Given that a browser is not practically a virtual machine and/or an OS, it is not too surprising that an OS developer is not scared by the task. At the same time, it seems to me that multimedia is a whole different beast.
> For a new project I wonder how much simpler (or secure) a browser could be made if you only allowed a subset of js and browser apis
IMHO the only viable subset is the empty set. There are some surviving HTML-only browsers that are still usable for e.g. viewing documentation or browsing simple-minded websites (like HN, but they are fewer and fewer every year, unfortunately).
I really don't want to drop the all too common negative comment - in particular since I already use an alternative web browser - but the initial investment required just for an MVP seems mind-boggling to me.
I think a basic HTML browser that can automatically delegate all it cannot handle to other apps - PDF viewing to a PDF viewer, video playback to a video player, and JS-requiring things to a big browser - would be interesting (if it already exists, please let me know).
I've been wanting something like that, like a wrapper that hosts three or four engine, so I can use normal for every-day, upscale to FF for some or Chrome for others - all in one UI.
>IMHO the only viable subset is the empty set. There are some surviving HTML-only browsers that are still usable for e.g. viewing documentation or browsing simple-minded websites (like HN, but they are fewer and fewer every year, unfortunately).
I'm curious if throwing out DOM/js would make the task more approachable. My intuition says yes. But I'm thinking CSS would still make it super difficult. Also I've heard that HTML has some rough areas that make it hard.
That being said I find Netsurf is pretty capable even if I don't really use it very often. Yeah some pages don't render right but it's really fast. So who knows maybe we can get away with a reduced set of features or better yet go back to using separate clients instead of web apps for things like chat, email and forums.
> For a new project I wonder how much simpler (or secure) a browser could be made if you only allowed a subset of js and browser apis
IMHO the only viable subset is the empty set. There are some surviving HTML-only browsers that are still usable for e.g. viewing documentation or browsing simple-minded websites (like HN, but they are fewer and fewer every year, unfortunately).
I really don't want to drop the all too common negative comment - in particular since I already use an alternative web browser - but the initial investment required just for an MVP seems mind-boggling to me.
I think a basic HTML browser that can automatically delegate all it cannot handle to other apps - PDF viewing to a PDF viewer, video playback to a video player, and JS-requiring things to a big browser - would be interesting (if it already exists, please let me know).