a. using a system 6 browser
b. helping out with the developmen of a system 6 browser.
Let's just hope this time somebody actually gets the job done...
I wrote a message on the board at www.jagshouse.com last week about this very topic. Somehow I got an itch to take on exactly this project -- a slightly modern web browser running under System 6. I asked if anyone was interested in the project, and I got a couple replies. And now this message on this list. Seems like there's at least a little interest.
Development environments: so far the choices seem to be THINK Pascal -- www.think-pascal.com -- and Mops -- www.powermops.org -- which are both free. THINK Pascal is what I used to learn Pascal and Mac programming back in 1991. The development environment is relatively nice, with a debugger and pretty-printer. Mac OS was originally written in terms of Pascal interfaces, so there's plenty of apps that were written in Pascal, some of which have made their source code available -- like John Norstad's NewsWatcher. Mops I just found, although it's been around almost as long as the Mac. It's not Pascal; rather, it's a funky language called Forth. I've read through the tutorial and I'm not entirely turned off by the language. Also, they have an actually quite amazing little object-oriented framework built up for encapsulating the Mac interface. It may be a nice way to write a Mac app.
I've been glancing through the NewsWatcher source, and also some networking sample code released by Peter N. Lewis, of Anarchie / Interarchy fame. There's also MacTCP sample code from Apple in the form of a little Ping application. All in all, writing MacTCP-compatible code seems to be doable.
More problematic would be the HTML renderer as far as I'm concerned. Probably makes little sense reinventing wheels, but I'm not sure exactly how to get open-source HTML renderers like KHTML (basis of Safari) or Mozilla (basis of Netscape 6 & 7 and Camino) to play with either Pascal or Mops. (They're no doubt written in C.) I have old versions of CodeWarrior, which can handle C code, so perhaps it will be possible to make a code library out of the HTML renderer such that it can be called from an application written in Pascal or Mops.
For my information, any other people interested in having a System 6 web browser?
Anybody interested in helping to create such a product?
-Ryan
On Tue, 29 Jul 2003 18:31:41 -0500, "Wade Rackley" said: > Any headway on the browser project? Someone had agreed to look atgetting the source code for our only browser choice in order to update> and stabilize it a bit. I am willing to pay for a SixBrowser. I bet a > few others would be too. (And yes, I am aware how time-consuming it > can be to program for the System Six environment. But a good (not> Am I a fool?great, just usable) graphical browser is all that Six lacks to make it viable for more general use. I bet that a more modern version of Samba would be really life-giving to LOTS of older Macs that are shelved, dusty, and forgotten.
Has anyone taken up the cause? Or has it become a dead issue?
So, would a new, well coded browser run as quickly as everything else in System Six? Would it make my SE/30 run faster on the Internet as a Six Box than when I use iCab with 7.1? It is just soooooo slow in 7.1 and the amazing speed of Six makes me think of pages that load a bit quicker with fewer "hangs" etc.
-- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>.
Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html>
Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Think Different Store
http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
