Putting the Web in GTK+
The word is out. I’ll be coordinating with Epiphany developer Christian Persch to see how the GTK+ team can put Web functionality in or alongside the UI toolkit in the weeks leading up to the GTK+ Berlin hackfest 2008.
We’ll be studying existing toolkits featuring Web widgets and considering what changes might be necessary to support something like a GtkWebView. Some possible lines of investigation include:
- A shared HTTP stack
- A standardised GObject/C API representation of the DOM
- The provision of editing capabilities
- A generic inline search toolbar
My personal interest is in GTK+ integration, favouring native GTK+ styling and event propagation. (Let’s put an end to ‘Linux’ themes.) Our agenda will tie in with other topics to be discussed at the hackfest including vector-based UI styling which could address the needs of modern content engines like WebKit and Gecko.
Alp, Curious to known what you mean by, “‘Linux’ themes”?
Wes: Trying to make an application look like Linux doesn’t work because Linux can host any number of UI toolkits. Some cross-platform applications still advertise a ‘Linux theme’ but I’m hoping developers will move beyond that and start to use native style APIs provided by the toolkit, whether it’s GTK+, Qt or something else.
WebKit and Gecko have both done this in the last few months so it isn’t such a hot topic as it was before.
It would be great if we could get some GTK+ theme APIs that didn’t require using offscreen windows and deep hacks to get access to them. It’s my understanding that the code in WebKit is the exactly same code that’s in Gecko to display native widgets so we’re both suffering from that problem.