Re: Feature change or bug - Emacs server

[Ted Zlatanov <tzz@lifelogs.com>]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:09:23 +1000 Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> wrote: 

TC> For emacs to really be a good desktop environment in this age, I
TC> think it must have the ability to provide access to rich web content
TC> - content that uses javascript, html5 etc.

I think within Emacs, w3m and shr.el are sufficient; Firefox and Chrome
are usable in the Emacs-based desktop environment I propose.

Trying to track the pile of... standards... that is HTML plus Javascript
plus CSS is IMO a waste of time.  The battle was lost in 1993 or so; a
web browser is today not so much a program as a compromise over which
standards to follow and to what extent.  So I'd rather let web browsers
do that, and Emacs should not try to do it.

TC> As we can see from the lack of development with emacs w3, there does not
TC> appear to be much interest in developing a full featured web browser in
TC> emacs.

I think w3m has provided 95% of what's needed, and the rest is external.

TC> IMO for emacs to be a really useful desktop environment, it will be
TC> necessary to provide some sort of web interface and is able to
TC> support rich web content.

You said that already :)

TC> WRT things like an emacs panel, its not clear to me what real benefit such
TC> things would have if you are looking at emacs as the desktop environment.
TC> Essentially, what would an emacs panel provide for emacs that you don't
TC> already have or is it just putting together what we do have in a more
TC> convenient form?

emacs-panel.el will provide several things that gnome-panel and friends
provide today.  The goal is to reduce the need for GNOME and KDE (and
others, like XFCE), in the process saving memory, resources, and
providing a richer, more customizable environment.  I listed all the
things emacs-panel.el should provide in
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel/139687 and am working
(slowly) on implementing them.

Ted