Firefox.html: rebuilding Firefox UI in HTML

Firefox.html is an experiment, a proof of concept: trying to re-implement the Firefox UI in HTML, as an app (like FxOS apps). Code, builds, screenshots: https://github.com/paulrouget/firefox.html We are working hard on making HTML fast and rich enough to build a whole operating system (Firefox OS) and a browser (Firefox OS' browser). With a UI in HTML leveraging the Browser API, we could drop XUL and close the gap between B2G and Firefox Desktop. And eventually be able to render Firefox Desktop with Servo. And maybe, one day, host the Firefox UI online (trusted app?). The only purpose of Firefox.html, at this stage, is to yield a discussion about the future of XUL. I'm fully aware of the massive amount work required to ever reach the quality of Firefox Desktop (we're talking about years of work), but I thought that we might want to talk about it. What do you think? Is it something we want to try? Or maybe it's too early, or maybe we don't want to use HTML for this, use native toolkits, or just keep XUL. ~~~ Some techical details: - code is ugly. Don't build stuff on top of that. It's just an experiment. - The runtime is just Firefox Desktop with some tweaks (mostly ajusting how apps are handled on Desktop). - The app (app://browser.gaiamobile.org/manifest.webapp) is loaded in a <iframe>. - The only remaining XUL piece is the top level window. It's a blank window that position the iframe over the window controls, to allow HTML to draw in the titlebar. - The app itself uses the Browser API. -- Paul