Date: Thu, 8 Apr 1999 10:59:37 +0200 From: Jeremy Lea <reg@shale.csir.co.za> To: patl@phoenix.volant.org Cc: freebsd-mozilla@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: current state of the mozilla project on freebsd... (port) Message-ID: <19990408105937.M1798@shale.csir.co.za> In-Reply-To: <ML-3.3.923546201.1376.patl@asimov>; from patl@phoenix.volant.org on Wed, Apr 07, 1999 at 09:36:41PM -0700 References: <199904080403.VAA14546@usr05.primenet.com> <ML-3.3.923546201.1376.patl@asimov>
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Hi,
On Wed, Apr 07, 1999 at 09:36:41PM -0700, patl@phoenix.volant.org wrote:
> As long as we're discussing the state of Mozilla on FreeBSD; could we
> get the port & package updated to a more recent snapshot for those folks
> that don't want to try to keep up with the CVS tree? (The tarball used
> by the port is almost a year old.)
There is going to be a Milestone 4 release in the next day or two, and
that runs quite well on FreeBSD. I'll see if I can get the port
updated. I've asked for separate source tarballs for their runtime code
(NSPR) and the browser, since they have to be built separately, and I
want to make two ports... Otherwise I'll have to make two ports using
the same source tarball.
Mozilla is coming along nicely despite JWZ's ranting. It's just that
it's not an open source project... It's a commercial projected being
conducted in the open. There are about 20 or so FreeBSD people who have
made noises in the mozilla lists, and SeaMonkey (their product) is known
to build and work on FreeBSD-STABLE and -CURRENT. It does not work on
2.2.x as far as I know.
FreeBSD projects:
*URGENT* The library (XPTCall) which allows Javascript to call their
cross-platform implementation of COM (XPCOM) uses some hand coded
assembly to handle vtable conversion of objects. This does not work
on FreeBSD, since there is no one to write the code...
http://www.mozilla.org/scriptable/xptcall-faq.html. I suspect it
would be very similar to the existing Linux code, and it's only
about 300 lines including the licence and comments...
*NEEDED* The cross platform portability layer (NSPR) works for their
threading, but needs some testing for our threads (libc_r) and for
Richard's Linux threads port. There are also a few places where I
think they are doing some things wrong - mostly with select() and
poll() because some functions seem very slow.
*NICE TO HELP* Mozilla currently has no crypto code, since they can't
work on it without getting their wrists slapped (they even had to
remove the MD5 code...). It would be nice if some FreeBSD people
could help out.
For those people who have not been following mozilla.org, they have
completely dumped the old code base (used up to 4.x) and re-implemented
the package in a really innovative way. Everything is based around
their new layout engine (known as Gecko), which is a small, fast and
standards compliant (any behaviour outside of the W3C standards is
considered a bug). The layout engine has full support for Unicode.
Next to this is their Javascript engine, which is tied into the C++ code
using XPConnect, which allows them to script all of the modules which
perform the various functions in the browser and mail/news, including
the layout engine.
The 'application' is really something called an AppCore, which loads a
XUL (cross-platform user interface markup language?) file, which is an
XML language for describing applications. This file is parsed into an
Application Object Model (AOM) like the HTML DOM, and uses JavaScript to
register all of the services it requires. It's appearance is controlled
by CSS2 style sheets, which allow it do have 'skins'. The entire UI is
then controlled via JavaScript, and can have portions (like a new menu)
downloaded from the Net, allowing web sites to add menus and toolbars to
the browser. There's also a bunch of stuff about "RDF datasources"
which goes way over my head...
As a result of all this, the browser and mail/news are about 3MB
(without the debug code) and already has more functionality than the 4.x
series (other than security). The unix version is currently based on
GTK+, which adds extra size and slows it down... If I had more time I'd
really like to write a pure XLib GFX layer, since most of the widgets
are already written in XP code, but I think mozilla.org is fairly cosy
with Redhat...
Regards,
-Jeremy
--
| "Come home my prodigal son, come home and lets be one,
--+-- don't want to see you cry, don't make me tell you why,
| you've lived in a house with me, my blood has set you free,
| in the world you'll surely die, nothing else will satisfy." -MIC
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