Native 68k Netsurf

[nicholas]

I really don't understand, why not...

1. Netsurf has proven to work with low-spec machines
2. It would be happy thing to both UEA and real machine users
3. Workin browser for amiga os 3.9 ? would it make you happy?

Chris ported Netsurf to OS4 and this is what he said about 68k possibility:

"Actually it's relatively easy. If you start with the OS4 frontend, you should be able to get it working on OS3.9 with Reaction fairly quickly. There are a few things that need backporting (I have used a lot of new OS4 calls, but most have OS3 equivalents). A couple of major changes:
fonts code - probably needs to be rewritten to use ttengine.library (I already have a ttengine.library version of this code somewhere, needs updating and fixing though)
plotters - need to be rewritten to work on 8-bit screenmodes (this needs doing for OS4 too).

I wrote a little more detailed list of changes required on the dev mailing list, if you want to seek that out.

Even starting from scratch, new (basic) frontends have been written in a matter of weeks."

http://m68k.aminet.net/package/comm/www/NetSurf-m68k

[nicholas]

@nicholas
That is a non native port (SDL). The thread is about a native port due to the extremely high resource requirements for a 68k Amiga that the sdl port needs.

Yes, I was pointing the OP to the source code so he could get started on porting it to Gadtools.

[nicholas]

You need make v 3.81

http://aminet.net/package/dev/gg/make-3.81-bin-m68k

[nicholas]

oh, thanks mine is 3.80.
@nicholas: iif everything breaks i will try to compile under cubicide, for now i stay with amidevcpp environment.

I'd forgotten about that lovely little tool, gonna install it now.  Do you recommend I get the latest wxDev-cpp v7 too and update over the top off the AmiDev-Cpp folder?

[nicholas]

i think you dont need internet to test netsurf. you can do it locally. i also have no internet on amiga for some time now since i resigned on my stationary connection, an appropriate 68k poseidon class has not yet been released for my surfstick.

I've got a couple of hours free later this afternoon, please could you send me a zip of what  you have so far and i'll have a look at it?

[nicholas]

btw, i always comment my changes to whatever sources with //wawa, so its easy to find. in this particular case i only remember to have made one or two.
in case of problems or further requests please come back to me. also if any include is missing, my whole folder is multiple mb, i just cant upload it from here.

 Thanks, just got to clean the kitchen and then i have two hours to devote to this.

[nicholas]

Ok... I haven't had a chance to go over the code in detail yet, but I'm going to see if it will be possible to compile the GTK version against the GTK-MUI includes from AROS.

Hopefully it shouldn't be too complicated or long-winded a process.

[nicholas]

I'd like to have a go at a 68k AGA port but I'll wait till the new IndivisionAGA Mrk2 is released so that I can do direct 65k colors (no conversion or C2P needed).

That sounds cool, my Amiga coding skills are a tad rusty so this is just a little play project for me to re-acclimatise myself.

The GTK-MUI wrapper seems like an ideal place to start before getting my hands dirty with lower level stuff.

I'll be working on a A4000 with Picasso IV and 060 but I can test on my A1200 with plain old AGA and 030 too.

[nicholas]

this of course does with native version work more slow.netsurf have no planar graphic, all is render in 24 bit and need then convert with complex code to 8 bit planar

Surely something like TinyPTC with its fast colour conversion routines would help here?

[nicholas]

>I reckon it would run fine in 16MB (and the NetSurf website >agrees), you'd just lose some images on image-heavy pages.

this was some years ago, maybe with small pages test.
please surf a little and measure how many memory is used.

I know OS4 is so bad design that it not show exact how many memory is free or memory a program use.This all other AOS /Linux /windows can do even with slab allocator

But maybe you can test netsurfg on Linux and look how much memory increase when you use modern pages.

I do some tests.start netsurf and open default page need 12 megabyte.so here is 16 megabyte true.

Now i click on BBC Page it need 24 megabyte.
then i load amiga.org same memory
click on reuters and last pages i show, memory usage is 34 megabyte.

start netsurf and do http://www.amiga.org org need 18 megabyte

I ask in ML if netsurf have a low mem situation handler, i get no response, so i think, it have non so i am sure amiga with lower as 48 megabyte of RAM you run in crash sooner or later.

best is if your amiga have 64 megabyte or 128 megabyte.
a 32 megabyte system is too small.

but still netsurf use very few RAM in compare to OWB
But i think there is no AGA system with so much RAM out

I'm sure there are many A1200 wedges out there with trapdoor Blizzards containing up to 256MB RAM.

[nicholas]

it is easier add CCS and good JAVASCRIPT to ibrowse or Aweb
even there is the full aweb source code
I'm sure anyone with good skills can do it and make them run on a standart A1200 /020 +8mb ram/AGA only
the problem is the hard work..nobody will make it for free

Why don't you start a bounty to show how much you want this browser?