Mozilla/GNOME interoperability

[Michael Robinson <robinson netrinsics com>]

Miguel de Icaza <miguel@nuclecu.unam.mx> writes (in orbit-list):
>Now, what is the relationship with Javascript and HTML really escapes
>me.

Javascript is used as glue between a DOM GUI and an app's IDL interface;
HTML/XML is used to define the DOM GUI.

>Whatever Netscape uses to build its user interfaces is going to
>be far from light and last time I checked they were going with
>Mozilla-widgets, so this does not fit withing GNOME as a building
>infrastructure

It's true that Netscape's stuff is far from light, and it's true that they
use Mozilla-widgets instead of native GNOME widgets.

But it's also true that Mozilla, its apps, and its shared libraries will
certainly become part of the default distributions of every free operating
system.

The point is not to give up on GNOME development and move en masse to 
Mozilla.  The point is to be interoperable with a significant, and soon to 
be ubiquitous, "free software" application suite.

>(and also, until Mozilla gets GPLed, it is going to be hard to share code).

It's only hard to share code in the Mozilla direction.  NPL is a less
restrictive license than GPL.  GPL projects can take, modify, and redistribute
as much NPL code as they want, as long as they publish the changes.  The 
GPL itself, specifically article 10, permits this as long as it is done by
the authors or with the authors' permission.

>The interfaces you have shown look like they are internal Mozilla
>interfaces, to start with.  They are not designed to embed external
>objects.  

I've already had this discussion on the Mozilla list.  Their position
is that any IDL interface in Mozilla is fair game for anyone to script,
export, or embed.  If their XPCOM code cannot be wrapped with a CORBA skel
compiled from the XPIDL, that should be considered a bug and reported as such.

(I've noticed that libIDL now has XPIDL support.)

>> If the Gnome object model is compatible with the AppCore interface, then 
>> Gnome applications can import Mozilla AppCores for their own use.  
>
>It is not.  But it looks very worth investigating.  Can you give me
>instructions to pull all of their idls?

I think you want this:

   http://lxr.mozilla.org/mozilla/find?string=%2F*.idl

>> Which, I imagine, would be a better solution than the current method
>> of having the "Help" button open up the complete Netscape navigator
>> application.
>
>That is a different issue.  The plan in that situation consists of
>making Mozilla CORBA-aware and Gnorba-aware and have it export an
>interface that allow us to manipulate Mozilla remotely.

See above, re: wrapping XPCOM IDL.

Also, to clarify my point, a GNOME application should not try to manipulate
an entire instance of the Mozilla browser.  It should define a suitable XML
GUI interface, and instantiate a render window directly from the appropriate
library.

	-Michael Robinson