On 13 Mar 2002, Samir Saidani wrote:

> Hello
> 
> Does it make sense to use the Gecko Layout Engine for Scamper ?
> 

There are two points of view:

1) one could set up Gecko as a rather large plugin for Squeak.
   Squeak gives as parameter an URL and rectangular area to the plugin
   and the plugin handles the rest. Then there would of course be
   other integrating issues like ensuring that copy / paste works.

   From a user perspective that could be an option.
   Doing this would surely be a good exercise for a programmer
   to learn about plugin integration and actually be a challenge as 
   nobody has integrated such a complex plugin yet.

2) Look at the layout algorithms used in Gecko and re-implement them
   (or a part of them) in Scamper. 
   Scampler definitly _could_ use some refactoring and
   updating. This has been discussed on this list on various occasions.
   Karl Ramberg for examlpe recently has been working on better table
   support (see http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak/1445); Check the
   archives.

If one views Squeak as an integration platform it would
surely be a considerable added value to have a web browser with good 
html 4.01 and CSS1/2 and JavaScript support in Squeak. However many
Squeakers do not perceive this as a priority; for example Alan Kay
once said that HTML is the "MSDOS" of the internet. Squeak is per-
ceived more as a research vehicle for exploring new ideas 
(keywords "Dynabook", "blue pane vs. pink plane"; see archives as well).

>From a user point of view it surely makes sense if somebody can devote
the time to do it. I for example could think of using it in one of the
our projects. However just having started Squeak and a web browser
simultaneously is not bad either. 

Scamper has the big advantage that the html objects are rendered as
morphs. So I can blue click on a image and drag it out on the
desktop. Another thing is that I can select Smalltalk code snippets
within Scamper and execute it with 'do-it'. These two things
together are really extraordinary.


Regards
Hannes Hirzel