Benjamin Francis <mailto:bfran...@mozilla.com>
2016 February 26 at 10:16
I like this idea in theory. But I want to understand how it's different
from Electron, besides simply using different underlying technology. In
other words: what makes it unique that justifies the effort?
Why does it even have to be unique? Being able to build a browser using a
browser engine seems like table stakes to me...
There's a significant difference between the minimal effort currently
required to make Gecko embeddable (at a high cost per embedding) and the
larger, ongoing effort that would be required to build and maintain an
application development platform like Electron.
Moreover, there's an opportunity cost: time spent developing that
platform would be time not spent enhancing Gecko's Web platform
implementation.
Nevertheless, the more significant factor is that this would be a
cultural sea change in the Gecko project. Even with engineers who were
willing and able to sign up to do the work (and who would otherwise not
hack on Gecko, minimizing the opportunity cost), it would still be a
challenge to make Gecko-as-platform a fundamental part of the way Gecko
is developed. The small matter of programming is the least of our concerns.
Which doesn't mean I think it's a bad idea. To the contrary, a
successful app platform based on Gecko would indirectly benefit Gecko's
Web platform goals (and Firefox) by expanding the community of
contributors to the project. But an unsuccessful effort would do more
harm than good.
So I still want to understand how "Gecktron" would be different, and why
a developer (Mozillian or otherwise) should prefer it to Electron. Why
not use Electron for your project?
-myk
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