Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread David Van Assche
Hi,
   We (I) are indeed porting Gears to browse (the main reason being offline
Moodle), and I'd like to be informed if the standard browser for the XO
changes, so I know what else to port to, but for now, the majority of the
work has been done, and the source code allows for integration with a wide
variety of browsers (from konquerer and safari, to Opera and IE6) so using a
custom browser (as long as its based on XULRunner 1.8 or 1.9) is no problem.
There has also been some thought as to whether to make a plugins/extensions
capable attachment to browse (for now the plugins seems to work ok) that
would be compatible with FF3 extensions... but this has not been decided
yet. Documentation on all of this is not only lacking, its non existent on
the web too... I'll try to remedy some of this, after the plugin has been
implemented... for future projects with similar goals...

Kind Regards,
David Van Assche

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:06 AM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 The UI seems pretty important to me, but obviously that's a matter of
 taste.  Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.  Correct operation of websites
 that fail with the extant browser.  Direct availability of plugins and
 addons.  One example:  scrapbook, a superb research tool.  Another example
 Google Gears (according to a recent mail being ported, presumably  because
 the browser is not standard).  I am not familiar with the Firefox codebase,
 and perhaps all these things are directly available so long as the Firefox 3
 engine is there, but if so, there desperately needs to be a detailed body of
 documentation telling how to access these capabilities.

 On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:56 PM, Bobby Powers [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:

 2008/7/7 Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
  Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox
  browser or an Apache server.  GTK based as well as web based software to
  create certs also already exists.   What sort of patch are you looking
 for?
  I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate
 a
  request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser.   The issue
 of
  certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is
  difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it
 is
  important to be clear about the requirements.  When you describe the
  overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs?  Examining
 them
  when someone first logs on?
 
  I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a
  requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server.  To
 me,
  the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this
  trade off should be considered.

 Can you explain these benefits?  Both Gecko and WebKit are standard
 browser engines.  I don't see much to be gained from a UI perspective
 (which presumably is what you're taking about?) by switching to FF3.
 Performance is the only compelling reason I see.

 Bobby

  On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff 
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  wrote:
 
  On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
   Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
   certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
   (assuming a properly configured server).
 
  I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am
  fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead
  and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get
  to implement it.
 
  Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this
  is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some
  fantastic patches :-)
 
  cheers,
 
 
 
  m
  --
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   [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect
   - ask interesting questions
   - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
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  --
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  roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread C. Scott Ananian
A couple points:

a) SSL overhead being impractical?  Come on.  You can use SSL on the
browser today; there is no perceptible speed difference.  I agree that
client certs may be impractical, but it won't be because the XO can't
handle the computation.

b) Many of the customization issues mooted are just as possible to
implement using firefox extensions as they are using the current
Browse strategy.  Even simplified UI is pretty trivial to implement;
see 
http://lifehacker.com/software/firefox/geek-to-live--consolidate-firefoxs-chrome-210542.php
for example.

The real question to me is whether there are size (memory  nand)
disadvantages to Firefox.  Othewise it's just a practical problem of
finding enough resources to implement a Firefox extension to match the
current Browse functionality.
  --scott

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Tomeu Vizoso
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 10:37 AM, C. Scott Ananian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 The real question to me is whether there are size (memory  nand)
 disadvantages to Firefox.  Othewise it's just a practical problem of
 finding enough resources to implement a Firefox extension to match the
 current Browse functionality.

As always, the question stands as if OLPC should try to do better than
the current software offerings can do for its users, or if we should
just use what already exists. I'm more than happy to experiment with
WebKit, Firefox, etc I just hope that we make decisions based on
actual feedback from our actual users.

Also, we should try to think out of the box, instead of panicking and
resorting to all-or-nothing final solutions. One example: what if the
need underlying the request for tabs in Browse could be better
fulfilled by further improving the activity switching operation in
Sugar?

Regards,

Tomeu
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Bert Freudenberg
Am 08.07.2008 um 06:35 schrieb Mikus Grinbergs:

 A reference was made to Gears:
 My point was exactly that it is a plugin.
 There are other plugins that are educationally useful.

 Security.  I believe that 'Browse' is restricted as to how much it
 is allowed to modify the operating system itself.  Such restrictions
 would apply to plugins as well.  That concept NEEDS to be enforced.

It is.

 [War story:  When plugins first became available for Netscape, I
 installed one.  But Netscape started behaving differently from how I
 had thought I had set it up.  I investigated, and found out that
 under the covers the plugin had CHANGED (without telling me) some
 Netscape settings to the way *it* wanted them.  Got rid of it fast.]

 My point is that a 'plugin' is typically a binary blob -- the
 person installing it on his computer has NO IDEA as to what that
 plugin might surreptitiously be doing under the covers.


And with Bitfrost the user does not *have to have an idea*. A browser  
plugin can *only* do what the browse activity can do. Nothing more -  
which is in stark contrast to what a plugin on a regular machine can  
do (namely, everything the user can do).

- Bert -


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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Walter Bender
Sugarizing involves more than just the look and feel of the UI; in
addition to Bitfrost considerations--raised by Bert and Mikus--and the
collaboration model, there is also Journal/Datastore intergration to
consider: the trivial from of Sugarizing does not result in useful
Journal entries. So some downstream intervention will be needed in any
case.

-waltrer
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 5:37 AM, C. Scott Ananian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 a) SSL overhead being impractical?  Come on.  You can use SSL on the
 browser today; there is no perceptible speed difference.  I agree that
 client certs may be impractical, but it won't be because the XO can't
 handle the computation.

Scott - please! We need to raise the level of discussion here.

SSL overhead on the *network* and on the XS cpu, though Carol rightly
points out we don't need to carry that in all the traffic. There is a
_ton_ of work on the PKI side, and she's volunteered to work on that
though :-)

 The real question to me is whether there are size

The REAL question here is how do we stop this list being armchair
quaterbacking, and start fostering coding work. This thread is a bad
bad start. Someone has done a TON of work on Browse, and here is a ton
of people ready to throw it out hte window based on opinions. That is
*stupid*. Consider replacing it when someone comes up with *working
code*.

Wake me up when someone has working code - the rest is *noise*.

cheers,



m
-- 
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 8:47 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Martin -- You state that ssl at the network layer is significant.  The
 question is when and how much must ssl be used to authenticate with client
 certs?  I believe it only needs to be used during initial authentication and
 again when properly designed cookies expire.   Since each XO only

That's a good point.

 As to the PKI infrastructure, I don't think it is any harder to work this
 out than any of the other key management issues already in play.

Well, it's a ton of work, and if I can take you on your offer of
patches... we cannot provide a PKI infrastructure as a significant
proportion of schools is disconnected, and we are not keen on imposing
a complex school server setup procedure. So, assuming each XS does the
classic self-signed-cert creation, what we want to do is to follow the
current trust model, which is dead simple: the XO trusts the XS that
it is registered to.

During the registration, the XO gives the XS its public SSH key. We need to

 - change the Registration protocol to grab the public part of the
self-signed cert, and add an exception to the PKI checks in Browse.
The registration stuff is implemented in a tool called idmgr (XS side)
and in Sugar profile (XO side). If you looking at idmgr is horrible
enough that you want to help me reimplement it, I have further notes
on that track ;-) We also need to tackle the protocol change in a
reasonably backwards compat manner.

 - figure out a way to use the existing SSH key that the XO has as the
SSL client cert, and to detect it, and match it on the server side.
The server-side apache-embedded code we are doing with mod_python
handlers, and this is a perfect fit for an authen handler.

Counting on your help to break this silly thread with actual working code :-)

cheers,



m
-- 
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
 - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Jim Gettys
Let me summarize where I think we are and/or should go and try to put
this into some context:

0) good rendering onto our high resolution screen is very important to
us; this is why we went with a Gecko based web browser in the first
place.  Before we moved to the development builds of gecko/xulrunner, we
had terrible issues with many web site's rendering. I don't know whether
or not WebKit supports scaling at this date, but it is a question well
worth asking.  This new version of Gecko etc. are slated for our next
release and are in current development builds. What is WebKit's current
capability?

1) memory usage is a very high concern to us.  The recent work on
FF/Gecko's memory consumption and leak plugging (as reported all over
the web) is outstanding, and they should be commended for this work.
This improvement should be reflected in the current development build.
And this has a major impact on our usability.

2) the lack of a certificate UI has hampered our Browse usage primarily
in G1G1 developed world situations: this tells me while it is of
concern, it's not as high priority as some other issues might be,
certainly lower than 0) or 1).  This could be satisfied by adding UI to
browse, I believe.

3) Sayamindu has made good progress toward swapping out Matchbox in
favor of a conventional window manager; once this is complete, we can
satisfy 2) at worst, by those who need it installing a standard Firefox;
one could go up from there by using a Sugar theme, to XUL chrome
modifications of arbitrary ambition; or installing your favorite web
browser of choice.  This work to replace Matchbox won't make this
release, but I expect be planned on thereafter.

4) alternative browsers are always welcome; but, to make it as our
default browser, it needs to:
- address our rendering concerns for our screen.
- have competitive memory performance
- provide sharing features for classroom work (note that
providing only an unmodified conventional browser won't 
currently have these facilities).
Additional goodness would be to have a single HTML rendering engine for
everything, to save flash space, and the certificate UI we're missing.

I can also anticipate Javascript performance may become an issue as its
use continues to increase.

 - Jim

-- 
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One Laptop Per Child

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Jim Gettys [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I can also anticipate Javascript performance may become an issue as its
 use continues to increase.

Confirming this - to work with XS-based tools nicely, JS and related
tools (gears) support is a must.

cheers,



m
-- 
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 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
 - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Jim Gettys
Oh, and as Walter points out, journal integration is also important to
us, and necessary in any replacement.  Sometimes brain is not engaged.

If we can build the OLPCfs stuff that Scott has come up with, this will
help unmodified apps interoperate with the journal, but I suspect for
something like browse, we'd want pretty full integration.
- Jim


On Tue, 2008-07-08 at 12:32 -0400, Jim Gettys wrote:
 Let me summarize where I think we are and/or should go and try to put
 this into some context:
 
 0) good rendering onto our high resolution screen is very important to
 us; this is why we went with a Gecko based web browser in the first
 place.  Before we moved to the development builds of gecko/xulrunner, we
 had terrible issues with many web site's rendering. I don't know whether
 or not WebKit supports scaling at this date, but it is a question well
 worth asking.  This new version of Gecko etc. are slated for our next
 release and are in current development builds. What is WebKit's current
 capability?
 
 1) memory usage is a very high concern to us.  The recent work on
 FF/Gecko's memory consumption and leak plugging (as reported all over
 the web) is outstanding, and they should be commended for this work.
 This improvement should be reflected in the current development build.
 And this has a major impact on our usability.
 
 2) the lack of a certificate UI has hampered our Browse usage primarily
 in G1G1 developed world situations: this tells me while it is of
 concern, it's not as high priority as some other issues might be,
 certainly lower than 0) or 1).  This could be satisfied by adding UI to
 browse, I believe.
 
 3) Sayamindu has made good progress toward swapping out Matchbox in
 favor of a conventional window manager; once this is complete, we can
 satisfy 2) at worst, by those who need it installing a standard Firefox;
 one could go up from there by using a Sugar theme, to XUL chrome
 modifications of arbitrary ambition; or installing your favorite web
 browser of choice.  This work to replace Matchbox won't make this
 release, but I expect be planned on thereafter.
 
 4) alternative browsers are always welcome; but, to make it as our
 default browser, it needs to:
 - address our rendering concerns for our screen.
 - have competitive memory performance
 - provide sharing features for classroom work (note that
   providing only an unmodified conventional browser won't 
   currently have these facilities).
 Additional goodness would be to have a single HTML rendering engine for
 everything, to save flash space, and the certificate UI we're missing.
 
 I can also anticipate Javascript performance may become an issue as its
 use continues to increase.
 
  - Jim
 
-- 
Jim Gettys [EMAIL PROTECTED]
One Laptop Per Child

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Jim Gettys


On Tue, 2008-07-08 at 00:17 -0400, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:
  Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.
 
 That may be true - but what if the user needs to reference two (or 
 more) separate pages of information.  If while looking at one page 
 he can't remember *exactly* what the other page said, he may want to 
 switch between pages.  What are the alternatives to tabbed browsing?
 
 [To me, it is more logical to select a tab created under my control, 
 than to select from the previously-seen list as presented by the 
 Browse 'Back' button.  And to open several instances of the existing 
 Activity seems wasteful.]


Patches gratefully accepted.  Note that due to memory usage, even tabs
have their limits (though it may be the recent improvements in Gecko
obviate this problem somewhat; it frees pixmap storage unused in finite
time).

Note the WebKit I would hope are now similarly motivated (competition is
a wonderful thing ;-)).
  - Jim

-- 
 
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 One Laptop Per Child

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Carol Lerche
So there are two threads here, the first being authentication and the second
whether the standard browser could be used  (I am still interested in a user
story as to why collaborative browsing is interesting/useful as opposed to a
shared bookmark or scrapbook).  While I am mostly interested in the second
issue personally, I can certainly produce a proof of concept for the first,
using client certs via Scott's  Firefox 3.  I don't think it is as hard as
you think, and I promise to provide something concrete by the end of the
weekend.

 As to the PKI infrastructure, I don't think it is any harder to work this
out than any of the other key management issues already in play.


 Well, it's a ton of work, and if I can take you on your offer of
 patches... we cannot provide a PKI infrastructure as a significant
 proportion of schools is disconnected, and we are not keen on imposing
 a complex school server setup procedure. So, assuming each XS does the
 classic self-signed-cert creation, what we want to do is to follow the
 current trust model, which is dead simple: the XO trusts the XS that
 it is registered to.


I am puzzled about the PKI infrastructure you envision.  I envision having a
private certificate authority that runs on the teacher's XO and keeps its
keystore on a USB thumb drive.  So my favorite CA tool is TinyCA (currently
version2) which is written in Perl.  This works very well for me, it has a
GTK interface and does its PKI using OpenSSL like everyone else.  This is
what I am going to use and document to create the certs.



 During the registration, the XO gives the XS its public SSH key. We need to

  - change the Registration protocol to grab the public part of the
 self-signed cert, and add an exception to the PKI checks in Browse.
 The registration stuff is implemented in a tool called idmgr (XS side)
 and in Sugar profile (XO side). If you looking at idmgr is horrible
 enough that you want to help me reimplement it, I have further notes
 on that track ;-) We also need to tackle the protocol change in a
 reasonably backwards compat manner.


Please point me to your notes on this, if you would be so kind.



  - figure out a way to use the existing SSH key that the XO has as the
 SSL client cert, and to detect it, and match it on the server side.


There are a couple of ways this can work.  I will implement this in my POC.



 The server-side apache-embedded code we are doing with mod_python
 handlers, and this is a perfect fit for an authen handler.


Not promising to do the Apache side in Python for the POC.  I write in Perl
by choice, so hold your nose.  But are you planning to use Apache or
lighttpd for the lightweight XS?



 Counting on your help to break this silly thread with actual working code
 :-)


I'm happy to oblige!  At last a project that doesn't require me to create a
GUI.  Brickbats regarding this plan of action are gratefully accepted.

Carol Lerche
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Tomeu Vizoso
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 6:32 PM, Jim Gettys [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 2) the lack of a certificate UI has hampered our Browse usage primarily
 in G1G1 developed world situations: this tells me while it is of
 concern, it's not as high priority as some other issues might be,
 certainly lower than 0) or 1).  This could be satisfied by adding UI to
 browse, I believe.

Hi, this has been fixed (by Marco) and is in the joyride builds, we
are using now the same mechanism as FF3.

We could add many more of the missing features to Browse if all the
developers weren't so busy with the rest of Sugar. Also, although most
of the sugar developers have occasionally hacked on Browse, we are far
from experts in the big piece of code that Mozilla is.

In my opinion, if Browse is so important for OLPC, the following should happen:

- discover what the actual users (kids and teachers) need and is not
yet present in Browse,
- discover what the sales team need in Browse to successfully market
the whole OLPC stuff (firefox brand?),
- contract any of the people with actual experience in the internals
of mozilla for cooperating with the current Sugar developers in order
to bring those new features.

I know that hiring takes time, I'm just making the point that doing
the Browse activity we want for OLPC is not anything impossible nor a
gigantic task. But requires at least focused people and efforts, and
better if those people already have the right experience.

Regards,

Tomeu
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread C. Scott Ananian
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Tomeu Vizoso [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 We could add many more of the missing features to Browse if all the
 developers weren't so busy with the rest of Sugar. Also, although most
 of the sugar developers have occasionally hacked on Browse, we are far
 from experts in the big piece of code that Mozilla is.

This was my original point.  We either have sufficient resources to
develop our own browser, or we don't.  I think it will (in the end) be
more efficient to develop small Firefox extensions to support Journal
integration and collaboration, rather than taxing the sugar developers
with an attempt to (basically) reimplement large parts of firefox.

 I know that hiring takes time, I'm just making the point that doing
 the Browse activity we want for OLPC is not anything impossible nor a
 gigantic task. But requires at least focused people and efforts, and
 better if those people already have the right experience.

And my basic point was that I thought we'd be better off leveraging
more of the upstream feature development directly, so that our Browse
would continue to improve w/o our hiring a full time Browse developer.

Anyway, as Martin says, this is all armchair quarterbacking until
someone gets Firefox to more-or-less the same level as Browse is now.
In my earlier part I started the process by packing Firefox 3.0 as a
self-contained .xo file (no yum required); the next steps are to
install the appropriate theme tweaks to integrate it into the sugar
look, possibly some libsugarization, and to write the extensions to
integrate with Tubes and the datastore (XUL is your friend).
 --scott

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 2:27 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I can certainly produce a proof of concept for the first,
 using client certs via Scott's  Firefox 3.  I don't think it is as hard as
 you think, and I promise to provide something concrete by the end of the
 weekend.

Thanks! [ but do see my note at the end ]

 I am puzzled about the PKI infrastructure you envision.  I envision having a
 private certificate authority that runs on the teacher's XO and keeps its
 keystore on a USB thumb drive.  So my favorite CA tool is TinyCA (currently
 version2) which is written in Perl.  This works very well for me, it has a
 GTK interface and does its PKI using OpenSSL like everyone else.  This is
 what I am going to use and document to create the certs.

That seems to require a fairly complex setup, and is vulnerable to
losing the usb drive.

  - change the Registration protocol to grab the public part of the
...
 Please point me to your notes on this, if you would be so kind.

There aren't any, unfortunately. I had to read idmgr to understand the
protocol - so read the source. It is a trivial xml-rpc.

  - figure out a way to use the existing SSH key that the XO has as the
 SSL client cert, and to detect it, and match it on the server side.

 There are a couple of ways this can work.  I will implement this in my POC.

Cool.

 The server-side apache-embedded code we are doing with mod_python
 handlers, and this is a perfect fit for an authen handler.

 Not promising to do the Apache side in Python for the POC.  I write in Perl
 by choice, so hold your nose.  But are you planning to use Apache or
 lighttpd for the lightweight XS?

I am a happy Perl hacker in Python land too, and I finding that
mod_python hacking is similar to mod_perl hacking. Anyway, if you can
sort out the rest, I can probably deal with the mod_python bit :-)

And yes - using apache so far.

 Counting on your help to break this silly thread with actual working code
 :-)

 I'm happy to oblige!  At last a project that doesn't require me to create a
 GUI.  Brickbats regarding this plan of action are gratefully accepted.

Note: The only thing that saddens me is that basing it on FF turns
your help into more of a political wedge than technical help. The two
issues (auth, browser) are orthogonal. Short term, we need the
authentication stuff. Scott's mumblings are about future scenarios,
and are missing a lot of aspects - see jg's post. In the best of
cases, it is a medium-term thing.

And it is odd timing to be talking about ah, let's change the
browser when everyone tries to focus on 8.2.0. For example, if you do
it on Browse instead of FF, and it is a neat patch, we could argue for
inclusion in a minor update (say, 8.2.1) as it enables proper
operation of the restore part of backup :-)

And that means proper backup/restore is in the hands of thousands of
kids many MANY moons earlier. Just to put the jockeying in
perspective.



m
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Tomeu Vizoso
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 8:05 PM, C. Scott Ananian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Tomeu Vizoso [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 We could add many more of the missing features to Browse if all the
 developers weren't so busy with the rest of Sugar. Also, although most
 of the sugar developers have occasionally hacked on Browse, we are far
 from experts in the big piece of code that Mozilla is.

 This was my original point.  We either have sufficient resources to
 develop our own browser, or we don't.  I think it will (in the end) be
 more efficient to develop small Firefox extensions to support Journal
 integration and collaboration, rather than taxing the sugar developers
 with an attempt to (basically) reimplement large parts of firefox.

Well, the same could be said about the rest of Sugar. If our users are
better served by standard linux desktop components progressively
improved for our learning goals, we should drop Sugar and go for that.

 I know that hiring takes time, I'm just making the point that doing
 the Browse activity we want for OLPC is not anything impossible nor a
 gigantic task. But requires at least focused people and efforts, and
 better if those people already have the right experience.

 And my basic point was that I thought we'd be better off leveraging
 more of the upstream feature development directly, so that our Browse
 would continue to improve w/o our hiring a full time Browse developer.

Same as above, if OLPC's strategy is to be that, I should be working
on Nautilus instead of the Journal.

Again, I would like to see a list of the features actually needed by
users and sales, and then revisit the decision of how OLPC should be
spending its resources. In the meantime, all the testing with kids
that could be done with different browsers would be very useful.

 Anyway, as Martin says, this is all armchair quarterbacking until
 someone gets Firefox to more-or-less the same level as Browse is now.
 In my earlier part I started the process by packing Firefox 3.0 as a
 self-contained .xo file (no yum required); the next steps are to
 install the appropriate theme tweaks to integrate it into the sugar
 look, possibly some libsugarization, and to write the extensions to
 integrate with Tubes and the datastore (XUL is your friend).

Sure, all this will be very interesting work regardless of which
browser each deployment chooses to deploy.

Regards,

Tomeu
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Benjamin M. Schwartz
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA1

C. Scott Ananian wrote:
| On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Tomeu Vizoso [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
| We could add many more of the missing features to Browse if all the
| developers weren't so busy with the rest of Sugar. Also, although most
| of the sugar developers have occasionally hacked on Browse, we are far
| from experts in the big piece of code that Mozilla is.
|
| This was my original point.  We either have sufficient resources to
| develop our own browser, or we don't.  I think it will (in the end) be
| more efficient to develop small Firefox extensions to support Journal
| integration and collaboration, rather than taxing the sugar developers
| with an attempt to (basically) reimplement large parts of firefox.

I disagree.  I expect that these two options will require a very similar
amount of code... but one of them is already largely complete (if beta),
while the other is hypothetical.

Browse a custom UI on XULRunner, with brand-new code for sharing and
datastore access.  Moving that code into extensions doesn't reduce the
amount of code.  Neither of these scenarios is more our own browser than
the other.

- --Ben
-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iEYEARECAAYFAkhzsIgACgkQUJT6e6HFtqRclQCfRSZXm2NgTztwVMnXMhcW4LEL
CAEAoIj2t4FVX0PRqcjdAVm0PYLLHVl3
=crMM
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Tomeu Vizoso
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 8:23 PM, Benjamin M. Schwartz
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
 Hash: SHA1

 C. Scott Ananian wrote:
 | On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:32 PM, Tomeu Vizoso [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 | We could add many more of the missing features to Browse if all the
 | developers weren't so busy with the rest of Sugar. Also, although most
 | of the sugar developers have occasionally hacked on Browse, we are far
 | from experts in the big piece of code that Mozilla is.
 |
 | This was my original point.  We either have sufficient resources to
 | develop our own browser, or we don't.  I think it will (in the end) be
 | more efficient to develop small Firefox extensions to support Journal
 | integration and collaboration, rather than taxing the sugar developers
 | with an attempt to (basically) reimplement large parts of firefox.

 I disagree.  I expect that these two options will require a very similar
 amount of code... but one of them is already largely complete (if beta),
 while the other is hypothetical.

 Browse a custom UI on XULRunner, with brand-new code for sharing and
 datastore access.  Moving that code into extensions doesn't reduce the
 amount of code.  Neither of these scenarios is more our own browser than
 the other.

Adding to Ben's comments, I would like to remember that by embedding a
browser widget (mozilla or webkit) inside a python activity we are
giving great opportunities to hack around it, either in derivatives of
Browse or in new activities.

If we just added a number of extensions to Firefox either in C++ or
JS, could we deliver as much to the kids that want to study and modify
the software on their machines?

Regards,

Tomeu
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Bobby Powers
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Jim Gettys [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:


 On Tue, 2008-07-08 at 00:17 -0400, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:
  Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.

 That may be true - but what if the user needs to reference two (or
 more) separate pages of information.  If while looking at one page
 he can't remember *exactly* what the other page said, he may want to
 switch between pages.  What are the alternatives to tabbed browsing?

 [To me, it is more logical to select a tab created under my control,
 than to select from the previously-seen list as presented by the
 Browse 'Back' button.  And to open several instances of the existing
 Activity seems wasteful.]


 Patches gratefully accepted.  Note that due to memory usage, even tabs
 have their limits (though it may be the recent improvements in Gecko
 obviate this problem somewhat; it frees pixmap storage unused in finite
 time).

 Note the WebKit I would hope are now similarly motivated (competition is
 a wonderful thing ;-)).
  - Jim

I updated the WebKit Browse to use the latest GIT WebKit, merge in the
latest mainline changes in Browse, and do fullpage zoom.

http://dev.laptop.org/~bobbyp/Browse-93.xo

Bobby
(I've been watching youtube videos in WebKit/Browse a day.  its a
little choppy, but thats probably gstreamer/ffmpeg)

 --

 Jim Gettys [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 One Laptop Per Child

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread C. Scott Ananian
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Tomeu Vizoso [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 If we just added a number of extensions to Firefox either in C++ or
 JS, could we deliver as much to the kids that want to study and modify
 the software on their machines?

Yes.  Firefox has a much better integrated IDE for XUL/JS work than we
have for Python.
 --scott

-- 
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Tomeu Vizoso
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 8:59 PM, C. Scott Ananian [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 2:34 PM, Tomeu Vizoso [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 If we just added a number of extensions to Firefox either in C++ or
 JS, could we deliver as much to the kids that want to study and modify
 the software on their machines?

 Yes.  Firefox has a much better integrated IDE for XUL/JS work than we
 have for Python.

Cool, and can you call any c library in the system like you can with
python's ctypes? Or are you restricted to either JS files and XPCOM or
C++?

Tomeu
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-08 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 3:07 PM, Martin Langhoff
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Please point me to your notes on this, if you would be so kind.

 There aren't any, unfortunately. I had to read idmgr to understand the
 protocol - so read the source. It is a trivial xml-rpc.

Ah, apologies, wrong answer. I do have some mental notes, but you
might want to read idmgr before getting both of us into such trouble
:-)

cheers,



m
-- 
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[sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Bobby Powers
Hi Folks,

I spent a couple hours yesterday taking out Gecko from Browse, and
putting in WebKit.  Luckily, this was made easy by some PyWebKitGtk
bindings from Jan Alonzo (cc'ed).  The example included with the
bindings is actually based off WebKit ;).

Some initial documentation is here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Browse/WebKit

things work pretty well in general, but gmail chokes, possibly due to gnash.

if you just want to try it (on an F9 based joyride), the bundle is:
http://dev.laptop.org/~bobbyp/Browse-92.xo

yours,
Bobby Powers
Intern Extroadinare
(irc: nteon)
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread C. Scott Ananian
On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 12:39 PM, Bobby Powers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I spent a couple hours yesterday taking out Gecko from Browse, and
 putting in WebKit.  Luckily, this was made easy by some PyWebKitGtk

Just repeating in public what I leaned over and told m_stone and cjb:

I'd rather see us just give up on Browse and ship and appropriately
configured Firefox.  I just can't see OLPC devoting enough developer
resources long-term to maintain a competitive browser.  I understand
that the major benefit of WebKit is speed and (memory, NAND) size.
I'd like to see a quantitative comparison against both our current
gecko-based browser and against firefox, so that we can make a more
informed decision re: whether it is still to our benefit to ship a
bespoke browser.
  --scott

(mstone reports that 'yum install firefox' and 'firefox' is a decent
basis for comparison, although we can tweak firefox's configuration
and package it as an RPM to get a nicer sugar lookfeel if we really
wanted to pursue this route.)

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Carol Lerche
Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
(assuming a properly configured server).

As to collaborative browsing, that use case should be balanced against all
the available applications that having a standard Firefox enables
painlessly.   Where is a user story of collaborative browsing (as contrasted
to a shared bookmark repository) documented?

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:10 PM, Martin Langhoff [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 6:56 PM, C. Scott Ananian [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
  I'd rather see us just give up on Browse and ship and appropriately
  configured Firefox.  I just can't see OLPC devoting enough developer

 Not so fast! The XS deliverables need a custom browser on the XO for
 reasons we were discussing last Thursday :-)

 If we want

  - automagic authentication with the XS
  - collaborative browsing (which can get better than what we have)

 we need a custom, bespoke, forked, evil, lasers-on-sharkies-heads
 browser. Call it Betty if you want, but we need it.




 m
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Carol Lerche
Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox
browser or an Apache server.  GTK based as well as web based software to
create certs also already exists.   What sort of patch are you looking for?
I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate a
request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser.   The issue of
certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is
difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it is
important to be clear about the requirements.  When you describe the
overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs?  Examining them
when someone first logs on?

I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a
requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server.  To me,
the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this
trade off should be considered.

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
  certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
  (assuming a properly configured server).

 I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am
 fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead
 and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get
 to implement it.

 Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this
 is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some
 fantastic patches :-)

 cheers,



 m
 --
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  [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect
  - ask interesting questions
  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Carol Lerche
The UI seems pretty important to me, but obviously that's a matter of
taste.  Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.  Correct operation of websites
that fail with the extant browser.  Direct availability of plugins and
addons.  One example:  scrapbook, a superb research tool.  Another example
Google Gears (according to a recent mail being ported, presumably  because
the browser is not standard).  I am not familiar with the Firefox codebase,
and perhaps all these things are directly available so long as the Firefox 3
engine is there, but if so, there desperately needs to be a detailed body of
documentation telling how to access these capabilities.

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:56 PM, Bobby Powers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 2008/7/7 Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
  Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox
  browser or an Apache server.  GTK based as well as web based software to
  create certs also already exists.   What sort of patch are you looking
 for?
  I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate
 a
  request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser.   The issue
 of
  certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is
  difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it is
  important to be clear about the requirements.  When you describe the
  overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs?  Examining them
  when someone first logs on?
 
  I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a
  requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server.  To
 me,
  the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this
  trade off should be considered.

 Can you explain these benefits?  Both Gecko and WebKit are standard
 browser engines.  I don't see much to be gained from a UI perspective
 (which presumably is what you're taking about?) by switching to FF3.
 Performance is the only compelling reason I see.

 Bobby

  On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff 
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  wrote:
 
  On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
   Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
   certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
   (assuming a properly configured server).
 
  I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am
  fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead
  and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get
  to implement it.
 
  Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this
  is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some
  fantastic patches :-)
 
  cheers,
 
 
 
  m
  --
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   - ask interesting questions
   - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
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  --
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 the
  roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Martin Langhoff
Carol,

give me some credit :-) I know that FF works well with client certs
and apache has no problem with it. I've been coding apache/ssl aware
apps since '98...

 What sort of patch are you looking for?

Well, there is quite a bit of thinking that needs to happen here, and
I am working on something else at the moment. So, these are quick
notes

 - XS installs/deployments will be done in so many different scenarios
that we cannot address the promises needed the conventional PKI
infrastructure. We need a good strategy to sidestep the PKI
requirements of full blown SSL. A few weird schemes come to mind, all
nasty :-)

 - SSL overhead at the network layer is very significant. Network
bandwidth and latency on the local link are valuable resources.

 - SSL CPU overhead at the XS end is moderately significant.

And then there is the huge work to chop the Firefox interface into
something that fits our UI guidelines (and our screen) - I don't claim
to know about that part, but you can imagine that *that* part of the
problem is enough to make wise hackers declare that maintaining Browse
for the long term is Just Fine.

cheers,


m
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Bobby Powers
On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:06 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 The UI seems pretty important to me, but obviously that's a matter of
 taste.  Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.  Correct operation of websites
 that fail with the extant browser.  Direct availability of plugins and
 addons.  One example:  scrapbook, a superb research tool.  Another example
 Google Gears (according to a recent mail being ported, presumably  because
 the browser is not standard).  I am not familiar with the Firefox codebase,
 and perhaps all these things are directly available so long as the Firefox 3
 engine is there, but if so, there desperately needs to be a detailed body of
 documentation telling how to access these capabilities.

Carol -

I created a page on the wiki to list these problem sites.  Can you
please record these sites there?
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Browse/ProblemSites

And, to be fair, Gears is not (only) a website, its a browser plug-in
that allows you to interact with certain websites offline. (and I do
think someone is working on porting it as you said).

Bobby

 On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:56 PM, Bobby Powers [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 2008/7/7 Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
  Client certs can be used for authentication with no changes to a Firefox
  browser or an Apache server.  GTK based as well as web based software to
  create certs also already exists.   What sort of patch are you looking
  for?
  I could certainly provide a page running in an apache server to validate
  a
  request for and implant a client cert in a Firefox browser.   The issue
  of
  certificate creation needs a little more discussion, not because it is
  difficult or requires a lot of new software to execute, but because it
  is
  important to be clear about the requirements.  When you describe the
  overhead, do you mean the overhead of creating the certs?  Examining
  them
  when someone first logs on?
 
  I raised this alternative because you said that a bespoke browser was a
  requirement to have automatic authentication with the school server.  To
  me,
  the benefits of running a standard browser are so substantial that this
  trade off should be considered.

 Can you explain these benefits?  Both Gecko and WebKit are standard
 browser engines.  I don't see much to be gained from a UI perspective
 (which presumably is what you're taking about?) by switching to FF3.
 Performance is the only compelling reason I see.

 Bobby

  On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Martin Langhoff
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  wrote:
 
  On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
   Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
   certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
   (assuming a properly configured server).
 
  I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am
  fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead
  and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get
  to implement it.
 
  Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this
  is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some
  fantastic patches :-)
 
  cheers,
 
 
 
  m
  --
   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
   [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- School Server Architect
   - ask interesting questions
   - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
   - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
 
 
 
  --
  Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on
  the
  roof and gets stuck -- George Carlin
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Eben Eliason
2008/7/7 Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED]:
 The UI seems pretty important to me, but obviously that's a matter of
 taste.  Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.  Correct operation of websites
 that fail with the extant browser.  Direct availability of plugins and
 addons.  One example:  scrapbook, a superb research tool.  Another example
 Google Gears (according to a recent mail being ported, presumably  because
 the browser is not standard).  I am not familiar with the Firefox codebase,
 and perhaps all these things are directly available so long as the Firefox 3
 engine is there, but if so, there desperately needs to be a detailed body of
 documentation telling how to access these capabilities.

I certainly acknowledge that a) the sparse UI isn't for everyone and
b) the UI is young and still needs some more work (and more features).
 It started out bare bones, and is slowly gaining important features
as we go (recently URI autocompletion, find in page text, foundational
support for global bookmarks, and other features appeared!).  It
should also be noted that tabs were part of the initial design, and
were taken out both to prevent abuse of RAM and because we thought
that it might be confused adjacent to the link sharing feature, which
we felt was a really important addition for our target audience and
collaborative learning.  I'd consider adding them in light of recent
engine improvements, assuming we can prove that kids navigate them
naturally.

Additionally, I'd love to see other individuals with interest porting
other browsers to the XO.  I think someone was working on this with
Opera.  Perhaps a more full featured Firefox could also be Sugarized.
However, we designed the current Browse as is to be purposely sparse,
to give kids the basics without overloading them with things that
could get in the way. I think there's a place for Browse as a default
browser, especially for kids under 8 or so, even if other more complex
browsers appear as viable alternatives.

- Eben
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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Carol Lerche
Allowing the null encryption algorithm in the browser would enable it for
other later negotiations, which seems an unnecessary exposure to suppress
the encryption for a single small https exchange.  But it would certainly be
possible.

On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 9:44 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 On Mon, 7 Jul 2008, Martin Langhoff wrote:

  On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Carol Lerche [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Why does automatic authentication require a custom browser?  Client
 certificates work well for this function in ordinary web applications
 (assuming a properly configured server).


 I haven't delved into this deeply yet, but I suspect that, while I am
 fond of client certs, they won't work - SSL network and CPU overhead
 and sidestepping PKI madness for server certs. More on this when I get
 to implement it.


 what about using client certs, but then null encryption after that? it's a
 non-standard config, but that's just a config option, not code changes.

 David Lang


  Now, anyone who wants to have a strong say on how I am developing this
 is free to start implementing it ahead of me, and showing me some
 fantastic patches :-)

 cheers,



 m




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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread david
On Tue, 8 Jul 2008, Mikus Grinbergs wrote:

 Not everyone likes tabbed browsing.

 That may be true - but what if the user needs to reference two (or
 more) separate pages of information.  If while looking at one page
 he can't remember *exactly* what the other page said, he may want to
 switch between pages.  What are the alternatives to tabbed browsing?

multiple screens of browsing (currently only available by running multiple 
copies of browse, with the associated memory useage)

David Lang

 [To me, it is more logical to select a tab created under my control,
 than to select from the previously-seen list as presented by the
 Browse 'Back' button.  And to open several instances of the existing
 Activity seems wasteful.]

 mikus

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Mikus Grinbergs
A reference was made to Gears:
 My point was exactly that it is a plugin.
 There are other plugins that are educationally useful.

Security.  I believe that 'Browse' is restricted as to how much it 
is allowed to modify the operating system itself.  Such restrictions 
would apply to plugins as well.  That concept NEEDS to be enforced.

[War story:  When plugins first became available for Netscape, I 
installed one.  But Netscape started behaving differently from how I 
had thought I had set it up.  I investigated, and found out that 
under the covers the plugin had CHANGED (without telling me) some 
Netscape settings to the way *it* wanted them.  Got rid of it fast.]

My point is that a 'plugin' is typically a binary blob -- the 
person installing it on his computer has NO IDEA as to what that 
plugin might surreptitiously be doing under the covers.

mikus

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Re: [sugar] (another) WebKit port of Browse

2008-07-07 Thread Asheesh Laroia
I've snipped away the parts I have no comment on, but:

On Mon, 7 Jul 2008, Martin Langhoff wrote:

 Well, there is quite a bit of thinking that needs to happen here, and I 
 am working on something else at the moment. So, these are quick notes

And me, too - just quick notes:

 - XS installs/deployments will be done in so many different scenarios 
 that we cannot address the promises needed the conventional PKI 
 infrastructure. We need a good strategy to sidestep the PKI requirements 
 of full blown SSL. A few weird schemes come to mind, all nasty :-)

I'd be interested to hear them.

 - SSL overhead at the network layer is very significant. Network 
 bandwidth and latency on the local link are valuable resources.

Do it once at authentication time and use an HTTP cookie after that (that 
is available to HTTP sites in the same doamin).

 - SSL CPU overhead at the XS end is moderately significant.

Same answer as above.

-- Asheesh.

-- 
Life is a grand adventure -- or it is nothing.
-- Helen Keller
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