> client windows, new ones being opened (on top of the previous one) when the
> user holds the CTRL key when entering a URI or clicking a link.
Why is this advantageous over the current SDI scheme? What you describe
a) has not really been seen on any platform before, and
b) unnecessarily duplicates the OSs application-switching functions.
> > 5) is a function of how the application developer develops their
> > application. You can write it to integrate with the user's
>
> I don't think that is true (please correct me otherwise - you obviously know
> much more than I at this stage). With what I described, I could go to
> Mozilla installation and copy a single JAR file into some "applications"
> subdirectory.
A.k.a: You would create an XPI (cross-platform install) file and have a
one-click button on your webserver marked "Install" :-)
> This would contain the chrome, skin and application code (in
> terms of some XPCOM servers) of the application. Just by doing this a new
> icon would appear on the Mozilla's bottom status bar (next to the current
> Nav/Communicator/Comper/etc).
Yep, you could do this with XUL overlays.
> If the user clicked this, whatever "app" was
> currently running (eg. Navigator) would disappear (but remains there in the
> background) and the new one would appear. By "appear" I mean that its client
> window(s) appear where the browser window was, and
> menus/toolbars/sidebars/etc loose any Navigator settings and gain those of
> the new app. If the user wants to go back to the previous app (eg. by
> clicking the Navigator status-bar icon) then the new app is made invisible
> and tha Navigator UI is restored?
As I said above, Mozilla doesn't currently support this UI paradigm. But
there is nothing to stop it doing so.
> If I was a teacher and I wanted my pupils to have browser functionality but
> nothing else, I'd just set my computers to delete Mozilla\Applications\*.jar
> (except for Navigator.jar) on bootup (of course the kids would have
> Jabber.Jar on diskette!). And so on.
A.k.a: You would install only the browser and disable XPInstall.
> Are you saying Mozilla can do all of this now? I was betting that the
> infrastructure was there (seperate applications, chromes, skins, XPIs, XPCOM
> typelibs/libs, etc) but some further generalising would have to be done.
It can do all of this except for the "application switching model". You
can install apps into the browser (like Jabber or Chatzilla) using a
one-click XPI install, have them show up on the Tasks menu (the current
equivalent, maybe, of your tabs) and integrate with the browser, copying
its theme etc.
See some of the projects on http://www.mozdev.org for some of this in
action.
Gerv
