[webkit-dev] Questions about WebKit

[Brent Fulgham]

Audrey,

After rereading this, I have a couple of more comments.

On Jul 10, 2008, at 4:00 AM, Nemix wrote:
> I have to develop a Java application that will run on Mac OS,  
> Windows and
> embedded system (mobile, PDA,...).
> I haven't develop for this kind of application yet, so I need some  
> help  ;)
>
> Someone told me about WebKit to develop a cross platform  
> application. This
> person said that it will probably met my needs (or the needs of my  
> boss...).
> Have I got to develop just one application or one for Mac OS+Windows  
> and one
> for embedded system ?


First, WebKit is a rendering engine.  As such, it does provide  
features that would permit you to build a cross-platform interface  
using, for example, JavaScript and HTML to build a user interface.  In  
fact, I am pursuing something along these lines at the moment.

It's not "cross platform" in the way of something like the Qt toolkit,  
which allows you to build an application and recompile for various  
platforms without modification.  It's more like a building block that  
could be used as part of a larger cross platform application.

Think in terms of something like libJPEG; you can use it on multiple  
platforms, but it has to be individual compiled for those platforms.   
You will need a different 'build' of WebKit for each platform (one for  
Windows, Linux, Embedded OS, etc.)

> But I need to manipulate video, audio and pdf files too.

I don't believe WebKit provides any built-in support for PDF, Audio,  
or Video.  These are generally handled by platform-specific services  
(such as PDFKit on Mac OS).

> http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2007/12/16/html5-video-support-in-gtkwebkit
> I think it means that I have to create an HTML page with stream to  
> play in
> argument. No ?

Note that here the audio/video streaming is actually being handled by  
GStreamer.  WebKit just passes the stream on to this system service.   
WebKit may be able to 'understand' and process the stream, but to get  
anything interesting to happen, you must have underlying software to  
actually interpret and display the media content.

> 3. http://trolltech.com/products/qt
> Do you think it is possible to use it in my case ?

This might be your best bet; Qt provides a lot of what you are asking  
about (including built-in WebKit), as well as being available on a  
variety of platforms.

-Brent