BeOS came with a relatively straightforward browser called NetPositive, or Net+ in shorthand. Especially by today's standards, it can hardly do anything more complicated than rendering basic HTML, so it isn't of much use. Luckily, Haiku has a successor now, born out of the HaikuLauncher conceptbrowser we talked about earlier: WebPositive.
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2005-07-06
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This’ll make or break Haiku. People will be drawn to the platform because the web will work as well as anywhere else, and stay for the native apps.
I would love to see something a bit more radical as far as browser layout though. I feel the browser tabs, location and buttons should go on the _bottom_ of the window. I always thought this was a more natural, obvious place for navigation as it moves content closer to the top of the page, and the location bar also works as a status bar, telling you the current location. I also find it easier to look at the bottom of the screen, below the reading line, than at the top of the screen which is further away.
Member since:2009-04-23
Or better yet make the tabs "panel" dragable around the window just like the haiku menu
I can see how people can be comfortable with different layouts (or full on shortcut keys in the cause of some) I think that sort of configurability is what is really needed not fancy themes like seems to be the trend (seen firefox 3.6 anyone)
Edited 2010-03-04 15:27 UTC
Member since:2005-07-06
Somewhat OT: there was an old (R4, I think) app for BeOS called ActiveApp, it more-or-less did what you described in an application-agnostic way. It was a free-floating vertical tab bar, listing all of the child windows for the currently-active application - clicking one of the tabs/buttons would bring that window to the front.
Sadly, all of the download links seem to be dead so I never got a chance to try it in Haiku.
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Of course, considering the browser is in infancy maybe I'm expecting too much but:
1. I was actually expecting it to look like NetPositive, whose interface I really liked (probably out of nostalgia)
2. Tabs inside a tab? That feels weird. Haiku needs an native tab/window manager..
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2005-11-15
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What type of error message?
If you're using a GCC2-build of Haiku, it will NOT run WebPositive (which is a GCC4-built app and requires Haiku GCC4 or GCC4-hybrid)
If you're using a GCC4-build of Haiku (it says "GCC4" in the "About This System" program, under the revision of Haiku), then the only error message I've gotten is that WebPositive wants some "libsqlite3.so.0" and "libxml2.so.2".
Type "libsq" in the search bar over at HaikuWare, to get the 82Mbyte zip archive of all the GCC4 .so files you'll need for everything (I think) you could possibly imagine.
Then WebPositive worked fine, for me.
Member since:2005-08-12
If you're using a GCC2-build of Haiku, it will NOT run WebPositive (which is a GCC4-built app and requires Haiku GCC4 or GCC4-hybrid)
It runs just fine on a gcc2hybrid. There is no need to go with a gcc4 or gcc4hybrid installation of Haiku. Especially since the official release of Haiku R1 will be a gcc2hybrid.
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For one, it provides a limited scope at least. It prevents people from arbitrarily expanding the API/ABI and instead focus on making the system just work properly, as well as, and even better than BeOS did.
There was at least one closed-source library that a few apps still use, Marco's liblayout (http://bebits.com/app/3363) it is used in SoundPlay and Wonderbrush, and likely some other apps that are still useful.
I suspect Wonderbrush will eventually be migrated to Haiku's built in layout kit system (which is unfinished, and the public API hasn't been solidified yet). I gather there still isn't a replacement for SoundPlay that is nearly as awesome... and only an older version of SoundPlay runs on Haiku due to the use of some private API from BeOS...
Member since:2009-02-13
Member since:2006-07-14
What ... kind of error did you get.
Please, Please, Please tell me it was
Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.
or
The code was willing
It considered your request,
But the chips were weak.
or
To have no errors
Would be life without meaning
No struggle, no joy
And not some stupid boring error message. The NetPositive Haiku error messages were one of my favorite things about the os. Considering the name of the OS is Haiku, it *needs* to have web browser errors in Haiku.
Member since:2005-07-06
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2005-07-27
I took it for a spin over at the ACID benchmarks and SunSpider.
I renders ACID1 content 100%. ACID2, with only one small flaw on the nose. ACID3 gets a 98/100 with "Linktest Failed".
And, on my Athlon XP system, I get 4,390ms on SunSpider!
Opera and FireFox get vastly slower scores, in Ubuntu, on the same system. But Chrome (which also uses WebKit) blows FireFox/Opera outta the water and manages to even outdo WebPositive (1,000ms+ vs. 4,000ms+) for now.
But I am so shocked by how well WebPositive performs, overall, even at this stage of it's development, I can't tell you how enthusiastic I am to see future releases!
Oh, and just in case you're wondering... WebPositive on a Pentium II/266 (Intel 440BX board) with 128Mb of RAM... gets... 33,000ms!!! I think that's VERY impressive, considering Opera on a 64-bit 1.8GHz Sempron (3200+), in Ubuntu (Intrpid Ibex) gets 15,000ms+! That's just a little over twice as slow... on a system that has 1/8th the RAM, 1/7th the processing power (266MHz x 7 = 1.862GHz), on a 100MHz FSB!
Go, Stippi, Go!!!! AUSA!
Member since:2005-09-14
But Chrome (which also uses WebKit) blows FireFox/Opera outta the water and manages to even outdo WebPositive (1,000ms+ vs. 4,000ms+) for now.
That part at least is a bit less surprising for the moment ; Web+ currently isn't using JavascriptCore's JIT mode due to it crashing for not yet determined reasons. Once this has been fixed, the times should be noticeably better.
Member since:
2005-11-15
Info on implementing replicants:
http://www.haiku-os.org/documents/dev/replicants_more_application_t...
Member since:
2005-10-17
Here is Web+ displaying a webpage in Japanese:
http://haikuzone.net/files/temp/2010-03-05_webpositive-jp.png
Using rev. 286 with configured to use the Takao font set.
Member since:
2005-07-06
...and I am hoping that at least 1 out of 10 people commenting on form or functionality of the apps that have been presented here or on the Haiku site will actually get down and dirty and write something for Haiku.
Heck, when it goes Beta I think I will be writing little apps here and there, utilities and such, that people might find useful.
I would love to get something like TortoiseSVN on Haiku, and with the flexible file system, I think that should be quite possible. Oh the fun we might have! 
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Or at least interest in a webkit port on Be/Haiku, given what buggy unstable TRAIN WRECK every Gecko engine based browser on the platform has been.
Taking it for a spin, they've made more progress the past three years since we first saw Webkit on Haiku rendering beBits back in '07 than we've seen with any of the Mozilla based browsers over the past DECADE.
Good work guys!
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The man speaks truth, Mozilla have really got their work cut out for them with the mobile space. WebKit browsers are popping up everywhere, and Mozilla only have a release on N900, and that’s it. I hope to see Gecko available much wider then that as WebKit needs the competition (they cheat with CSS selectors for speed gains)
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2005-07-07