gecko-dev/browser
bryner%netscape.com 9486f70d34 update 2002-04-03 07:58:44 +00:00
..
base ... and now it runs. 2002-04-02 11:16:23 +00:00
components fixing objdir bustage. 2002-04-02 21:47:03 +00:00
.cvsignore Adding gmake makefiles. 2002-04-02 06:59:38 +00:00
Makefile.in make it build 2002-04-02 11:04:24 +00:00
README.html update 2002-04-03 07:58:44 +00:00

README.html

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
<html lang="en-GB-hixie">
 <head>
  <title>mozilla/browser</title>
 </head>
 <body>
  <h1>mozilla/browser</h1>

  <p class="LXRLONGDESC">This project is a redesign of the Mozilla
  browser component, similar to Galeon, K-Meleon and Chimera, but
  written using the XUL user interface language and designed to be
  cross-platform.</p>

  <h2>Principles, Strategy, Tactics, and Concrete Design Decisions</h2>

  <ol>
   <li>CVS access is restricted to a very small team. We'll grow as
   needed, based on reputation and meritorious hacks to
   mozilla/browser.</li>

   <li>This will be a single process for the browser only. Mail
   clients, web editors, etc, will be out-of-process. Hooks for other
   apps will be provided eventually, although that is not an immediate
   goal.</li>

   <li>No profile manager UI on startup, although you can still select
   multiple profiles from the command line.</li>

   <li>The default theme will be Classic. Additional themes will be
    supported but will not be part of mozilla/browser.</li>

   <li>The toolbar(s) will be configurable. That includes moving the
   location bar where the user wants it (not just splitting it so it
   takes a whole toolbar width).</li>

   <li>The personal toolbar is the personal toolbar, not the
   whorebar.</li>

   <li>All wallet-like functionality will be rewritten from
   scratch.</li>

   <li>We will have a sidebar, but it may work differently from
   Mozilla's current one.</li>

   <li>There won't be 239 access points for Search and for
   Bookmarks!</li>

   <li>We may drop the throbber.</li>

   <li>The interface will not be "geeky" nor will it have a
   "hacker-focus". Nor will it be "minimal". The idea is to design the
   best web browser for most people. (This doesn't mean every feature
   has to be enabled by default.)</li>

  </ol>

  <h2>Notes</h2>

  <p>We won't be redesigning the editor widget(s) or other parts of
  Gecko as part of this project.</p>

  <h2>FAQ</h2>

  <h3>Q1. Why?</h3>

  <p>We want to have fun and build an excellent, user-friendly browser
  without the constraints (such as unnecessary features,
  compatibility, marketing requirements, month long discussions, etc.)
  that the current browser development requires.</p>

  <h3>Q2. Why only a small team?</h3>

  <p>The size of the team working on the trunk is one of the many
  reasons that development on the trunk is so slow. We feel that
  fewer dependencies (no marketing constraints), faster innovation (no
  UI committees), and more freedom to experiment (no backwards
  compatability requirements) will lead to a better end product.</p>

  <h3>Q3. Where do I file bugs on this?</h3>

  <p>You don't. We are not soliciting input at this time. See Q2.</p>

  <h3>Q4: Why are you guys wasting time making a FAQ?</h3>

  <p>Because we would waste tons of time answering these questions, if
  there was no FAQ.</p>

  <h2>Getting the Source</h2>

  <ol>
   <li>Go to the root of your mozilla tree.</li>
   <li><kbd>cvs up -Pd browser</kbd></li>
  </ol>

  <h2>Building mozilla/browser </h2>

  <h3>UNIX, Windows (gmake), Mac (mach-o)</h3>

  <ol>
   <li>Get a bog standard Mozilla tree built.</li>
   <li>if you have MOZ_OBJDIR set in your mozconfig file, <kbd>cd</kbd>
   to that directory</li>
   <li><kbd>sh -c "CONFIG_FILES=browser/Makefile ./config.status"</kbd></li>
   <li><kbd>cd browser</kbd></li>
   <li><kbd>make</kbd></li>
   <li>Run mozilla with arguments <kbd>-chrome chrome://browser/</kbd></li>
  </ol>

  Note that steps 2 and 3 need only be run once.

  <h2>Mac (CodeWarrior)</h2>

  <p>...</p>

 </body>
</html>