The Webkit port initiated by Haikuware, has gotten its developer in Ryan Leavengood and the US $ 500 bounty has been reached for the port to get started. The project had today reached a bounty of $558.89, but that was before ICO added another $100.
1. Download the WebKit source code on Linux, build the Qt port and begin testing and browsing the code. (I have already done this.)
2. Get the GCC 4.x cross compilers set up on Linux for building Haiku, to be eventually used when compiling WebKit (I already have the Haiku cross compiling going with GCC 2.95.)
3. Use one of the existing WebKit build systems to build JavaScriptCore using the Haiku cross-compilers. JavaScriptCore is mostly cross-platform so the main issues will just be related to sorting out build problems.
4. Using the Syllable port as inspiration, start coding the Haiku platform files needed in WebCore. The first run will mostly be stub files simply needed to get a build going.
5. Incrementally turn the stubs into real implementations of the the basic callbacks needed in the WebKit platform code. For example the callback for the JavaScript alert method would use a BAlert to show a message.
6. Once enough callbacks are implemented in WebCore, a basic Haiku browser shell application will be written. Inspired by the QtLauncher, this will primarily consist of a single window with a back, forward and stop button, and edit box for the URL, a simple progress bar and a status bar to show the locations of links when hovered over.
7. Using the browser shell I will thoroughly test the port, and probably offer some builds publically for others to test.
8. Once the port is looking good and the browser shell runs well, I will consider the work for this bounty completed.
Nonetheless I will continue to work on this project to produce a more fully functional browser, probably initially inspired by NetPositive, with other useful browser features added as needed. I'm tempted to just call this NetPositive, but will probably come up with a newer, slicker name.
In addition as I said above I would like to encapsulate the WebKit functionality into a class BHTMLView which can be used from other applications.
I propose the following deadlines for the above:
1. Done.
2. July 22, 2007
3. July 29, 2007
4. August 12, 2007
5. August 26, 2007
6. September 9, 2007
7. September 16, 2007
8. September 30, 2007
ICO hopes that people will continue to donate money for this project, so that the developer can also develop the graphical user interface for the browser. We are also looking forward to see the webkit being implemented in other projects, like the InfoPopper, IM kit and the Mail Daemon Replacement (that is now part of Haiku), and we are sure that commercial software like BePodder will get it implemented in a future version.
