[Vm-dev] Request: VM support for opening browser

[Guillermo Polito]

On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:16 AM, Torsten Bergmann <astares at gmx.de> wrote:

>
> In the days of web based applications and Smalltalk web
> frameworks etc. it is often very usefull to open a browser/URL
> from within Smalltalk.
> Currently one has to load FFI and ExternalWebBrowser
> package.
>
> Why not add support into the VM for that. This would
> allow us:
>
>  - provide a link to the homepage of Squeak and Pharo
>    in the about box so people can easy access it
>    right from the image
>
>  - to give Seaside/Pier/Iliad/Aida served images
>    a button that opens the browser to the served
>    sites
>
>  - server an html based "Help system" from the image
>    and by choosing "Help" from the menu open it
>
>  - ...
>
> On Windows it is just a ShellExecute API call - dont
> know about the other platforms. Is it possible that
> VM developers agree on a common protocol and provide
> it in the next VM release cycle?
>
> Any comments?
>

The thing is... why adding it in the vm and not in the image directly via
FFI? I mean, you already have support in the vm for that -> FFI plugin (and
Native boost in NBCog).  And it's abstract enough to do the job...

I think that in the path to 2.0 there is the idea to have NativeBoost/FFI
in the core distribution. It's just that there are plenty of things to do
before :P.


> Thx
> T.
>
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