozilla browsers currently available including Chimera, Galeon, Phoenix and Aphrodite."

15 of 230 comments (clear)

Security by JohnHegarty · 2002-09-25 05:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

It's there alot of security issues with that. I wouldn't use a browser from some guy called 'bob' that i never heard of, becuase he could be sending all my credit card details back to his server.

This is going to help the likes of the people who added all those "extras" to kazza.

--
Cruise TT
dreaming of centralized cookies and bookmarks by Dr.+Awktagon · 2002-09-25 05:46 · Score: 5, Interesting

On OS X and Linux (and occasionaly FreeBSD) I've used: Mac Explorer, Chimera, OmniWeb, Mozilla, Konquerer, Lynx, and now playing with Phoenix..

If only they could share bookmarks, cookie preferences, and site passwords. Across machines! Securely! Is anybody working on this? Is LDAP the answer?
1. Re:dreaming of centralized cookies and bookmarks by bytesmythe · 2002-09-25 05:55 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  This is the same issue as the "roaming profile" problem.
  
  It would seem that the easiest way to implement something like this would be to have a small (probably USB-based) device like one of those USB keyring "drives" that you use to store this kind of basic information. Then have a standard in which different systems (KDE, Gnome, Windows, browsers, email clients, etc.) will check for the device and try to load preferences from it.
  
  Since you could encrypt the information on the device and require a password to access it, it would be fairly secure, plus you don't have to trust someone else's distributed network.
  
  --
  bytesmythe
  Hypocrisy is the resin that holds the plywood of society together.
  -- Scott Meyer
2. Re:dreaming of centralized cookies and bookmarks by Nicopa · 2002-09-25 05:58 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  No, the ansert for that question is a little known protocol called ACAP, which is designed for remote profiles, profile sharing. e.g. In ACAP a client can register for dynamic updates, so all open applications dynamically change their settings at the same time!
3. Re:dreaming of centralized cookies and bookmarks by digidave · 2002-09-25 06:35 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Yeah, all we need is some kind of centralized login system to do this. It could hold all of our browser data, credit card number, etc to make browsing the web easier.
  
  Now all we need to find is a company that wants to write software to control all online transactions, profide centralized login and store our private information.
  
  --
  The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
mozilla.exe as explorer.exe by zeepers · 2002-09-25 05:54 · Score: 4, Interesting

Right now, both mozilla.exe and explorer.exe are using about 25mb of ram on my machine. Are there any projects in the works to use mozilla as explorer? All that would be needed would be a program launcher, taskbar, and system tray system, right?
1. Re:mozilla.exe as explorer.exe by aao-brad · 2002-09-25 06:02 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Have you checked out the alternative shell scene? You can find cool alternatives for explorer all over. A mozilla-based shell would be interesting, though.
  Check out Desktopian for more info.
  
  --
  "What kind of chip you got in there, a Dorito?" - Weird Al Yankovic
Is excessive plurality really useful? by hobbs · 2002-09-25 05:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

Is it really useful to encourage more people to create more "forks" based on the gecko engine? I'm not against people playing around or doing whatever they want, but shouldn't we encourage people to consider working together more on some of these alternatives?

It's a thin line to avoid the balloon and bloat of Mozilla while providing functionality that many desire. Many projects are doing this, but each needs more developers to seal the leaks and fix the cracks.
why is that... by g0st · 2002-09-25 05:55 · Score: 5, Funny

why is it that all alternative browers sound like topless dancer names? opereta, phoenix, aphrodite..
1. Re:why is that... by BlueGecko · 2002-09-25 06:14 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Well, at least on my OS X system, it might have something to do with the fact that if you type "top" in the terminal, Mozilla is always listed as having really big numbers...
Free online book by slothdog · 2002-09-25 06:04 · Score: 5, Informative

Also related is that O'Reilly has released "Creating Applications With Mozilla" under the OPL, and can be found in its entirety here: http://books.mozdev.org/

(Apologies if this has been mentioned before; I did a quick search and didn't see it.)
How is this different from IE? by NineNine · 2002-09-25 06:10 · Score: 4, Informative

I've done this several times with IE. All you gotta do is drop the COM object into a VB project. You can literally have your "own" browser in about 30 seconds. How's this any different? If anything, making your own browser with IE seems a hell of a lot easier than using Mozilla. In VB, you can do the whole thing visually, and add code behind the objects and events.
1. Re:How is this different from IE? by kalidasa · 2002-09-25 06:26 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  All you gotta do is drop the COM object into a VB project. You can literally have your "own" browser in about 30 seconds. How's this any different?
  
  Try doing that in any non-Microsoft operating system. THAT'S what's different. You can get Gecko for nearly anything.
2. Re:How is this different from IE? by slug359 · 2002-09-25 06:37 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Actually exactly the same is true for the Gecko engine, there is a COM object for it, you drop it into your VB/Delphi project and use it in 30 seconds.
  It also uses _exactly_ the same properties, methods and events, so you just change the name of the gecko control to the name of your IE control, and it works, I've done it.
Re:my 0.2� by Golias · 2002-09-25 06:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Tonight on DIY: How to make your own browser, using only Mozila!
Tomorrow on DIY: How to make a working automobile, starting with nothing but a brand new Nissan Maxima.
Friday on DIY: How to make a Pizza with nothing but a phone and $15.

--
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.