NetSurf OS3.x Issues

[Tygre]

How about something like ELynx?
After roughly an hours work I've got a mostly working 68k binary.
Supports CSS and JavaScript, has a download manager, and is pretty quick. Seems a better match than Netsurf for "real" amigas (and is more capable in many ways too).
Sidebar, but take those RiscOS netsurf requirements with a grain of salt. They're akin to saying Quake will run on an '020+FPU+8meg. Technically true, but far from usable.

If anyone is interested, for a few donations I can polish up and release elynx (after initial test bins are released of course). Failing that it'll just get thrown on the "good enough for my own use" pile.
I'm pretty content with 68k OWB and Arti's Netsurf port myself, but am willing to spend some more time on it for a little bit of money.

Hi there!

Very interesting indeed but do you mean: Lynx or Elinks? Would you also consider open-sourcing your current version if no donations come your way?

Cheers!

[Tygre]

Yeah, I knew I had the spelling wrong, just couldn't recall what it was, so I took a stab in the dark :-)
Anyway, I'd meant Elinks.

:laughing:

I get distracted easily, so lord knows how far I'll take this, but it's sort of surprising no-one ever attacked the 68k browser problem from the "bare bones start, add stuff as needed/wanted" type angle before.

Yes, I agree! I have been trying various versions of NetSurf and got even more interested when Deadwood released the source code of Odyssey Web Browser but, then, got scared when he told me that it requires 500 MB or more of memory to load some (not so complex) pages!!! :insane:

There seems to be even support for SpiderMonkey in ELinks, did you have a chance to try to compile/run it?

Cheers!

[Tygre]

PS. SpiderMonkey v1.5 CLI for m68k exist here (haven't tested it yet!).
PPS. v1.5 dates back November 2000...

[Tygre]

v1.7 works on the Amiga.  Anything later... yeah, good luck.
http://git.netsurf-browser.org/toolchains.git/tree/sdk/recipes/patches/spidermonkey/ppc-amigaos-1.7.0 (might need some minor changes for OS3)

Hi Chris!

Thanks for the info. and the link! Later versions would be a pain to have on AmigaOS?

Cheers!

[Tygre]

They need NSPR. Although I was following a bug/enhancement to decouple it from NSPR, I'm not sure that has actually happened yet (and it doesn't necessarily make it any easier).

Okay, understood

NetSurf has moved over to Duktape because sufficiently new versions of Spidermonkey are such a PITA to port, and it's relatively heavy.

Thanks for the pointer to Duktape, I didn't know this project but it seems to have very low memory footprint and has some very recent activity! Will try it during the week-end...

It's possibly worth looking at the Timberwolf source to get a working new-ish Spidermonkey.

Ouch :rolleyes: It is soooo big

Maybe integrating Duktape into Elinks could give m68k machines a nice, modern Web browser?

BTW, for some reasons, neither versions of Netsurf work well on my A1200 + Workbench 3.1 + Blizzard 68060 (no PPC, no RTG)... Is it just me? :mickeymouse:

Cheers!

[Tygre]

Dang it!  So I guess in addition to an '060, you need a Mediator.  Since AFAIK no native Amiga graphics card supports 32-bit screenmodes.  Bummer.  

I normally run my Workbench in 16-bit.  Tried it in 24-bit, no significant difference.  Added "friend_bitmap:1" back into the choices file, that helped.  Note that it has to be without the space, "friend_bitmap: 1" (with a space after the colon) doesn't work.  Geeze is this program sensitive, lol.  

Hi!

Nice to know! Could you please provide a screenshot for comparison?

Do you think that Chris' NetSurf would work with HIGHGFX: Super-High Res Laced in, say, in 64 colours? :rolleyes: Would you be able to try... on my Amiga, it keeps opening on its own screen and it just freezes there...

Thanks!

[Tygre]

Edit:  For your amusement, here's Netsurf on an 1152x900x256-color Workbench.  About the best I can do with my graphics card.  It took 53 seconds to load this page with an '060.  Scrolling around was painful.    Also, why all the chip mem usage?

@Oldsmobile_Mike!

Thanks for the screenshot... Now, which version do you use? I am also confused at this point... Could you point me to it or PM me, please?

Thanks!

@All

Very interesting discussions!

[Tygre]

Artur's is the Framebuffer frontend, which is designed for systems with no GUI.  It has a GUI, of course, because it's running windowed under Intuition.

PS. That's one of my confusion because on my '060 AGA (no RTG), I can't get any version (that I tried) to run "windowed"... Could someone points me to a version that would work on my Amiga, as a window on the Workbench screen?

[Tygre]

Good to hear!  I've set these as default now and uploaded a new build.
There will be various core changes, but probably nothing significant (most of the work has been on Javascript, which I can't build in without the compiler optimisation bug being fixed).

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cdyoung/tmp/netsurf_os3.lha

It's suggested to remove all the font lines from the Choices file, I've set some better defaults.  If you want to switch back to outline fonts, you'll need to add font lines which specify outline fonts (it won't set the correct defaults)

Hi there!

I just realised that NetSurf would not run on Workbench 3.1... Is 3.5 the minimum? Is that a strict requirement? (For example, could I hope to make it run on my 3.1 if I copy some of the 3.5 libraries?)

Cheers!

[Tygre]

Dear all!

I still have to install OS 3.5 (or 3.9) to test the new versions of NetSurf following Chris' advice but I wanted to support the proposal below:

Chris as a Oldsmobile_Mike  said, I would also hapily pay for a working solution.

+1

I would happily donate to Chris or a bounty or...

Oldsmobile_Mike : I don't belive that there is no way that we could never use our 68k amiga for general web browsin, not even if there where CSS capable iBrowse. What would make me happy would be possibility to download files, if needed without going to another machine.

Same here, I cannot believe that, in 2016, we could not have a decent Web browser or high-end 68k Amiga. At least something that renders okay most pages and allow "normal" uses...

Of course, your "normal" is that my "normal" :laughing: but you get my meaning and, besides, Oldsmobile_Mike's screenshots look quite "normal": Wikipedia, Google, Aminet... all these sites are probably regularly used by most of us...

Cheers!

[Tygre]

Hi fishy_fiz and all!

Anyway, I'd meant Elinks. Which I see now checking the site appears not to have been updated for about 3 years. Not uncommon for a projects website to go unmaintained though while there's activity in its source repository.

Sorry to change the topic of this thread back and forth (maybe this thread should be split between a thread on NetSurf and another on "alternative" Web browsers?) but following your idea, fishy_fiz, I took Links v2.12 and managed to compile and run it I had to make a small change to handle correctly the arrow keys. (Why would the arrow key codes be different on Amiga and other OSes? :rolleyes:)



I also managed to get Duktape to compile and to run with Sami Vaarala's help... It is quite easy to use and fast actually!!! :banana:
So, I will now try to compile ELinks, which seems in colour :laughing:
And, maybe, one day, put ELinks and Duktape together?


Cheers!

[Tygre]

Sounds great!

Any chance you could give us a download?

Hi!

Yes, absolutely! I will package the files and will upload Links on Aminet before the end of the week0end

Stay tuned!

[Tygre]

Sounds great!

Any chance you could give us a download?

Here you go!

Enjoy!