Merlin, a new browser for AmigaOS

That's a surprise, a new web browser for AmigaOS and other platform is availible now !

http://home.kpn.nl/spijk336/browser/home.html

@samo79

At the bottom of the page it says copyright 2007.

@samo79

Is working here...but is ugly :D :D

@jahc

But exe files seems new (27-03-2009)

@VooDoo

True, just tried Windows version, a very very Alpha release

@samo79

Just a wrong colors problems. little detail IMHO...

@samo79

keep us posted, won't download it myself, no need

A very very very Alpha. It cannot load many sites (stays stucked) and the display is very ugly.

Nice attempt anyway.

Mrodfr: now you've got your 68k browser

@samo79

Hmm, it can't even cope with my simple website. I think I'll wait for v0.03

I notice all the gadgetery is custom, making it less native than OWB/NetSurf ports and more in line with NetSurf-framebuffer. That doesn't mean it can't be good, but it needs very very much work.

Chris

@Chris
So when will the next release of NetSurf be ready? The beta you gave me looked much better than the last public release, but I don't want to say how great it is when the public version is so bad (comparted to the latest OWB).

@ChrisH

I didn't realise the last public version was so far behind

NetSurf 2.0 is scheduled for an April 25th release.
More here: http://vlists.pepperfish.net/pipermai ... rg/2009-March/008453.html

@Chris
I think the main difference is that text entry is actually usable. Probably more stable too. It opens the correct screen size/resolution too! (And I now know that I need to use a 32-bit screen for it to look good!)

But based on the last beta, there is still one thing which I'm hoping you might be able to improve - scrolling speed isn't as good as OWB. Do that, and maybe fix bookmarks, and IMHO it is as good or better than OWB (except for JavaScript of course).

@ChrisH

The version I have here has some rendering optimisations, so it's a little quicker. I do have a fast scroll routine, but it doesn't work properly (a lot of the page ends up blank). I'll see if I can fix that up before release.

Bookmarks.. hmm... a drag'n'drop listbrowser.gadget would solve all my problems here! There's not much wrong other than the movement being a little unpredictable, is there?

@Chris

The looks are completely configurable .. however that is not provided in this version, as this first version was more about the browser engine.
The software can render simple buttons, or use system buttons
or even use pictures or render scripts for buttons.
So a next version can have a couple of text files which define "the look",
where one file can have nice graphics effects and rendered buttons while another can use normal amiga buttons.
So if you dont like those looks you can change it, yourself ..
a bit like a "skin".

Merlin Browser Development.

@Cmdr_data

Thanks a lot for being here, for your first post you code a browser, thats verry impressive !!!!

On AOS3.x, the colors aren't good because maybe no magicWB used on merlin browser.

Please introduce yourself on this site, if possible, thats will be great also to know you and what you have planned to do with the amiga (as a programmer).

@K-L

I'm for all developments and for all amiga and morphOS platforms, you know. I like a lot and particularly programmers who made cross compilation like JAHC (wookiechat and sabreMSN), for example.

This is the first archive (browser21.zip) with AOS 3.x, AOS 4.x, MAC and WIN32 exe !!!! Just miss the AROS version but I think It's the first time


68k version:

DUMP config.
User: name='no_name' pass='no_password' ID#=0
server IDMethod = 0 (0=ID#, 1=Email, 2=name)
Video: name='no_source' src=-1 autoplay=0
function = 34
No servers found, assuming 'local'
SERVER 'local'
END DUMP config.
Please set stack to 8192 on P96 systems or crash in blits.
Could't open AGA config 'screenaga.txt'
Could't open a P96 config 'screenp96.doc'
Could't open a CyberGfx config 'screencyb.txt'
Selected P96 mode.
Couldn't read pics.cache for input
-----------( HMTL load )-----------
--- url in 'file://links.htm'
--- url uit 'file://links.htm'
-----------( HTML list )-----------
-----------( HTML process )-----------
process 1
process 2
favicon -> 'file://links.htm/favicon.ico'
process 3
process 4
OpenMonScreenA pos 30, 50 size 928,577 .. open = 1


Tested with aos3.9 and P96 with voodo3:

- Miss an icon with enough stack on the icon.
- You should provide the good AGA and P96 and CyberGFx files for the settings.
- Wrong colors on 68k and allways and forever CPU at 85% on 68060 (and nothing possible to do during this time).

@Mrodfr

>Thanks a lot for being here, for your first post you code a browser, thats verry impressive !!!!

Heh .. well i have been around in the amiga world since 1987, the browser code has been in development for many years .. but it only recently discovered it was a browser ;) .. a long story for a new message.

>On AOS3.x, the colors aren't good because maybe no magicWB used on merlin browser.

Sorry about that ... this version wasn't really ment as a widespread public release .. but somehow word spread. Colors used to be correct .. but it is probably an error in the GUI engine that was made on another platform .. i have 2 ideas what the trouble might be. I will check it out.

>Please introduce yourself on this site, if possible, thats will be great also to know you and what you have planned to do with the amiga (as a programmer).

Well .. my name is Arend-Paul Spijkerman .. i have been in amiga development for a long time. Some stuff from my hand is the Trion BBS system .. and for instance the Fireworks plugin in ImageFX.
I'll save some more for new msgs :)

>- You should provide the good AGA and P96 and CyberGFx files for the settings.

Right .. sorry about that .. those files used to be necessary .. now they are optional .. so they weren't in this minimal alpha archive.
But they can hold information on custom screens and color depths. So i guess they will make a reappearance.

@Cmdr_data: actually i have simmilar comments as mrodfr to make. i only tried your stuff on the 68k. well, its very early stage but will be nice to follow the progress. all the best.

edit: btw what would be the content of respective p96 file? if its only a short ascii you might as well post it here

*sighs* not another browser. heh, sounds like a new name for a browser "Nab":P

@wawa

didn't think about that, just create a screenp96.cfg or screenp96.doc or screenp96.txt file and put something like this in it:
(and the same goes for screencyb.doc, the file for aga however is a little more complex)

ONOWNSCREEN ;; open windows on own screen
;PUBSCREEN "Screen" ;; try opening on this screen

SCREEN WIDTH 1024 ; 320 640 800 1024 1120 1152 1280
SCREEN HEIGHT 768 ; 240 480 600 768 832 900 1024
SCREEN DEPTH 24 ; 1 4 8 15 16 24

;;; COLOR number red green blue

COLOR 0 160 160 160 ;; Mid Grey
COLOR 1 0 0 0 ;; Black
COLOR 2 255 255 255 ;; White
COLOR 3 96 128 176 ;; Blue

COLOR 4 144 144 144 ;; Dark Grey
COLOR 5 176 176 176 ;; Light Grey
COLOR 6 144 192 160 ;; Beige
COLOR 7 144 160 192 ;; Light Blue

COLOR 8 208 224 64 ;; Geel
COLOR 9 240 0 0 ;; Rood
COLOR 10 0 224 0 ;; LGroen
COLOR 11 0 144 0 ;; DGroen

COLOR 12 240 128 0 ;; Oranje
COLOR 13 0 240 240 ;; Cyaan
COLOR 14 160 96 0 ;; Bruin
COLOR 15 208 208 160 ;; Beige

@Cmdr_data: figures, but then it only concerns the gui colors, i see, these were on my system correct from the beginning i suppose.
@mrodfr: u are using 16bit screen depth, right?

well, long story short, as a rule the browser returns complete mess on most sites or fails. only sometimes basic structure or some elements are loaded correctly. i could send you the logs if you need it. do you still have a 68k machine yourself?

@wawa

>@Cmdr_data: figures, but then it only concerns the gui colors, i see, >these were on my system correct from the beginning i suppose.

I just saw some screengrabs on another site where the colors where
right. That is probably because that system uses 24 bit colors.

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?threadid=43738

>@mrodfr: u are using 16bit screen depth, right?

I will look into the color issue tomorrow, might be that it is
an issue in the P96 code but not in the Cybergraphix code.

>well, long story short, as a rule the browser returns complete mess on >most sites or fails. only sometimes basic structure or some elements are >loaded correctly. i could send you the logs if you need it. do you still >have a 68k machine yourself?

Well .. please wait for the next release before you send anything.
Work has been done to improve speed and stability, note
that there is a lot of overhead because of internal debug code.

Also the problem that a lot of sites are a mess is because they
use style sheets, which is a work in progress. This test version
only shows outlines of stylesheets.
Some sites barely show up when you only interprete HTML
but not the stylesheets, as the make up information is in
the stylesheets.

Also a problem is that a majority of sites contain errors,
they contain FI open tags, but there is no matching closing tag.
This is being remedied.

I do have an A4000/040/p96 beside the AmigaOne.