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Designing a Web browser

Started by Raymondo Mar 8, 2004 at 6:39 PM 0 replies 300+ views

Original Post

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Mar 8, 2004 at 6:39 PM

I''m really curious as to how I might go about designing a really simple web browser in C++. I''ve been playing with the visual basic web browser component and it''s really got me curoius as to how I might actually learn to make something like that. Could anyone offer some insight on this? It sounds like fun, but I''m kinda of lost as to where I should start. Thanks.

Oluseyi

526

Oluseyi

Mar 8, 2004 at 6:49 PM

The browser or the layout and rendering engine? Either way, I''d recommend using existing applications as scaffolding to allow you test your code in a production environment. If you''re designing a layout and rendering engine, consider using Firefox to test it; if you''re developing the rest of the browser (cookie management, privacy, UI, etc), consider using the MSHTML component (if you''re on Windows) and/or Gecko to handle the actual pages.

The browser is easier. MSHTML is an ActiveX component, so it has an interface that indicates what functionality it supports. You simply need to connect UI widgets to code that triggers specific functionality and you''re about 80% done. I imagine it''s fairly similar for Gecko.

The rendering component is a little more complex. I''d recommend studying the W3C specifications (and they are inane) and any reference implementations that are available (one of my pet peeves with the W3C is the poor quality of their reference implementations - especially Amaya, assuming it''s still being developed at all!)

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