Mozilla Labs recently shared updates on the experimental Chromeless browser.
Contrary to most folks belief, the name is not a dig on Google’s Chrome browser, but a description on a key feature of the app. This browser eliminates the “chrome” of the application or the confines of XUL. This can be likened to eliminating the fence around property and making the whole open field as the yard.
From the developers:
Instead of loading XUL, the application’s main execution point is an HTML file. This page is granted extra privileges (i.e., it can access CommonJS modules made available by the Jetpack platform). Our goal is to expose the basic functionality required to write a browser to this HTML entry point, via CommonJS modules and as lightweight conventions on top of the DOM. For example, the HTML author might interact with an “application” interface module in order to set the labels and handlers for OS-specific window menus, or to invoke an OS-specific notification mechanism. The title of the HTML document might be the name of the running process. The height and width of the document may be linked to the size of the main application’s window.
While it sounds a little too technical, the motivation is that the Labs folks are looking at ways to “think out of the box” and improve the browser experience.
I see this move a response to a phenomenon I’d call “The Thinning Browser Layer,” where users would like to see less of the browser and just interact with applications. This can be likened to the way the OS has been getting buried deep in our computing experience that it feels like plumbing already.
Whatever happens with The Chromeless Browser, I’m sure Mozilla will move forward with browser innovation with the community.
Ronx
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