I like the idea of being able to do some parts of a desktop application with HTML but would really prefer not to have to use Javascript. Does anyone know of anything similar to this but that can be manipulated with another language.
Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
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Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Well, for a start there's the problem that LLVM itself is architecture-dependent, last I checked. It's not as arhictecture-dependent as assembly but the last time I looked you couldn't generate the same LLVM on x86 and x86-64, say. Has that changed? LLVM bytecode is 100% architecture and platform independent, unless you call into platform-specific bits or into blobs of machine code.
OK, so in that case what http://llvm.org/docs/FAQ.html#platformindependent is telling me is that it's not possible to produce said LLVM bytecode from C or C++ code in general, right? And if I read http://llvm.org/docs/LangRef.html correctly, some bitcode is "not supported by all targets". How is that reconciled with "100% platform and architecture independent"?
Hmm, you're quite right. A better way of putting this would be: a large subset of LLVM IR is platform independent, but not all. My mistake.
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#63This looks promising. Are there supports for native file system access, databases (SQLite?), and network access?
file system access, yeah! It should feel like node.js (on purpose): http://mozilla.github.com/chromeless/#guide/filesystem-acces... databases, IndexedDB should "just work", and thinking exposing SQLlite is worthwhile. only the most basic network libraries at the moment.
Would it be possible to use Chromeless to tell the operating system to have a specific file opened by its default native application? So you could have a collection of links in a Chromeless app, that represent files on the user's computer, and the user could click a link for say an Excel file, and Excel would launch and show the file? Ideally this is what the new FileSystemApi needs, so that a web-based "dropbox" becomes possible. At the moment, any kind of web-based file manager must result in downloads to get most files opened, and re-uploads, whenever the user changes the file.
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en/chrome ^ I think Mozilla called their thing Chrome for a long while.
In case I wasn't clear, I meant that _Google's_ choice of browser name was confusing, given that it was an already-existing term.
I knew what you meant.
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#65I can't tell if this is an alternative to something like QtWebKit. There doesn't seem to be any emphases on native code integration.
one way you can do native code integration with chromeless is using JSCtypes: https://wiki.mozilla.org/JSctypes I hacked up a trivial proof of concept on this branch: https://github.com/mozilla/chromeless/tree/jsctypes_play
Does JSCtypes allow for js functions to be used as C callbacks, like Python's ctypes does?
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#66I like the idea of being able to do some parts of a desktop application with HTML but would really prefer not to have to use Javascript. Does anyone know of anything similar to this but that can be manipulated with another language.
Microsoft's WPF [0] will probably get you the best results on Windows. It's intended to be an easy transition for web programmers to native GUI programming, so it uses an XML-based markup language called XAML for layout.
If you want real HTML, you'll need to work out how to interact with your page from your non-JavaScript code. Two easy ways to do that: plugins and compilers.
IronPython allows you to embed Python in HTML [1] just like you would JavaScript. (A small Silverlight applet does the real work.) I haven't used this myself, so I can't vouch for how well it works in practice.
You can also write code in a language that compiles to JavaScript. [2] CoffeeScript is a popular choice, but there are quite a few others, including several compilers each for Python and Ruby. Some caveats:
* This can have performance implications if the compiler produces poorly-optimized JavaScript or compiles on the fly in the browser.
* Many of these compilers are toys, so make sure whatever you pick has seen real-world use.
* You still need to deal with JavaScript when you debug.
[0]: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970268.aspx
[1]: http://ironpython.net/browser/
[2]: https://github.com/jashkenas/coffee-script/wiki/List-of-lang...
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#67Wow, it's pretty much the same as Titanium Desktop.
(yes - I remember XULRunner and Adobe AIR - but the first didn't have any usable documentation, and the later is just Flash with webkit web view + ASJS bridge)
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#68I like the idea of being able to do some parts of a desktop application with HTML but would really prefer not to have to use Javascript. Does anyone know of anything similar to this but that can be manipulated with another language.
Microsoft's WPF [0] will probably get you the best results on Windows. It's intended to be an easy transition for web programmers to native GUI programming, so it uses an XML-based markup language called XAML for layout. If you want real HTML, you'll need to work out how to interact with your page from your non-JavaScript code. Two easy ways to do that: plugins and compilers. IronPython allows you to embed Python in…
Yeah I was kinda thinking of HTML applications that are not intended to be used in the browser.
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft's WPF [0] will probably get you the best results on Windows. It's intended to be an easy transition for web programmers to native GUI programming, so it uses an XML-based markup language called XAML for layout. If you want real HTML, you'll need to work out how to interact with your page from your non-JavaScript code. Two easy ways to do that: plugins and compilers. IronPython allows you to embed Python in…
Yeah I was kinda thinking of HTML applications that are not intended to be used in the browser.
You could use any of the tools I mentioned outside the browser, the latter two (plugins and JavaScript-targeting compilers) with something like Chromeless or Adobe Air. The whole idea of those is to remove browser chrome but leave the engine, keeping development mostly the same. Anything you can do to script without JavaScript in the browser will work just as well in these non-browser environments.
Re: Mozilla Chromeless 0.2
#70Where's the tutorial? Github pages for tutorial not doing anything. I'm very interested as this seems to allow more features than a Chrome Packaged Application desktop app.