[DeepDish]

Could someone please explain to me in plain language why some people are so excited about Apple's use of WebCore in conjunction with KHTML in Safari and how all of Apple's future apps and revisions will benefit from WebCore?

I am very confused.

Thank you,

DD

[eevyl]

First, clarify.

WebCore is the Apple version of the KHTML engine. WebCore is a framework, so it can be used by any number of applications besides Safari, such as Sherlock, Help Viewer, Mail, etc when they are updated.

Also, WebCore is Open Source, so any developer can build their applications using the engine, and get the benefits.

I hope it is clearer now

[smeger]

I'm not totally clear on this either, so I may make mistakes, but as I understand it,
WebCore is a Macintosh framework that implements KHTML in a way that's accessible to any application.

So, any developer can include a web browser (or html view, or javascript, or whatever) in their app simply by calling a standardized system library, whereas before, they needed to implement the web browser (or view) themselves.

It means that you'll be seeing more web-enabled apps and that they'll all be uniform in their standards compliance.

[KaptainKaya]

Originally posted by smeger:
I'm not totally clear on this either, so I may make mistakes, but as I understand it,
WebCore is a Macintosh framework that implements KHTML in a way that's accessible to any application.

So, any developer can include a web browser (or html view, or javascript, or whatever) in their app simply by calling a standardized system library, whereas before, they needed to implement the web browser (or view) themselves.

It means that you'll be seeing more web-enabled apps and that they'll all be uniform in their standards compliance.

Isn't this almost the same as having IE part of Windows? I might be misreading the info, but it seems that Apple is moving that way...

[DeepDish]

edited, never mind, stupid question.

[Developer]

Originally posted by KaptainKaya:
Isn't this almost the same as having IE part of Windows? I might be misreading the info, but it seems that Apple is moving that way...

A HTML rendering library has been part of Mac OS since 8.6 (in fact in Mac OS X there are two of them and both are crap). It's good that we'll finally get a decent one.

[cwasko]

Originally posted by KaptainKaya:
Isn't this almost the same as having IE part of Windows? I might be misreading the info, but it seems that Apple is moving that way...

Good god NO!

WebCore is a *library* for developers to use. It is not integrated into the very grain of the operating system like MSIE on WinBlows. Although, becasue it is a library, it could be integrated if Apple so choose. I have a very hard time believing that Apple would follow that route and I would be thoroughly disappointed if they did. But, just remember, the existence of WebCore does not imply, and nor shoult it, that we are all of the sudden going to have the Finder look and feel like a web browser.

[Millennium]

OK, quick explanation...

KHTML is an HTML rendering engine, like Gecko is. It is made by the same development team that makes the KDE desktop environment for Linux.

WebCore is Apple's HTML rendering framework. While Apple has made some changes to KHTML, WebCore itself is basically an Objective-C wrapper around KHTML, so that it can be used in Cocoa apps. There's another side to WebCore known as KWQ (pronounced "quack"). This is basically a translation layer between the KDE calls used by KHTML and OSX's own native widgets.

Safari is an interface Apple has created which wraps around WebCore. That creates the browser we all know and love.

[KaptainKaya]

Oh good. But still, just the thought of having a Safari Finder scares the hell out of me.

[Moose]

Originally posted by cwasko:
Good god NO!

WebCore is a *library* for developers to use. It is not integrated into the very grain of the operating system like MSIE on WinBlows. Although, becasue it is a library, it could be integrated if Apple so choose. I have a very hard time believing that Apple would follow that route and I would be thoroughly disappointed if they did. But, just remember, the existence of WebCore does not imply, and nor shoult it, that we are all of the sudden going to have the Finder look and feel like a web browser.

IE isn't integrated into Windows any more than WebCore is integrated into Mac OS X. It just so happens that explorer.exe (the Windows "shell") is one of the applications that makes use of the IE COM+ object.

It's also important to note that Windows (WinXP especially) is a lot better about showing metadata in the file browser than Mac OS X is. COM+ helps out greatly with those sorts of things. I realize that Apple has finite resources and that this is probably on the list, but it just needed to be demonstrated as a very clever use of component objects.

[BuonRotto]

Originally posted by KaptainKaya:
Oh good. But still, just the thought of having a Safari Finder scares the hell out of me.

We are not talking about a Safari Finder. This has nothing to do with turning the Finder into a browser. WebCore is just like Rendezvous, Address Book, Image Capture, the Cocoa color panel or the Cocoa fonts panel. Those are all frameworks and do nothing by themselves. Applications have to (obviously) apply the frameworks. Frameworks are toolboxes, no more, no less. Applications pull out whatever tools they want and put them to use.

You have to stop thinking that integration means turning everything into a browser ala Microsoft. It's just a library, and it's not changing how we find and organize our files. WebCore will not break or hijack other apps and files, it will not always be "on" and in RAM, it will not hook into the kernel and leave security gaps, and it will not be exclusively Apple's to use.

[edit]

I'll take Moose for his word since he already sounds like he knows more than me. Just makes you wonder why MS claimed it couldn't be removed from the OS in their antitrust trial a few years ago. It explains why Avie Tevanian said it could. I guess it's all in the philosophy.