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Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

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Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#11

The proposed flag in about:config exists in Firefox Developer Edition too. I tried to enable it, then loaded some pages. There seems to be no distinction in visuals. Did it work seamlessly or is it currently NOP?

The flag exists in Firefox Developer Edition but it doesn't do anything yet. You have to be on Nightly for it to have an actual effect: https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/comments/6p9s24/psa_you_can_tr...

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#12
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that Gecko is a real WebKit alternative. It has improved quite dramatically lately, have you tried Firefox Nightly?

The problem with in its current state as a WebKit alternative is that it lacks stable api. We don't see any gecko based apps like we see WebKit based apps (electron, etc) because gecko is so tightly developed around Firefox.

I remember way before Electron there was XULRunner, and there were a few ridiculously bloated non-Mozilla apps that were based on it. Like Songbird[1] -- anyone remember that?

I suppose the idea was largely ahead of its time; in 2006 computers just didn't have enough RAM/CPU to get away with running a full web browser stack for every app like we (sort of) can today.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(software)

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#13
post #3

I really like this idea of switching over to servo bit by bit. It makes me happy that there might be a real WebKit alternative again.

I'd argue that Gecko is a real WebKit alternative. It has improved quite dramatically lately, have you tried Firefox Nightly?

It is, it's just hard to track what's going on in a way. The browser saw new ideas, and rollbacks (hello ? IIRC). There's the XUL layers, Electrolysis, the actual engine. I have to admit If you clean your mind from memories of high latency Firefox GUI, it's now near chrome-fast on the UX side. Memory use is adequate if not #1. Tabs are well handled too.

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with in its current state as a WebKit alternative is that it lacks stable api. We don't see any gecko based apps like we see WebKit based apps (electron, etc) because gecko is so tightly developed around Firefox.

I remember way before Electron there was XULRunner, and there were a few ridiculously bloated non-Mozilla apps that were based on it. Like Songbird[1] -- anyone remember that? I suppose the idea was largely ahead of its time; in 2006 computers just didn't have enough RAM/CPU to get away with running a full web browser stack for every app like we (sort of) can today. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(softwa…

Back then I was a big fan of the concept and I really enjoyed songbird.

I still think that building a html+javascript package, and have the default browser run it chromeless with some expanded privileges (or near chromeless) is a great approach for cross-platform apps, sadly it doesn't seem like anyone is working seriously on such an approach.

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#15
You can also try webrender, but it still has more issues than stylo in my experience. It gobbles up a lot of gfx memory for starters, which can actually slow things down if you don't have enough. But that's a known issue.

gfx.webrender.enabled = true (restart required)

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#16
post #15

You can also try webrender, but it still has more issues than stylo in my experience. It gobbles up a lot of gfx memory for starters, which can actually slow things down if you don't have enough. But that's a known issue. gfx.webrender.enabled = true (restart required)

According to the Reddit thread, enabling this will run both webrender and the regular renderer for now, so it will be both slower and more memory intensive.

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#17
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember way before Electron there was XULRunner, and there were a few ridiculously bloated non-Mozilla apps that were based on it. Like Songbird[1] -- anyone remember that? I suppose the idea was largely ahead of its time; in 2006 computers just didn't have enough RAM/CPU to get away with running a full web browser stack for every app like we (sort of) can today. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(softwa…

Back then I was a big fan of the concept and I really enjoyed songbird. I still think that building a html+javascript package, and have the default browser run it chromeless with some expanded privileges (or near chromeless) is a great approach for cross-platform apps, sadly it doesn't seem like anyone is working seriously on such an approach.

> I still think [it] is a great approach for cross-platform apps

You think so? I find that running a whole second OS for every process is hugely bloated and slow, and that we can do much, much better when there are already very good languages that run cross-platformly, they just need bindings to a good cross-platform UI toolkit.

Unfortunately, nothing looks as good on OS X as Cocoa does.

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#18
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember way before Electron there was XULRunner, and there were a few ridiculously bloated non-Mozilla apps that were based on it. Like Songbird[1] -- anyone remember that? I suppose the idea was largely ahead of its time; in 2006 computers just didn't have enough RAM/CPU to get away with running a full web browser stack for every app like we (sort of) can today. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(softwa…

Back then I was a big fan of the concept and I really enjoyed songbird. I still think that building a html+javascript package, and have the default browser run it chromeless with some expanded privileges (or near chromeless) is a great approach for cross-platform apps, sadly it doesn't seem like anyone is working seriously on such an approach.

> I still think that building a html+javascript package, and have the default browser run it

I think the thing that kills that approach is the default browser, which on Windows is IE 12 (Edge).

Edge isn't actually that bad to work with these days. But almost no web developers will use that when they could ship Chromium / Electron just as easily and get the exact same browser on all three platforms.

Even Microsoft's own teams will sometimes make that choice (VS Code using Electron.js and not Edge, for example)

Re: Stylo shipping in Firefox Nightly

#19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember way before Electron there was XULRunner, and there were a few ridiculously bloated non-Mozilla apps that were based on it. Like Songbird[1] -- anyone remember that? I suppose the idea was largely ahead of its time; in 2006 computers just didn't have enough RAM/CPU to get away with running a full web browser stack for every app like we (sort of) can today. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbird_(softwa…

Back then I was a big fan of the concept and I really enjoyed songbird. I still think that building a html+javascript package, and have the default browser run it chromeless with some expanded privileges (or near chromeless) is a great approach for cross-platform apps, sadly it doesn't seem like anyone is working seriously on such an approach.

There's Electrino, which provides the Electron api but runs whatever your OS's built-in rendering engine is: https://github.com/pojala/electrino Still in development and relatively limited, but the idea's there!
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