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

Esteban Lorenzano estebanlm at gmail.com
Thu Jul 19 09:15:49 UTC 2012


Hi,

I disagree in general with extend vm complexity to add things that can perfectly work in smalltalk or using a FFI package...
is OSProcess is not good enough, then lets make it work, but I don't see the necessity for vm support. 

problem is that now you have to install OSProcess and/or FFI to have the functionality but in the future, at least for pharo, that will not be the case in an out-of-the-box image :)

cheers,
Esteban

On Jul 19, 2012, at 10:18 AM, Guillermo Polito wrote:

> 
> 
> 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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