REBOL BROWSER
Hi Andrew Martin / Rebol List,
Regards my proposals for a Rebol Browser.
Whilst I admire the work done by Ingo Hoffman
regarding his Rebol Browser project, and respect
Ingo for the skill & knowledge he contributes to
the Rebol & Ally Lists, I think trying to display
html & web-content directly in a Rebol/View Face
is a flawed idea / design.
Rebol is at it's best when it leverages system
capabilities in a powerful yet simple ways.
It is my belief that Rebol should build a layer
over system tasks & functionalities in a way
that is powerful yet simpler than traditonal
programming methods.
Rebol/View as it currently stands can only
render HTML text & graphics in a very primitive
way, never mind Javascript, Java, Flash, Quicktime
Shockwave etc.
My feeling is that it would be better to use
the default browser to render web-content as
this already contains the aforementioned
functionalities and align this to / or
enveloped within a Rebol/View user Interface.
I believe this would be a smaller, more efficient
& quicker to develop program with certainly no
less functionality, Rebol can control the browser
by passing javscript commands ( similar to your
printing function ) & the 'BROWSE command.
It is my belief that the Rebol/Express products
currently in development will similarly create
an envelope for web-pages to create "Smart Content"
and is one of the reasons the 'BROWSE command
was implemented in the manner it is.
As much as I admire Ingo's sterling work, I think
his efforts merely re-invent the wheel, add
additional redundacy & overhead as well as all
the existing web functionality that will have to
be implemented - not a trivial task by any means,
as well as the inevitable bugs / problems.
Your comments would be appreciated.
Mark Dickson
