Hacking Wii Web Browser

[Luigi728]

Tabbed browsing will improve functionality, because you can go on more than 1 site then.
It's so annoying, one site at the time...

 

[mydarxide]

Good luck to you, but I wanted to point out that some of your goals are fairly impossible.


Actually there's only three goals you should have as they'd actually make your homebrew browser more functional.

1. A newer flash plugin, as the others have stated.

2. True java support, as there are actually online nes emulators and what-not that won't run on the wii.

3. The ability to download files and download and install codecs.


Adding tabbed browsing and other such nonsense doesn't really improve fuctionality, it merely makes the browser more like a pc browser which IMHO is a step in the wrong direction in this case.

I second that.

Tabs would be nice too.

 

[Arm the Homeless]

http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/

Opensource Flashplayer

Aw. I was just about to say GNASH.
But the more I think about it, that isn't very practical.
GNASH is...sub-par to say the least now.
But as a believer of the GPL, I'd love this to be a open-source browser.

I'd love add-on support. Because then everyone can add to it instead of you doing all the updating.

 

[arctic_flame]

Adding tabbed browsing and other such nonsense doesn't really improve fuctionality, it merely makes the browser more like a pc browser which IMHO is a step in the wrong direction in this case.

I second that.

Tabs would be nice too.

Way to contradict yourself.

 

[goku21temp]

perhaps you should go the linux road with this...

that way you can use a temp-folder on the sd-card for tabbed browsing...

you have the flash-plugins and browser already availeble + if you get some help from the guy who made geexbox , he should know how to talk to the wii´s graphics chip as the core-rendering-engine needs to be modified.( edit: perhaps it´s just his awesome gpu-driver idk)


there´s a linuxversion , splashtop, which boots in 5 seconds on the pc has a mozilla-based browser a skype and email -programm...

 

[arctic_flame]

perhaps you should go the linux road with this...

that way you can use a temp-folder on the sd-card for tabbed browsing...

you have the flash-plugins and browser already availeble + if you get some help from the guy who made geexbox , he should know how to talk to the wii´s graphics chip as the core-rendering-engine needs to be modified.( edit: perhaps it´s just his awesome gpu-driver idk)


there´s a linuxversion , splashtop, which boots in 5 seconds on the pc has a mozilla-based browser a skype and email -programm...

There is no PPC version of flash for Linux.
Perhaps you also need to clarify how you will "use the wii's graphics chip as a core rendering engine" too.
Splashtop seems irrelevant as it is proprietary, closed-source software bundled with some ASUS laptops.

 

[knowitall599]

So I take it you code and are capable with this? If so it sounds like an excellent idea... is there anyway possible to get an open source for the wii opera? that would probably help alot as well...

I can code, but I have never done a browser like this. Moreover I think that I could get one of my mom's friends who knows Java very well and has a degree in IS to help.

 

[knowitall599]

Try going to #wiidev at efnet to find out if you can get some info.

Also heres some features that should be added
-More than 1 Tab at a time can be used
-Nicer Gui than the Opera one
-Add-on support
-Change Gui Color Support

-Delete Cookies/Cache
-Proxy Server Support
-Mini Messinger (MSN/Yahoo/AOL/IRC)addon application - Maybe you can start with this, it can be very useful with the
-USB Keyboard Support

But of course, your just starting so the beta wont have all those features in a while, but I'd start with the Tab one first

And maybe you can try to create a browser similar (not identical) to Chrome.

Just a thought.

Im not such a Chrome fan, I perfer Mozilla Firefox which I think should look identical(in a way) to this

I prefer Firefox as well.

 

[knowitall599]

People that are working with me: Start looking for an open source PPC firefox browser source code. I am going to attempt to port it to the wii. Let's get this thing rolling with a link if anybody finds some good source that is PPC arcitexture.

Also, we look for an old version of firefox with apple source code. Yes, I said it apple macintosh source code. If you have any questions about this I will try to help. If you have information, I need it. This is my first BIG programming project and I will need all the help I can get. Thanks

 

[turkish_punch]

May I suggest that you look at these avenues.

Webkit - http://webkit.org/ - Already ported to probably every existing computer architecture and several embedded systems.
KHTML - http://developer.kde.org/documentation/lib...kde3arch/khtml/ - I couldn't immediately find a src link ,but Webkit is a fork of KHTML so it should be almost as equally ported.
Gecko - https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Gecko - Basis of Mozilla and Galeon, very popular.

and as stated above Gnash is open source and should be easy to port ,but that would way down the line. You would still need to support java, javascript, etc,etc,etc. It would a lot of effort and I will commend you for undertaking such an effort.

 

[Totakeke]

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Fennec#About_Fennec

Porting an already embedded browser is the way to go.

 

[cr08]

I'll post the same stuff I've posted elsewhere on the matter in HOPES to enlighten some of the people here:

• A simple 'port' is not going to be possible unless you are willing to rewrite half the code from the beginning. Even with an embedded browser like Fennec, you need to rewrite all the I/O functions to use the Wii hardware and not the hardware it was originally written for (At this point, it looks to be primarily gocused for the Nokia tablet). Desktop browsers you actually NEED to write the I/O functions since they often just call those functions already built into the OS.
• Also hope that memory usage of your ported browser doesn't exceed the Wii's limits.
• Do NOT expect integration of proprietary closed-source addons like Flash 9 and Java. Just not happening. No source, no port.
• As another poster has stated, tabbed browsing is going to be quite difficult from a resource standpoint. Some sites through the Internet Channel already use up quite a bit of ram, try two. About the only way this would work is if you built your own swap file system, but you'll want to do that with a usb drive and not the SD slot for obvious reasons. And I doubt much of your target audience has an actual usb drive laying around readily available for this.
• If all you know how to do are simple ports with little code writing, do not jump into this as you will assuredly be biting off more than you can chew. Just a fair warning.
• You are MUCH better off scratch building a browser MADE for the Wii with existing HTML rendering systems such as Webkit than a port largely for optimization issues that you will likely run into with a port.
• If you DO plan to introduce an add-on system like Firefox's extensions, HIGHLY recommended to introduce a QA system and website as to avoid more performance issues. God forbid you have some fresh c++ newbie who has written the most ugliest and slow code for an extension/addon and outright released it, you're gonna have trouble. Use a sort of quality assurance system for this if you go that route.

 

[turkish_punch]

Does anyone have a tutorial or wiki on how to compile projects for the wii? I doubt that I can create a wii browser but i can surely compile the webkit source, as can any good *nix user.

And to the OP if you are interested, I would like to support/test any code that you create.

Edit: I was searching wiili and wiibrew, I should have just started here. http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=106668