Lots of people have been asking how Paihia is progressing. So here is a quick progress report:
XML
Apart from DTD support, all elements (pun not intended) of XML are now complete. The XML processor is a superfast, hand-coded jobbie that generates a DOM tree (more on DOM later), but differs to many DOM parsers in that processing and displaying can begin before the tree is fully built. Currently, the procoessor treats all documents as anonymous and doesn't validate their structure. DTD parsing is currently being worked on, and should enable Paihia to display the quasi-XML that MS Word generates, as well as any other XML document that supplies a CSS file, including, of course, XHTML files.
DOM
Work on Level 3 Core has begun. Support for document features not yet specified (DOM Style, DOM HTML, etc..) in DOM 3 will be implemented using the DOM 2 specs for now. Once the DOM Load and Save module has been completed, we'd like to release a standalone XML/DOM shared library.
CSS
Progress has been slower than planned due to bugs in our relayouter. The biggest part of CSS left to implement is Table Model. This is expected to take some time. Other smaller pieces, such as user interface styles, stacking boxes and backgrounds are yet to be implemented too. We are implementing CSS2.1, rather than CSS3 as the latter is in a state of flux and looks like it may be some years before it is published. Overall, we think the CSS support is around 50% complete.
XHTML
All visual aspects covered by a default stylesheet. Forms and frames not begun.
HTML
If you're keen, you may have noticed that there is no HTML parser. This is because Paihia is a XHTML/CSS browser. However, as badly written HTML is the essence of the web, I've added a few specialisms to the XML processor that will convert HTML into XHTML and switch the processor into a super-tolerant mode, completely invisible to the user and all while appearing to be a genuine HTML browser.
Javascript
Not begun.
Networking
Might use cURL, but not begun.
Client-side features
(Bookmarks, tabs, etc..)
Not begun.
Overall
Paihia has been in development for over 12 months now. Much blood, sweat and stress has been invested into it! On a personal note, Paihia has become something of an obsession for me. I use my holidays from work to program instead of lying on a white beach in New Zealand, and even I've been neglecting my girlfriend and my personal hygiene! (she's managed to get me to agree to a week's holiday in Italy, although I may take my laptop).
There is probably another 9-12 months of work left before we reach a beta stage, but as we've seen in Amiga circles, there is no quick route to a modern web browser.
Thanks to everyone for their support, it's really appreciated :-)
