IdeasVacuum wrote:It seems to boil down to Web Kit v Trident.
Would it be good if both GUI Engine and WebViewer were be based on the same platform? Would that mean more familiarity with the coding?
Not necessarily - modern UI engines often only use elementary constructs of HTML / JS / CSS, for which coding syntax is identical across all major implementations (including IE11), as far as I know.
Web Kit
+ Good HTML5 compliance (possibly better integration with JavaScript libraries?)
+ Used for PB WebViewer Gadget on Linux and Mac
+ A Web Kit based WebViewer is available for Windows (by RS Basic)
- GUI Engine not available
Trident (Internet Explorer)
+ GUI Engine available (by Firace)
+ Native to Windows
- WebViewer unusable with modern websites
- Chromium being used for basis of MS Win10 Browser instead of their own tells it's own story
- Potentially limited life / no major compliance updates
So - what about a GUI Engine based on Web Kit? Would that be the best of both worlds? Or is Web Kit similar to Chromium, too bloated?
I really like the idea of being able to work with an enhanced GUI, but I don't like the idea of being reliant on a Lib/DLL. Disasters have happened in the past, so once bitten, twice shy. If it was built into PB........
Yes unfortunately WebKit is as bloated as Chromium:
For instance, a Hello world example based on RSBasic's module is about 150MB for the x86 version and almost 190MB for the x64 version! Which does not really fit PureBasic's small binary size and optimized code philosophy, IMHO. Also, the module still lacks some essential functionality to make it usable as a UI engine for PB, in its current version.
If Microsoft releases a built-in Chromium based webview control, things will be interesting, but that might probably be limited to Windows 10 only.