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Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga News and Community Announcements => Amiga Software News => Topic started by: Raffaele on December 25, 2007, 10:42:52 PM
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Italian programmer Mr. Andrea "AFXGroup" Palmaté, realized in just six months an alpha version of OWB (Origyn Web Browser) and keep it online as a Christmas gift for all Amiga community.
OWB is a modern browser (http://www.sand-labs.org/owb) with HTML 4.0 and CSS support and it is based on Webkit Engine (http://webkit.org/), an Open Source HTML engine for mobile devices derived from Apple WebCore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebCore), which is itself derived from KHTML (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KHTML) engine.
KHTML it is the engine of Apple Safari browser and KDE Konqueror browser.
OWB for AmigaOS 4.0 it is Open Source and free from any bounty, but sure we all amigans feel enough grate (and free) to send some little pennies as a return christmas gift to Andrea, for the beautiful surprise gift he gave to all our community.
He proved that a modern browser it is possible on Amiga!
OWB it is downloadable at AFXGroup site and on OS4Depot:
http://www.amigasoft.net
http://os4depot.net
Here follows the features:
I'm happy to announce that today we have a web browser for AmigaOS4 that supports almost all modern web technologies.
Since it is a project in an early state I'll write first what doesn't work.. Don't expect at moment Tool bars and all other things present in all browser. But i assure you that we are working on this. But i would release something for Christmas also to see your feedback about this browser.
OK. Let's go...
WHAT DOESN'T WORK:
# FILE TRANSFER
# Cookies: sometimes and on some sites login is impossible.
# Crashes: There are some sites that crashes and you could have some crashes on
exit. Don't send me crash logs.. the functions that crashes are known..
# Chars: Some chars like () in the Italian char actually are not printable.. :(
I can write to you a special version but is better to wait new releases
# Sites Display: 99% of sites works correctly.. but you could find some sites
that doesn't render well. On some sites you could have problem on window's
redraw
# Chinese fonts are not rendered (i think.. or i haven't found a right ttf
font..)
# Don't expect Flash/Movie plugins (at moment..)
# Sometimes the browser could send a bad request to the web server. Go back and
re click on the link
# Copy/Paste of text doesn't work at moment
#There isn't a scroll bar at momen
# maybe other
WHAT WORKS:
# IT IS FREE.. ;)
# NO BOUNTY OR OTHER.. ;)
# Javascript should work on 99% of the web sites
# CSS and all web technologies work perfectly
# True Type fonts are used to display fonts (see notes on how it works)
# SSL works (see notes)
# It is quite fast also on A1200 (well.. doesn't expect the same speed as on an A1..)
# Is updated daily by the OWB developers (and me..)
INSTALLATION AND USAGE:
Copy the fc-cache file included in C/ dir into your C: directory (even if is not is needed) and run it.
Copy the files included in the FONTS/ directory into your FONTS: directory
Copy the files included in the S/ directory into your S: directory
Mount the RANDOM: device from SYS:Storage/DosDrivers/ (or copy it into DEVS:DosDrivers/)
To launch OWB just click on its icon or run from the shell with this syntax:
owb URL
The first time you run it, it will search the FONTS:_TrueType/ directory to see what ttf fonts are available and create some cache files, so you may have to wait for some seconds, depending on how many files you have there. If you run fc-cache first, the owb launch will be fast
To navigate back and forth, use:
ALT -> to go forward
ALT <- to go back
Thanks to everyone working on or testing it!
Thanks to Mason and Kens for their icons!
It's Christmas.. remember me! :)
Thank you and Merry Christmas!
Andrea Palmatè
http://www.amigasoft.net
File is availabbel on OS4Depot..
I remember also to you all that Andrea made also available on AmigaOS the media and video-player "mPlayer" born into Linux world.
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As expected I don't have the RARE and expensive hardware to test this on but...
...this sounds great!
Thankx a lot!
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I may have to rethink my attitude and buy OS4.0 for Classic if this browser ends up being the best Amiga browser ever!
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@amigadave:
I lack the hardware and software to run Amiga OS 4 but from the comments on AW it seems rather well functioning, and that for an ´bed-room-alpha-release´. I think it is amazing.
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Here are some screenshots:
Screenshot from user Gopal on Amigaworld.net English Amiga Forum Site:
http://www.retronerd.net/skjerm241207b.jpg
Some first screenshots from user PVanni of Ikirsector Forum Site Italy:
http://web.cheapnet.it/pvanni/amiga.jpg
http://web.cheapnet.it/pvanni/youtube.jpg
http://web.cheapnet.it/pvanni/corriere.jpg
http://web.cheapnet.it/pvanni/liberomail.jpg
Screenshot from user K-L on Amigaworld:
http://www.amiga-ng.org/resources/OWB.jpg
Collections of screenshots from user Jhac on Amigaworld:
http://wookiechat.amigarevolution.com/owb/
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my point is ... if you already have a CSPPC or a BPPC (and if you have the money, of course) AmigaOS4 is a must for every Amiga user.
IMHO of course! :-)
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Excellent news! A usable browser is a must if OS4 is to be taken seriously. Now, what are the chances of a classic port? ;-)
--
moto
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@Moto:
A guy over at AW was nagging that OWB was not such a great effort as he claims it was only a re-compilation of Webkit. Now I think it is a great achievment, even if it only was a re-compilation. So, maybe someone gets his or her fingers dirty and try to do the same for 68k. I´m not a wizz so don´t expect me to do it.
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@amiga_3k
The person nagging probably couldn't get it to compile on his own. All that comment really says is that WebKit is portable code, which isn't a bad thing. In theory, Firefox is portable, too, but it looks like writing the system glue for WebKit is a much simpler task.
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Skipping the "system glue"(?) should be even simpler :)
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Well, sure, but then it couldn't do things like allocate memory, spawn threads, access the network, or draw images on the display--in other words, a pretty useless web browser (but perhaps still better than the Amiga's current choices). ;-)
The current WebKit source, including all tests, is over 200,000 files. I haven't looked at the OWB source, though, so I don't know how much of it was used.
Anyhow, if was as simple as running make, someone would have done it years ago.
Perhaps the maintainer of OWB and the dude working on "Traveller" will put their heads together and come up with something that compiles and runs on all Amiga-like operating systems. It's doubtful, but you never know. The lack of a universal GUI toolkit makes it less than enticing, I'm sure.
EDIT: And in case you didn't catch that, the "glue" is the bit that connects the portable code to the system-specific code. A library like ixemul is a good example, but really anything that translates a generic call like "create_thread" into something like AddTask or CreateProc qualifies as glue. In general, it's a term used to describe any component or logic that connects two or more disparate components.
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Mhh... what I see people taking issue with is the lack of system integration, I see nothing wrong with prefering consistent behavior between apps, and proper integration with amiga specific features. I guess my idea of system glue is a bit more involved.
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Oh, I agree with you there, but there's nothing wrong with a proof of concept. I think the author was pretty clear about the pre-release nature of the project. Still, there isn't exactly a standard for look and feel in the Amiga world. Most professional applications just pop up on their own screen and do their own thing. One could point out the various style guides published by Commodore/Amiga/whomever, but there are very few Amiga users that don't try to modernize their operating environment by making it look more like Windows, CDE/KDE, Mac OS X, or some other environment.
With regard to hobbyist projects like this, there's really no return apart from the joy of the project itself and the encouragement of one's peers. Negative reinforcement only discourages hobbyists from continuing their efforts. (For example, Poseidon, while a commercial product, probably wasn't paying Chris' bills. It only took one naysayer re: TLSFMem to ruin it for everyone else.)