728055 - mozilla has destroyed pyjamas desktop and OLPC Sugar Browser

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core Graveyard :: Embedding: GRE Core, defect)

Description

[lkcl]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110430 Iceweasel/3.5.9 (like Firefox/3.5.9)
Build ID: 20100414091236

Steps to reproduce:

please read:
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.education.sugar.devel/32190


Actual results:

the OLPC Sugar "Hulahop" library which is a means to creating a Python-GTK widget
with a gecko web browser engine in it *AND* simultaneously a means to obtain
an XPCOM reference to the NSAPI (from python), has been destroyed.

reading the comments from the above link... well, allow me to relay parts of them
for you:

"Now, after jumping through many hoops, we can finally call a function
inside the library we are interested in. Now we just have to get
through the run-time bugs such as focus issues which have spent months
unfixed in mozilla-central...

The combination of the fact that mozilla embedding has been neglected
over the years, is currently broken and is now actively discouraged,
and the fact that general use and design of the library sits way
outside of our open-source norms means that I've lost faith in this
being a good option for us (and I've got so frustrated by this episode
that I've changed web browser on my desktop system as well)."




Expected results:

it should be possible to embed the gecko engine as it has always previously been embedded, within c code, NOT as is dictated by the mozilla foundation as an
application that is solely and exclusively managed and dictated by the mozilla
foundation.

this is not just the OLPC browser that has been quotes discouraged quotes from
using an embedded python version of gecko, but also the pyjamas project as well.

if this is not fixed you will need to destroy and remove the following tutorial from
mozdev.org because the mozilla foundation appears to be absolutely hell bent
on dictating to the world that javascript is the absolute god of all languages,
and everything else can go f*** itself.

http://pyxpcomext.mozdev.org/no_wrap/tutorials/hulahop/xpcom-hulahop.html

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

I think that this report will end as invalid because it doesn't describe a single bug and bugzilla isn't the right place for general discussions.

Note: mozdev is an independent website as far as I know.

Comment 2

[lkcl]

it's a massive fundamental flaw in the direction and thinking of the
mozilla foundation, to limit the reach and uses of mozilla-foundation-funded
source code.

however if you desire a specific issue to be reported, here one is:

"We want to call the function XRE_InitEmbedding() inside libxul. This
is the first thing you need to do if you want to embed mozilla in
another app.

XRE_InitEmbedding has been removed from the mozilla public headers, so
we have to go into the mozilla source so that we can include the
definition in our own code."

this function must be returned.  once that function and all others
necessary to ensure that hulahop successfully compiles and operates
as it was designed, this bug can be closed.

Comment 3

[Josh Matthews [:jdm]]

Are you looking for XRE_InitEmbedding2?

Comment 4

[lkcl]

josh, we have no idea!  if that function does exist and does the job i am extremely grateful to you for pointing it out.  gahh, it'd be a damn lifesaver.  i'll let you know how i get on [david, of sugarlabs, has given up all hope of using xulrunner].

l.

Comment 5

[lkcl]

WOO-HOO!  thank you josh, that did the job.  i had to comment out a couple of things,
such as remove the pop and push javascript functions, and also comment out the code
that used to refer to NS_XPCOM_COMPONENT_REGISTRY, and it worked.

ok i _say_ worked - the "hello world" example worked:
http://lkcl.net/hulahop/xunrunner-1.9-hulahop_success.png

but when i tried the JSONRPC example, which i picked precisely because of knowledge
of an earlier bug where my advice was not listened to:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=502234

so, it's one step closer to "useable" but is still 100% away: nsIXMLHttpRequest
not working is an absolute show-stopper (for pyjamas-desktop, but is probably
ok for the OLPC team).

regardless: thank you josh - it's unbelievably hard to get information on the
internals of the mozilla code.

Comment 6

[Benjamin Smedberg]

Mass change of bugs in the "Embedding: GRE Core" component in preparation for archiving it. I believe that these are no longer relevant; but if they are, they should be reopened and moved into a component relevant to the code in question.