Re: HTML Widget / Embedded Browser

["muppet" <scott asofyet org>]

Thomas Bayen said:
> I am looking for a way to include a nice help & documentation system in
> my application. I decided to use a wiki and call it via my webbrowser.
> So I have all the flexibility of html and I may use direct links to the
> Internet. But an external browser is not always the nicest (and fastest)
> method.
>
> I asked google and found some comments about a HTML Widget and embedded
> Browsers and yes - I saw HTML in a gnome program :-)  - But I could not
> find the "state of the art" and what this all means to Gtk-Perl. Can
> someone tell me what is actual the truth?

there have been repeated requests for gtk2-perl binding for gtkhtml3[1] over
the past several months, but no-one has volunteered to write those bindings.

gtk-perl[2] included bindings for gtkhtml1 and for gecko (Gtk::MozEmbed), but
as far as i know those are very out-of-date.  they are not compatible with
gtk2-perl for various reasons, both subtle and obvious.


so, the answer is, at the moment, "we ain't got nuffin'".  however, gtk2-perl
bindings are easy to write[3], and anyone who wishes to volunteer to write
bindings for either gtkhtml3 or gecko may rest assured that he or she will get
all the help desired, and we'll even have a place for it in our cvs
repository.


however, the GtkTextView/TextBuffer stuff is very powerful and could be used
to implement something like HTML.  pango markup also allows you to do
html-like things.  if your dataset is small enough, either of these may be a
viable option.


[1] there was indeed a gtkhtml2, but this project appears to have been
abandoned in favor of gtkhtml3.  this is the common wisdom from this mailing
list, i cannot confirm these facts personally.
[2] gtk-perl, the bindings for gtk 1.x, http://www.gtkperl.org .
[3] for someone with a decent amount of C experience.  you don't need tons of
XS experience, though it helps.

-- 
muppet <scott at asofyet dot org>