[cap-talk] browsers as operating system

[Rob Meijer]

On Thu, September 11, 2008 10:25, David-Sarah Hopwood wrote:
> John Carlson wrote:
>> I think we have to start thinking about web browsers as operating
>> systems.  The have multiple processes.  They should support any
>> language coming over the the network "in rendering engine space",
>> whether it be HTML, XML, CSS, XSLT, XPath, JavaScript, ECMAScript,
>> ActionScript, Java, E, Joe-E, C#, C++, C, etc.
>
> Web browsers are complicated enough just supporting HTML, XML, CSS,
> XSLT, XPath, JavaScript, Java, and various plug-ins.
>
> Why on earth would we want to make them more complicated by adding
> E, C#, C++, and C, before fixing the existing problems? Especially
> given that C++ and C are not even memory-safe?

There is a lot you can do at the process level of granularity using non
memory safe languages if the processes receive all their authority by
means of IPC.
There is a lot of code written in C(++), that may be very useful in
plugins, and would be very hard to rewrite in javascript. Even with memory
safe languages, putting tasks in separate confined processes enhances
system integrity and is good for POLA. IMO such privilege separation at
the process level of granularity is a good foundation to build on. If you
have this foundation right, you could write relatively simple components
in C++, or more complex ones in memory safe or even O-Cap languages.


Rob