<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Mozilla has officially revealed \"Chromeless,\" an experimental project by the Firefox creator that lets developers create their own browser interfaces using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other web technologies.\nCurrently, Mozilla's Firefox browser utilizes XUL (XML User Interface Language) to implement much of its interface.  It also serves as one of the primary tools for constructing Mozilla extensions.  The result is a somewhat customizable browser interface, but XUL presents certain limitations and barriers in the path to full customization (they can't access privileged XPCOM objects).  \nIn addition, only the Gecko engine fully supports XUL, meaning that applications built in the framework aren't accessible on WebKit-based browsers (Chrome and Safari) or Trident-based browsers (Internet Explorer).  This is where the term \"chrome\" comes from \u2014 it is not a reference to the Google browser, but to XUL applications that run locally. \nMozilla sees a problem in all of this.  It believes that it should be easier to customize and create a web browser.  Thus the company has decided to start an experiment in Mozilla Labs codenamed \"Chromeless.\"  According to Mozilla's Marcio Galli, one of the leaders of the Chromeless Project, \"we intend to create an experimental toolkit which will allow developers to build their own web browser using standard web technologies: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.\"\nThe pre-alpha experiment focuses on a few major changes to the browser as a platform.  Instead of running on XUL, the chromeless platform utilizes iframes.  Instead of loading XUL, the application is executed from an HTML file.  By making the browser's basic functionality accessible via HTML, developers can use standard web technologies to essentially create their own browser.  Mozilla's example of this was a browser application utilizing page thumbnails as browser tabs (shown above).\nThe project has a long way to go, though.  From the Mozilla Labs blog post:\n\"Currently we have a functional pre-alpha prototype that is capable of loading an HTML page and rendering browser UI. In the coming months we will add specific APIs to allow for more meaningful browser construction. We\u2019ll investigate how we can integrate security features to keep Web content in a minimally privileged sandbox. Finally, we aim to wrap this exploration up into an accessible SDK to make it easy to get started with remixing the browser.\"\nWe expect to hear a lot more about the Chromeless Project in the next few months as the platform develops.  If you're a developer interested in getting started with this project, you can start by grabbing the source code at GitHub.   Be warned, though: this is a pre-alpha project, and a lot of things will change very quickly."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2010/10/21/mozilla-chromeless/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable)>