Merlin, a new browser for AmigaOS

@Cmdr_data

Yes, I'm using a 16 bits WB and without the screenp96.cfg, I can't try with merlin on his own 24 bit P96 screen.

Test with the file:

- opened fine with 24 bits and colors OK. just url line and horizontal gadget under are only black.

- no hits but allways 80% CPU used. Fast decreased bite per bite ???

that mean just wait long time before possibility to click one of the link on the link page.

- Thinking maybe internet connection not work because not seen test on my internet vuemeter on the classic. Maybe another files are missing on the archive to have amiga version running ??????????????

Just for informations.....

@Cmdr_data:
Quote:

sure:)
i wasnt meant to put u under pressure.
and yes. im aware that debugging takes time.
all the best!

@Cmdr_data

Nice to see more browsers and programs on the amiga platform. Keep it up. And welcone

Welcome sir

@Cmdr_data

Thats cool

@Thread

Ever Slightly Off Topic but,

I remember when I used to watch Merlin as a kid, used to be one of my more repeated cartoons I watched.

Was amusing at the time also.

Naturally, nothing like the transformers as a kid.

OK, cheers, and Hopefully we can start using it on OS4.x machines soon, when you get it working with a nicer outlay.

@Gebrochen:
actually the layout suits me well. loox somhow special, like these weird ancient apps of amiga, that didnt fit the style sheet: tvpaint, lightwave, imagemaster r/t, whatstheirname. otherwise lets make it skinable, but working in the first place.

Stack overflow here... what should the stack be?

@yssing

on 68k 32000 at least, better more, i dont know of os4 though

@Mrodfr

>Yes, I'm using a 16 bits WB and without the screenp96.cfg, I can't try >with merlin on his own 24 bit P96 screen.

>Test with the file:

>- opened fine with 24 bits and colors OK. just url line and horizontal >gadget under are only black.

Well .. there were a couple of slight problems, i tried to make
the amiga version faster by using a native amiga function to
"print to file" instead of using a standard C sprintf function,
and then call a file write function. However .. the amiga versions
didnt quiet function as expected. So drawing pens where
written as value zero ... hence black.

>- no hits but allways 80% CPU used. Fast decreased bite per bite ???

The next version is significant faster, as in a number of times.
The version that people encountered was used to test some concepts,
like "caching" JPEG/PNG pictures in a format that could be loaded
faster. However .. in that version a compression algoritm was used
that took time to compress .. but was very fast to uncompress.
Also that version translated the HTML in a language the GUI engine could understand .. in the language names of pictures and fonts etc where placed.
It took the GUI decoder some time to figure out what type exactly that name was representing
, because the HTML interpreter didnt put the type in front of it .. which wasnt that important on a fast machine.
Also the next version does less memory allocations which makes
it faster .. etc..

@wawa
>actually the layout suits me well. loox somhow special, like these weird >ancient apps of amiga, that didnt fit the style sheet: tvpaint, lightwave, >imagemaster r/t, whatstheirname. otherwise lets make it skinable, but >working in the first place.


Right now the GUI definition of the head of the window looks something like this:

HGROUP ;aleft
VGROUP bcolor white ;triangle " "
VGROUP bcolor dgrey ;triangle " "
HGROUP textfont pattern 6 aleft ; atop
TEXT "Url:" textfont size 6 expandx
STRINGGADGET size 50 ID 1 expandx
LINE vertical
BUTTON "Bookmark" size 10 ID 15 textfont expandx
ANIM ID 16 expandx
CLOCK ID 17 backup expandx
ENDGROUP
HGROUP textfont pattern 6 ;aright ; aleft
BUTTON " Quit " size 9 ID 63999 afont textfont expandx
BUTTON " Forward " size 9 ID 10 afont textfont expandx
BUTTON " Back " size 9 ID 11 afont textfont expandx
LINE vertical
BUTTON " Reload " size 9 ID 12 afont textfont expandx
BUTTON " Home " size 6 ID 13 afont textfont expandx
BUTTON " Bookmarks " size 12 ID 14 afont textfont expandx
LINE vertical
ENDGROUP
ENDGROUP ;V
LINE HORIZONTAL
VOID solid width 4 height 4 pixels
ENDGROUP ;V

A lot of the look can be changed, with custom patterns, pictures etc.
Buttons can be moved, added or deleted. etc.

@Cmdr_data

Thanks for answering. Some users would like to show you interest for merlin and It's verry great because thats give you a goal for developping more merlin also for the amiga platform

BTW, I think, as you have stated before on this thread to not do lots of reports, I will stop to report and let you programmed merlin more

At least, you have some feedback about what look like and work the GUI on 68k amigas and also great you have your a4000 for testing....


You convert all gfx to iff before rendering the page (seemed to see that on the grabs on the site) ???

Instead, try to use the datatypes available for rendering the gfx (even if the best is to use internal rendering GFX like Ibrowse) but not transforming them to IFF.

@Mrodfr

>Thanks for answering. Some users would like to show you interest for >merlin and It's verry great because thats give you a goal for developping >more merlin also for the amiga platform

No problem, i will try to answer all questions .. but because of all the interest it became priority to fix the problems mentioned instead of working on the engine.

>BTW, I think, as you have stated before on this thread to not do lots of >reports, I will stop to report and let you programmed merlin more

Well .. the problem is that someone posted a link to what was supposed to be a test version. A version to test the engine. So right now i am working on a version that is more workable on amiga. So if that is available i think it would be more practical to bring reports.

>At least, you have some feedback about what look like and work the >GUI on 68k amigas and also great you have your a4000 for testing....

Well i would like some feedback on how people think the interface should work, as most of the work was done on the "engine" lately.

>You convert all gfx to iff before rendering the page (seemed to see that on the grabs on the site) ???

Well, that was an experiment .. JPEGs take a long time to decode on an amiga. As do IFFs as they are stored as bitplanes. What i was doing is to convert the IFF to an FCT .. which is an IFF format i came up with that is chuncky and has adaptive compression that can be decoded very fast.
So if you start the browser again, and the picture was "cached" as FCT it would load a lot faster as an JPEG would, and still be a lot smaller as an IFF. So the 2nd time a picture is needed it will be loaded and rendered with internal code.

>Instead, try to use the datatypes available for rendering the gfx (even if >the best is to use internal rendering GFX like Ibrowse) but not >transforming them to IFF.

Well .. indeed .. i will try to fix it.

@Cmdr_data



Quote:

Testing the engine and the GUI is actually not possible with, at least, a real amiga with 68k and 1260

You know allready a bout this facts with my answers during this thread.

The next version more workable on amiga will be interesting for testing in the futur. Keep us the good work and don't hesitate to inform us when the new more workable amiga version will be available soon

Thanks for developping for the amiga

@Mrodfr

Quote:


Well ... i have put a new archive (v0.03) also online.
But it is a tiny tiny minor upgrade.
I has a faster 68k (and mac) version.
The Classic Amiga version is probably twice as fast.
The GUI colors in 24b are fixed, the clock was fixed.
There was an issue that bigger CSS files where skipped.
Cache files are not compressed.
But it still has some color issues.

Also note that with sites getting bigger and complexer it gets
harder to load them on a 68K.
There are some sites my powermac has trouble with.

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

@Cmdr_data

with ONOWNSCREEN in screenp96.cfg enabled i get:

OpenMonScreenA pos 30, 50 size 928,568 .. open = 1
Crystal: Can't open an P96 screen with type 0
Couldnt get an P96 screen pointer.

this due ppossibly to use bestmodeid method in order to recognize resolution, right?

when i set pubscreen to worbench then it starts allright
on ma4k/mediator/voodoo system (under os3.9) i have problems with all apps that use bestmode, but anyhow since its possible to manage cfg file its not that big deal.

i would advice to put smaller links.html into the archive. the current loads aeons on classic. this might make impression browser isnt working at all.

it is also still needed to set stack manually.

i couldnt test extensively for now, but i think it is still too early yet. keep up the work anyway. i enjoy this.

@wawa

>with ONOWNSCREEN in screenp96.cfg enabled i get:

>OpenMonScreenA pos 30, 50 size 928,568 .. open = 1
>Crystal: Can't open an P96 screen with type 0
>Couldnt get an P96 screen pointer.

>this due ppossibly to use bestmodeid method in order to recognize >resolution, right?

This could very well be, i have to check it, it has been a while
since the wrote P96 code .. but it rings a bell.

>when i set pubscreen to worbench then it starts allright
>on ma4k/mediator/voodoo system (under os3.9) i have problems with >all apps that use bestmode, but anyhow since its possible to manage cfg >file its not that big deal.

Ah right .. perhaps i should configure pubscreen default to workbench, and if opening the screen failed use the pubscreen.

>i would advice to put smaller links.html into the archive. the current >loads aeons on classic. this might make impression browser isnt working >at all.

Ah .. that's good advice, the silly thing is that i use a smaller one on my A4k but the big one on the other machines. And that the big one is in the distribution archive. So i guess i include a small one and a big one .. and by default use the smaller one on slower machines.
I did post a quicker executble.

>it is also still needed to set stack manually.

Woops .. i just optimized it a little so it should use less stack, but i do need to figure out how much stack is exactly needed. The trouble is stack use goes up with complex sites.

>i couldnt test extensively for now, but i think it is still too early yet. >keep up the work anyway. i enjoy this.

Ok thanks ! :)

@Cmdr_data

i dont know if this is the right forum to discuss the development of ur browser as it is the multiplatform one and we are discussing 68k questions. this forum is dedicated to os4. you might make na appearance on amiga.org or amigaworld.net or utility base maybe

@wawa

Quote:


Well .. you're are right .. of cause the AOS4 version is more important as the 68K version. But it is the same thing .. people noticed the wrong colors .. which where the same in the 68K and aos4 version. So i fixed them .. people noticed it was slow on 68K .. so i optimized it .. which made the AOS4 version also twice as fast.
It just happend to be that people asked questions about 68K.
They could have asked questions about the AOS4 version.
All things discussed have an impact on 68K and AOS4.
We just started the discussion here, to be a bit lowkey as the software isnt ready yet but still give the community a change for discussion.

The browser IS being developed mainly for AOS4 .. but i guess speed/memory isn't as big an issue as on 68K .. so obviously people are going to talk about what doesnt work well .. which is speed on 68k.
Yes the browser runs on Mac .. but thats just because it is so much easier to develop on mac which available development tools.

@every

Good work !
But for the moment, ................ Very UUUUUgly beta beta beta ...
That's all..

I'm waiting for an update about OWB.. It's time now to power-up''''' !!!