Re: feature request/feature discussion?

["Luis Villa" <luis villa gmail com>]

(Continuing the discussion here a bit more before I put it in bugzilla)

On 5/18/06, Berend van Berkum <berend van berkum gmail com> wrote:
> > > > epiphany --no-chrome http://mail.google.com/
>
> > > I think we can try this, can you file a bug?
>
> As Luis already mentioned, some chrome might be needed. Eg.
>
> $ firefox -chrome http://gmail.google.com
>
> nicely renders the document but it also replaces *all* off the browser
> chrome functionality; resizing, context-menu, reload, etc.I don't know
> how Epiphany  defines its GUI (chrome://browser/content displays the
> FF GUI here and I can't find jar or XUL files, I guess Ephy hardcodes
> it?) but I think that javascript:window.open gives a far more usable
> 'webapp' than a replacement of all the chrome. I don't know what's
> under the hood, but a CLI option to hide the toolbars and menubar
> sounds easier to me .. ?

It is easier, but my sense is that it is the wrong approach. Probably
much better is to start from zero and imagine the minimal set of
features a webapp really, really needs from the browser. The vast
majority of the items in the toolbar are completely irrelevant to a
webapp-as-app. Offhand:

* File: Print is probably relevant; closing the window is relevant;
basically nothing else is.
* Edit: copy/paste/find relevant; probably not others (though I could
*maybe* see an argument for preferences.)
* View: maybe text size? Everything else should be handled by the app.
* Go/Bookmarks/Tabs: irrelevant; the webapp handles its own
URLs/locations/navigation.
* Help: irrelevant; the good webapps provide their own.

To put it another way- a toolbar-only view that looks a lot more like
gedit or abiword's toolbar than epiphany's might be the way to go for
webapps- print, copy/paste, find, text size- that's it.

[FWIW, spending all day yesterday with gmail in a chromeless window
was very pleasant- much less distracting than having all the current,
non-useful-to-a-webapp chrome.]

Luis