[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Browser wars: a solution ?
Re,
>Also, this browser war has brought up the fact that all current browsers
>are too large several times.
And before current ones - too.
>Imho, the browser and the protocol handler should be split. This means
>that there shall be a relatively small program that would handle HTTP
>speaking to URLs, and defer further processing to one or more applications
>according to a table. This is what all browsers do nowadays, but they are
>too heavy for the job, as they try to do everything themselves.
Well, AFAIK it is how MSIE is built... There is some internet controls
(ActiveX, DLLs or something - had neither time nor interest to
investigate) which handle HTTP stuff, HTML et. al. and MSIE itself, as far
as I understand, is no more than presentation layer, even less. That was
what allowed M$ to pull various tricks before the court - you may call
MSIE or .exe, or all DLLs that it uses, or half of windoze DLLs at all.
When you have full control on OS internals, you may do anything.
Surely, Netscape has not even nearly such a capabilities (though it might
make some DLL/.so, if it had resources).
>The 'many small programs' approach works very well. Why not use it ?
Well, because there should be one who maintans it and controls the
project. With cut-throat situation on current market, not many have
ability to launch large-scale project of such grade... You should run as
fast as you can only to remain on the same place... (C) Lewis Carroll ;)
>Apart from the better stability, this opens the way for very commercial
Well, many small components not necessary increase stability, but often
decrease it. But they make it easier to debug, which has positive effect
on stability.
>variations on the theme. The plugin technique for browsers went one step
>in that direction, but still with the bulk in the hands of the browser
In Netscape, at least Linux one, the step was in exactly opposite
direction - 90% of crashes in my netscape are because of plugin mechanism
bugs... But I think it's just a bad programming - descent application
shouldn't crash when plugin crashes...
--
frodo@sharat.co.il \/ There shall be counsels taken
Stanislav Malyshev /\ Stronger than Morgul-spells
phone +972-2-5369213 /\ JRRT LoTR.
http://www.sharat.co.il/frodo/ whois:SM719-RIPE@whois.ripe.net