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Nidium – A new browser engine

nidium.com

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Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#61

Post by paraboul »

I understand that it may be a little confusing, so here is more information.

In the teaser video all visible parts are direct screen recordings of:

(1) existing 2D canvas or WebGL demos ported to NiDIUM engine

(2) shots and images from the native embedded UI Framework

Do not expect NiDIUM to read HTML pages or to compete with any existing browser.

Instead, expect a solution to build (and browse) applications, with a fast and unified look and feel.

So:

* Yes, it's a browser, in a sense that it can loads remote "apps/code" via HTTP using URLs (and somehow link them)

* Almost everything is integrated and highly customizable (like the integrated UI Framework)

* Cool APIs like plain-socket UDP/TCP (client and server), GLSL postprocessing on every canvas, layer, etc...

* We've made our best to be compliant with existing APIs (context2D, webgl, commonjs, etc...)

* It ditches HTML & CSS in favor of new things (NML and NSS, we will communicate on this later)

* Low Latency Audio and DSP (and yes, one of us come from the demo scene, hence the poor soundchip music ;-) )

We designed almost everything from scratch, but the whole thing is still at an early stage.

And to relate with tranding topics today about "english accent", we made this video a bit "old school" because we're not native english speaker (french) and a bit afraid of making "talkative" videos.

We will post updates as soon as possible!

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#62

Post by masklinn »

jordanmoore_ wrote: post #57
masklinn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Very clever, the ol' switcheroo. There's little cleverness in reminding you of the plank you've got in your eye when you're looking at the dust in your brother's, but thanks nonetheless. > Here's one that's still floating around: "there's nothing in that horrible presentation that a modern browser can't do". The presentation is bad, and aside from this value judgement the comment expresses confusion over the improv…

I find it amusing that you're happily sniping away while trying to appear all holier than thou. There's not much point in us discussing what isn't there anymore, it's just making my original point look irrelevant which you keep alluding to. But again, you weren't there when the original sniping was going on and promptly removed. So save your "practice what you preach" and other cliches for someone else because this p…

> I find it amusing that you're happily sniping away while trying to appear all holier than thou.

That's just you projecting.

> There's not much point in us discussing what isn't there anymore

Your comments are here and that's what we're discussing.

> it's just making my original point look irrelevant which you keep alluding to.

What I'm saying (not alluding to) is that your comment 1. lacks self-awareness and 2. is wrong anyway.

> So save your "practice what you preach" and other cliches for someone else

Yes, I can see you care more for giving lessons than following them, eh.

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#63

Post by rorrr2 »

terhechte wrote: post #49

I for one, like this. Now, the video & music are awful and definately do not support the overall presentation, but from what I understood, this seems to be pretty cool. Imagine being able to use Javascript for actual desktop application development, without having to resort to tons of html and css in the background. I do like this idea. Even better, it would allow to write applications in ClojureScript or some of the…

> Imagine being able to use Javascript for actual desktop application development, without having to resort to tons of html and css in the background

You already can do it. Canvas, WebGL, SVG, and a bunch of 2D and 3D libraries.

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#64

Post by drivingmenuts »

pcx66 wrote: post #56
drivingmenuts wrote: post #53

It's interesting, but the trend toward making everything a web application is even more disturbing to me, given the revelation of how deep the security rot goes these days. The net is pretty much unavoidable, unless you're pretty hardcore, but I, for one, am hoping for focus on pulling things back to the user end at some point.

I think the rush to make everything 'web' is primarily because we finally are building an open, free, accessible, write-once-run-everywhere platform. That's the most exciting part of the web, and privacy is a bug we still have to fix. EDIT: When I say 'privacy is a bug', I mean the ability to provide privacy is still immature, and susceptible of exploits.

That privacy is viewed as a bug is even more disturbing.

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#65

Post by mkl »

ThomPete wrote: post #12

I find it saddening that the primary response from a crowd normally considering themselves visionaries and pushers, seems to be ridiculing other peoples hard work. I cannot for the life in me understand how introducing a new browser engine deserves this kind of welcoming.

I cannot for the life in me understand how introducing a new browser engine deserves this kind of welcoming.

I think it's because it claims to be a browser engine yet doesn't seem to actually be one. Browsers do HTML - that's in the very definition. The project may turn out to be cool, but calling it a browser seems like calling it an OS, misleading at best.

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#66

Post by Raphael_Amiard »

paraboul wrote: post #61

I understand that it may be a little confusing, so here is more information. In the teaser video all visible parts are direct screen recordings of: (1) existing 2D canvas or WebGL demos ported to NiDIUM engine (2) shots and images from the native embedded UI Framework Do not expect NiDIUM to read HTML pages or to compete with any existing browser. Instead, expect a solution to build (and browse) applications, with a…

Thanks for this update ! Looks like an interesting project, although i think this kind of information should really be on your website, and not lost in some HN comment, rather sooner than later if you want to create a bit of interest around your project.

Catchy videos are good, but in the case of projects such as yours, an associated architectural overview would be much appreciated !

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#67

Post by kleiba »

chii wrote: post #46
binaryorganic wrote: post #33

So the only thing clear from the comments is that the folks behind this are going to have to work on their communication game. The video was obviously created to tease the product a bit, which is hard when nobody knows exactly what thye're looking at, but even when I went to sign up for updates I see: "We will send you a maximum amount of spam as soon as possible."

indeed - the video is flashy, but i only watched less than 1 minute of it, because after 1 minute, i still have no idea what they are going on about, and my time is more precious than that. Pressed stop.

Right. You need your precious time to tell everyone on HN that you pressed stop.

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#68

Post by nine_k »

rorrr2 wrote: post #63
terhechte wrote: post #49

I for one, like this. Now, the video & music are awful and definately do not support the overall presentation, but from what I understood, this seems to be pretty cool. Imagine being able to use Javascript for actual desktop application development, without having to resort to tons of html and css in the background. I do like this idea. Even better, it would allow to write applications in ClojureScript or some of the…

> Imagine being able to use Javascript for actual desktop application development, without having to resort to tons of html and css in the background You already can do it. Canvas, WebGL, SVG, and a bunch of 2D and 3D libraries.

Trying to imitate the drawing of native components and emulate their behavior is not impossible, but is excessively burdensome (platforms x versions x options quickly becomes large). See Java.

Having an ability to use platform-specific native components is a definite win.

Re: Nidium – A new browser engine

#69

Post by streptomycin »

sker wrote: post #17

File I/O alone is a good enough reason for this kind of projects to exist. I've always wanted to be able to use the power of the browser for standalone, cross-platform desktop applications. I was shocked when I discovered I couldn't write a simple JS/HTML application and connect it to a local DB like SQLite without going through a server. Each browser has its own hackish way of doing something like that, but they're…

I was shocked when I discovered I couldn't write a simple JS/HTML application and connect it to a local DB like SQLite without going through a server.

You can access a database locally, at least as of the past couple years. It's called IndexedDB. People quibble about the API, the features, the browser support (Firefox, Chrome and IE10 only), etc... but it is a real database you can use locally.

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