5 ms·

GTK+ 3.2 released - allows rendering applications in HTML5-capable web browsers

142 points by hotice 15y ago

coob 15y ago
Are there demos anywhere, or does this need to be run locally?
- zobzu 15y ago
  just watch the vids on the link. with dependencies making a demo per distro sux then there's live cds but.. vids on the link are just fine ;-)
- sciurus 15y ago
  The latest video demo I've seen is http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/04/18/broadway-update-3/ http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/04/18/broadway-update-3/
MartinMond 15y ago
I've recently been looking for ways to do powerful admin interfaces quickly. I've been looking at Cappuccino since it does support stuff like tables with > 10.000 entries and 'complex' controls. Now with GTK+ HTML5 support this might also be an avenue to explore.
- orblivion 15y ago
  Something that crossed my mind, maybe you can help me answer. Are there cases where it would be easier to create a GTK application than a javascript application? This whole concept seems like it opens up a lot of opportunities for websites to provide rich interfaces, but then I think, wait, aren't people thinking of going the opposite direction? For instance, the high level GUI programming for Gnome Shell is in javascript.
  - amalcon 15y ago
    It would be entirely possible to do both at the same time. There are javascript bindings for GTK. This isn't so much a workaround for javascript as a workaround for HTML. And yes, there are absolutely cases where it would be easier to create a GTK application than an HTML application. You don't need to worry about choosing a widget library, for one, and placement is very straightforward.
altrego99 15y ago
Does it compile to native HTML5+Javascript? From looking at it, it seems that it doesn't - that it is running the app in the server and updating the screen in HTML5 canvas. It would be cool if it compiles the code to Javascript though... so that you get complete client side platform independent apps out of the current entire Gnome repository!
- plaes 15y ago
  Would you imagine what happens with speed when all the code is compiled into javascript (megabytes of it) and gets loaded into browsers VM?
- noahl 15y ago
  GTK itself will probably never do that, because it doesn't include any sort of language-processing code (as I understand it). Adding code to GTK that could translate programs between languages would be a huge increase in complexity and scope. However, a project like GCC could certainly do that. If someone really wanted that to happen, they could add a Javascript code generator to GCC and pair that with GTK's HTML5 backend to produce something like what you want.
  - wazoox 15y ago
    Probably an easier way would be a Glade-XML to HTML5 translator (an HTML5builder instead of GTKbuilder).
- AntiRush 15y ago
  Combining this with emscripten (http://www.emscripten.org http://www.emscripten.org) would probably be quite doable and very cool.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
doctoboggan 15y ago
The implications of this are incredible with tablet computers becoming more and more popular. QT is approaching this as well with their Lighthouse project but I think it is still a little ways off. I really want to start playing with this, is there any reason why it wouldn't work with the python GTK bindings?
nyellin 15y ago
For more on the HTML5 backend see http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2010/11/23/gtk3-vs-html5/ http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2010/11/23/gtk3-vs-html5/ Basically, toplevel windows (i.e. GtkWindow) act as proxies for remote browsers.
albertzeyer 15y ago
About the HTML support: This only simply draws to a HTML canvas. This is mostly just a nice and simple hack but I doubt that people would use GTK now as an alternative to real web frameworks. I have seen similar hacks for VNC, X11 and other stuff. This would be much more interesting if the GTK components map to real HTML elements.
- cbs 15y ago
  >This would be much more interesting if the GTK components map to real HTML elements. This is where we're eventually headed, the mozilla project "chromeless" is an interesting experiment down the path. IIRC It gets rid of XUL for the application chrome and uses html/js for the entire program gui.
- sedachv 15y ago
  "This would be much more interesting if the GTK components map to real HTML elements." This is really hard to do wrt skinning. The only thing you really want is text selection to work properly for cut-and-paste. A good question to ask is what does the Canvas backend for GTK for cut-and-paste now?
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
iam 15y ago
That's pretty cool and could be very useful, how is the performance if it's done over the internet as opposed to locally?
vladsanchez 15y ago
This is EPIC! Amazing...

142 points by hotice 15y ago

coob 15y ago

Are there demos anywhere, or does this need to be run locally?

zobzu 15y ago
just watch the vids on the link. with dependencies making a demo per distro sux then there's live cds but.. vids on the link are just fine ;-)
sciurus 15y ago
The latest video demo I've seen is http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/04/18/broadway-update-3/ http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2011/04/18/broadway-update-3/

MartinMond 15y ago

I've recently been looking for ways to do powerful admin interfaces quickly. I've been looking at Cappuccino since it does support stuff like tables with > 10.000 entries and 'complex' controls. Now with GTK+ HTML5 support this might also be an avenue to explore.

orblivion 15y ago
Something that crossed my mind, maybe you can help me answer. Are there cases where it would be easier to create a GTK application than a javascript application? This whole concept seems like it opens up a lot of opportunities for websites to provide rich interfaces, but then I think, wait, aren't people thinking of going the opposite direction? For instance, the high level GUI programming for Gnome Shell is in javascript.
- amalcon 15y ago
  It would be entirely possible to do both at the same time. There are javascript bindings for GTK. This isn't so much a workaround for javascript as a workaround for HTML. And yes, there are absolutely cases where it would be easier to create a GTK application than an HTML application. You don't need to worry about choosing a widget library, for one, and placement is very straightforward.

altrego99 15y ago

Does it compile to native HTML5+Javascript? From looking at it, it seems that it doesn't - that it is running the app in the server and updating the screen in HTML5 canvas. It would be cool if it compiles the code to Javascript though... so that you get complete client side platform independent apps out of the current entire Gnome repository!

plaes 15y ago
Would you imagine what happens with speed when all the code is compiled into javascript (megabytes of it) and gets loaded into browsers VM?
noahl 15y ago
GTK itself will probably never do that, because it doesn't include any sort of language-processing code (as I understand it). Adding code to GTK that could translate programs between languages would be a huge increase in complexity and scope. However, a project like GCC could certainly do that. If someone really wanted that to happen, they could add a Javascript code generator to GCC and pair that with GTK's HTML5 backend to produce something like what you want.
- wazoox 15y ago
  Probably an easier way would be a Glade-XML to HTML5 translator (an HTML5builder instead of GTKbuilder).
AntiRush 15y ago
Combining this with emscripten (http://www.emscripten.org http://www.emscripten.org) would probably be quite doable and very cool.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

doctoboggan 15y ago

The implications of this are incredible with tablet computers becoming more and more popular. QT is approaching this as well with their Lighthouse project but I think it is still a little ways off. I really want to start playing with this, is there any reason why it wouldn't work with the python GTK bindings?

nyellin 15y ago

For more on the HTML5 backend see http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2010/11/23/gtk3-vs-html5/ http://blogs.gnome.org/alexl/2010/11/23/gtk3-vs-html5/ Basically, toplevel windows (i.e. GtkWindow) act as proxies for remote browsers.

albertzeyer 15y ago

About the HTML support: This only simply draws to a HTML canvas. This is mostly just a nice and simple hack but I doubt that people would use GTK now as an alternative to real web frameworks. I have seen similar hacks for VNC, X11 and other stuff. This would be much more interesting if the GTK components map to real HTML elements.

cbs 15y ago
>This would be much more interesting if the GTK components map to real HTML elements. This is where we're eventually headed, the mozilla project "chromeless" is an interesting experiment down the path. IIRC It gets rid of XUL for the application chrome and uses html/js for the entire program gui.
sedachv 15y ago
"This would be much more interesting if the GTK components map to real HTML elements." This is really hard to do wrt skinning. The only thing you really want is text selection to work properly for cut-and-paste. A good question to ask is what does the Canvas backend for GTK for cut-and-paste now?
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

iam 15y ago

That's pretty cool and could be very useful, how is the performance if it's done over the internet as opposed to locally?

vladsanchez 15y ago

This is EPIC! Amazing...