just for the records because it might look like a green field:
we have a browser and a browser framework for quite a while.
But currently nobody is working on them:
http://www.gnustep.org/softwareindex/showdetail.php?app=8
http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/SimpleWebKit
We have an HTML viewer, and it's quite good at that. But it's not a browser, and should not be -- it's too much work for too little benefit, not to mention performance can only suffer.
- Can it do 3d transforms?
- Does it do WebRTC and WebGL?
- Will I be able to access Outlook.com and Google Docs in it?
- How well do web applications self-declare support for it?
There are really good engines that support running web-based applications well. Yet even long-standing, reasonably well written engines such as Opera's Presto are being dropped.
SWK fills a need for a performant HTML viewer, but is not a proper web browser engine.
A good GNUstep browser would use an existing engine, but integrate with a GS-centric environment:
- by using GNUstep's theme for its chrome,
- by exposing GNUstep's Services in its textboxes and for its images,
- by using GNUstep's save panels, by understanding the concept of bundles,
- by storing its preferences and cache inside GNUstep's folder structure (~/GNUstep/),
- by registering web shortcuts (e.g. .url files) with GNUstep's extension registry,
- by using GS menus (whatever they are as configured by the user) and therefore by using GS-like keyboard shortcuts
- in case we have a 'quit app quickly, but restore NSDocuments and its windows on start', integrate with that
etc.
Providing an alternate implementation for use by Vespucci seems useful.