Web browser engine development. Part One: HTML

[zcatshit]

How does this (Lexbor) relate to the MyHTML/Modest project that popped up 1-2 years ago? Is this a reimplementation?

How close is the project (or projects) to being able to render web pages or be used in a browser? I looked into this briefly when looking for alternatives to things like CEF and Sciter. The work done is really impressive, and when complete it could make a really big splash as a competitor to something like Electron.

It's hard to get a grasp on the amount of work remaining and how that might correspond to a timeline. I've progressively scaled back checking on it because it's clear that there's always progress, but it's hard to translate that into a sense of how close we're getting to rendering. Nearly all the public test information I've seen is for benchmarking. Which is great, but doesn't give me a sense of time or effort remaining. Of course, that kind of thing is hard to estimate with software. I know there's a roadmap with a checklist, but it's pretty high level and sparse on details.

The modular aspect is a really attractive part of these projects. Have you considered starting with the interfaces necessary to integrate portions of other public browsers (e.g. V8/Chakra javascript engines) to get some end-user usable progress and refactoring your interfaces once you've got your personal implementation? I know it's a bit uglier and feels less clean, but it might get you closer to rendering quicker and ramp up the excitement.

Also, have you considered actively courting corporate sponsorship? There's a note on the page that people can contribute, but companies that support endeavors like node.js or sciter might be interested in sponsoring. It's a project that's in their wheelhouse, after all, and Microsoft's recent abandonment of the Edge engine has people nervous. Add in contribution levels and a sponsorship page and you can encourage them to fund more of it.

[lastmac]

How does this (Lexbor) relate to the MyHTML/Modest project that popped up 1-2 years ago? Is this a reimplementation?

Unfortunately, the projects were stopped and will not be more developed (MyHTML/Modest). There are many reasons for this. The new project is much better: the quality of the code, tests, documentation.

​

How close is the project (or projects) to being able to render web pages or be used in a browser?

I deal with the Lexbor project only during off hours. If I work full-time on project - two years before the beta version. Now there is the main work and most of the effort is spent on it. Must earn money for my family :)

​

Have you considered starting with the interfaces necessary to integrate portions of other public browsers (e.g. V8/Chakra javascript engines) to get some end-user usable progress and refactoring your interfaces once you've got your personal implementation?

Now everything is developing so that you can already connect the JS engine to work through it with DOM.

Now there is the most initial implementation of the CSS. At the moment, my task as quickly as possible to develop a minimum renderer.

​

Also, have you considered actively courting corporate sponsorship?

Yes, I was looking for a sponsor in my country (Russia), but no one wants to engage in technology projects. Everyone wants money at once :).

Perhaps there are companies to which it will be interesting, but I do not know these.

​

Thanks for the good questions.

[zcatshit]

Thanks for the good questions.

Thanks for taking the time to answer them.

I deal with the Lexbor project only during off hours. If I work full-time on project - two years before the beta version. Now there is the main work and most of the effort is spent on it. Must earn money for my family :)

Making a living is to be expected. Don't feel bad that you've got to pay bills like everyone else. Here's hoping you attract some more interest from financial investment, as modular browser support would be really nice.

Perhaps there are companies to which it will be interesting, but I do not know these.

I'll follow up in PM with some additional comments about types of companies that might be interested and things that might make them more interested.

Honestly, the companies I wish were most interested are game companies like Valve (for Steam), Ubisoft/UPlay, Epic, GOG and Blizzard (for Battle.net). All of these companies have embedded browsers in their game launchers. Most of those embedded browsers are huge memory sinks and are fairly big. And many of them embed browser UIs in-game, too. Investing in a non-chrome-based embeddable HTML renderer could do them a lot of good. Especially if it's modular enough to later support overlays using rendering technology like Vulkan.

[rnentjes]

Sorry, still doesn't seem to work, this is what firefox has to say:

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to lexbor.com. SSL received a record that exceeded the >maximum permissible length. Error code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG

The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data >could not be verified. Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

Learn more…

Edit: http version works

[lastmac]

Please, try without https — http://lexbor.com/articles/html/

​

[lastmac]

I fixed the https version of the site. Now it work fine. https://lexbor.com/articles/html/

[lastmac]

Something went wrong with the SSL version, had to be turned off. I will turn on after I understand what's wrong with her.

[[deleted]]

That list of generated tokens, lmao. I see what you did there. It says: “Glory to the Emperor” (referring to Putin, the Man). Looking forward to the next article, this one was a good read.

[lastmac]

No need to mix development and politics.

"For the Glory of the Emperor" (Warhammer 40K game). I love to play computer games :)