Release Dillo - a fast light browser, without javascript


sswam

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Joined
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I compiled the Dillo browser and posted a PND, on the repo.

This is a good GUI browser for reading sensible websites.

It's very light and efficient, and starts almost instantly.

Just don't expect it to work well if javascript is required.

This version does support CSS, don't expect layout to be perfect.

I wrote an article for our pandoralive.info blog

on how to do a port, using this Dillo port as an example.

Issues tracker:

- Fixed - Asks about each https site, every time.  I'd like to get it to use certificate authority certs.

- Fixed - does not work right on FAT32 SD cards - this always seems to trip me up!  will fix this ASAP.

- Fixed - dpid and perhaps other processes stay open after close Dillo, prevents PND unmount and hangs minimenu!

- Bug - foreign pages aren't displaying correctly (I'm getting squares instead).

- Wish - stop flickering ... http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php/topic/12464-dillo-a-fast-light-browser-without-javascript/?p=236151

- Wish - runtime zooming

- Wish - kinetic scrolling on click and drag

- Wish - option, to keep one blank window/tab open after closing the last tab, to avoid accidental shut-down
 
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I found three issues in it:

1. Its missing some fonts according to its .out.

2. It doesn't copy over the files it uses for its settings (which are stored in /mnt/utmp/dillo3/etc/dillo) to its appdata directory.

Also, I have a suggestion:

1. Its taskbar icon should be the same as the one that the PND uses.
 
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If this is where it stores its settings, create those folders on first start to the appdatadir.
 
Well, he made them be stored in its appdata directory (since the cookiesrc file is in there to begin with).
 
Just one question:

Is this browser still in development.

Would be great to see some javascript working.

It's on there low priority list.

This browser is so fast.

I like it.

EDIT:

Did some search.

Seems like the D+ browser is the successor of Dillo.

http://dplus-browser.sourceforge.net/

Maybe you could make a PND out of it as well.
 
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Just one question:

Is this browser still in development.

Would be great to see some javascript working.

It's on there low priority list.

This browser is so fast.
its precisely BECAUSE it does not do javascript that it is fast :)
Well, I think that it can still be as fast even with javascript support.

Just one question:

Is this browser still in development.

Would be great to see some javascript working.

It's on there low priority list.

This browser is so fast.

I like it.

EDIT:

Did some search.

Seems like the D+ browser is the successor of Dillo.

http://dplus-browser.sourceforge.net/

Maybe you could make a PND out of it as well.
D+ hasn't been updated since last year.
 
Well, I think that it can still be as fast even with javascript support.
Well i guess you mean "not noticeably slower" by "even as fast", because technically every interpretation of code you add on top will bring latency to the display of the page. And I seriously doubt it will remain "as fast" seeing how much time it took on Firefox and Chrome to compete on the optimization of their javascript decoding engines. 
 
I found three issues in it:

Thanks for that, I'll fix the https, fonts, settings, icon in the next PND.  I asked about https on the mailing list.

Is this browser still in development?

Yes Dillo is actively developed.  Got a few messages on the dev list since I joined last night! It's a nice browser for sensible old-style HTML sites.


Settings are supposed to go in $HOME/.dillo/*, i.e. in appdata/dillo3/.dillo


I'll make the PND create the folder and some empty or template config files there, if it isn't already.

Well, I think that it can still be as fast even with javascript support.

Javascript itself isn't necessarily slow, but they would have to store the DOM (document object model) for each page so that Javascript can mess with it. Dynamic HTML can complexify and slow things down a lot, because the dumb page can be always adjusting itself, the browser has to render it like 20 times... and I guess it would be a lot of work for the Dillo team. I'm confident they are not going to add javascript support any time soon.


I'm porting another browser "surf", a minimal, fast webkit-gtk browser from suckless.org. The browser is only ~1300 lines of code, all the smarts are in webkit. If I can manage to build webkit, "surf" will be a very reliable and fast / light, full-featured, modern browser, like a minimalist chrome.


My attempts to build webkit-gtk are failing dismally at the moment. So I'm trying to work out a sane way to build packages from source. I'm thinking to use info from the linux from scratch books! They have a nice map of what packages versions work together, up to very recent versions, all the build quirks, and how to build them in order...
 
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Thanks for the info guys. :)

Maybe it would be good to have zoom in and zoom out.

On FireFox I press CTRL and - twice to get a nice overview.

"Surf" sounds good.
 
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My attempts to build webkit-gtk are failing dismally at the moment. So I'm trying to work out a sane way to build packages from source. I'm thinking to use info from the linux from scratch books! They have a nice map of what packages versions work together, up to very recent versions, all the build quirks, and how to build them in order...
Maybe a good idea to ask PtitSeb for advice on how to compile webkit-gtk. He may have a clue on how to do it. I guess he built webkit-qt for Arora (not sure though...)
 
My attempts to build webkit-gtk are failing dismally at the moment. So I'm trying to work out a sane way to build packages from source. I'm thinking to use info from the linux from scratch books! They have a nice map of what packages versions work together, up to very recent versions, all the build quirks, and how to build them in order...
Maybe a good idea to ask PtitSeb for advice on how to compile webkit-gtk. He may have a clue on how to do it. I guess he built webkit-qt for Arora (not sure though...)
Well, I had to webkit-qt for Arora, but it was a part of the QT compile, and there was nothing special about it.

For WebKit, I still haven't looked at it. I may try to compile it for next Codeblocks, but I suspect it need many updated libs, and some, like GLib, that should only be update at firmware level.
 
I updated Dillo on the repo:

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=dillo3

- ca-certs for https

- nice fonts (had to build fltk again) with anti-aliasing


- copy settings to appdata/

- window manager icon


- hyphenation rules (!) for en-gb, de-1996

- esc toggles fullscreen

- google default search engine

- allow cookies by default

- not javascript yet  :p

 

TODO:

 

- hide scrollbars in fullscreen mode

 

GLib, that should only be update at firmware level.
Is there some reason we can't include a newer version of glib in a PND?
 
Its not using the settings in /appdata/dillo3. Instead, its still using the settings in /appdata/dillo3/.dillo. Also, it overwrote the settings I already had. So, it should only copy the settings to /appdata/ when there are none in it.
 
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I updated Dillo on the repo:

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=dillo3

- ca-certs for https

- nice fonts (had to build fltk again) with anti-aliasing


- copy settings to appdata/

- window manager icon


- hyphenation rules (!) for en-gb, de-1996

- esc toggles fullscreen

- google default search engine

- allow cookies by default

- not javascript yet  :p

 

TODO:

 

- hide scrollbars in fullscreen mode

 

GLib, that should only be update at firmware level.
Is there some reason we can't include a newer version of glib in a PND?
I'm doing some experiment with that. You get pleinty of complains from gnome because objects try to register 2 times... So, for a pnd, you'll fill the pnd_out with that, but it kind of work.

I have a partly working gnucash, but still fighting with fonts. I have put that on hold for now, want to play with 3D and new GCC, I wanted to put an alpha of this PND on the repo this weekend, but couldn't figure out the font problem I have.

Anyway, unpdating GLib is tricky, and I have rolled back my update of "fontconfig", "glibe" and "pango"  had planned on codeblocks (to dirty for a release, just launch "mousepad" and you have plenty of error & warning on the Terminal).
 
Its not using the settings in /appdata/dillo3. Instead, its still using the settings in /appdata/dillo3/.dillo. Also, it overwrote the settings I already had. So, it should only copy the settings to /appdata/ when there are none in it.
Sorry about that.

Here's the run script.  I am making a symlink at appdata/dillo3/.dillo to "." (i.e. appdata/dillo3).

But I forgot, I can't do that in the run script if appdata is on a FAT SD card.

I can put the symlink in the pnd instead of the appdata.

Will fix this and test (the appdata upgrade) on a FAT SD card tonight.

Dang FAT, it always trips me up!

Thanks for the beta testing.

There is no way to zoom in and out while it's running.

It does have font settings in the config file.

Can set min and max font size, and font scale.

I could hack it so you can zoom text at runtime.

Zooming images is another kettle of fish...  But how hard can it be?

Wasn't really intending to develop this browser, just port it, but what the hell - it's a bit of fun.

I think this is the quickest-starting Pandora browser, starts in about 1.5 seconds!

It's very quick at rendering too, can handle large pages.

I'm using Dillo for reading sensible sites, and firefox for web apps.

TODO:

 

- fix config / .dillo symlink for FAT

- hide scrollbars in fullscreen mode


- zoom text at runtime

- zoom images at runtime
 
Its not using the settings in /appdata/dillo3. Instead, its still using the settings in /appdata/dillo3/.dillo. Also, it overwrote the settings I already had. So, it should only copy the settings to /appdata/ when there are none in it.
ok I think I've fixed the FAT32 issue in 3.0.3.3.

It's like making websites for IE...  pls try it Zero3k
 
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