Re: [9front] netsurf native frontend

[jamos@oboj.net]

Kenji,

Philippe’s new native netsurf frontend is a big step forward. It uses 
the same core components and libraries as nsfb, but has a GUI using the 
plan 9 drawing primitives directly, as well as the plan 9 event and font 
handling. A native frontend has much more control over what happens, and 
it is possible to layout components in the browser as we wish, e.g. 
having plan 9 style scrollbars.

The framebuffer frontend in Netsurf has its own plotting functions that 
modifies a memory bitmap, and the plan 9 framebuffer driver (surface) 
then synchonises that bitmap with a Plan 9 window Image using 
loadimage() - for the updated area. The framebuffer frontend is foremost 
designed to run close to hardware, like embedded systems, or on a 
graphics console. It polls for events once a second, which makes the UI 
a bit unresponsive, and also consumes a bit more cpu cycles when nothing 
happens. It also has its internal event handling mechanism that doesn’t 
map 1:1 to the one in plan 9.

Netsurf’s native frontends generally have much more functionality than 
the framebuffer frontend (which is more fixed), and they are designed to 
integrate with higher-level functions exported by operating system. The 
framebuffer frontend has a lot of built-in functionality, such as basic 
font handling, which made it an easier target to start with.

The Plan 9 frontend will (if things go well) become one of the Netsurf’s 
official frontends, living in its own directory, side by side with other 
native frontends for Amiga, Atari ST, BeOS/Haiku, Unix, RiscOS, and 
Windows. Being closer to the upstream, also means that it will be easier 
to keep up with upcoming tip changes, benefitting, for example, from 
improved rendering and javascript support.

It is an advantage that we now have two frontends for plan 9, as they 
can be compared both visually and performance wise. I've already noticed 
that the native frontend is much quicker if you rcpu to another machine 
and run the browser from there.

Jonas

On 2020-05-23 07:08, kokamoto@hera.eonet.ne.jp wrote:

>> would like to have some feedback on this.
> 
> I don't know why you implemented this, what was your
> dislike point of the framebuffer netsurf?
> 
> By the way, I can input 日本語(Japanese) into the google
> search window of the opening panel, without to compile
> for freetype Japanese fonts.
> 
> Kenji