OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Internet

Arca Noae should be directly involved in web browser development efforts

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Paul Smedley:
I donn't mean to be negative about the prospects of getting a working browser, but in the 2+ years since I first got Qt6webengine compiling, to the best of my knowledge, despite all code being published in githib, nobody except me has compiled the webengine.

A few others have built qt6base and some of the other dependencies, and have contributed patches, for which I'm grateful.

I've had some success getting it compiling, and through tenacity, have fixed some stuff, but the reality is that I'n *NOT* a programmer. I know literally none of the OS/2 API, and only have very basic knowledge of C/C++. I can hack existing code and maybe get it working, but when it comes to complex code and interpreting crashes, I'm truly not that good.

What I'm trying to say is that right now, I hold out little prospect of us getting a newer browser than the one based on Qt 6.2.6.

The other reality is, that even if we can somehow get a newer version, the 4GB memory limit is a REAL issue.....

Martin Iturbide:
Hello

I also agreed that Arca Noae should bring a developer to the scene to finally got a modern web browser on ArcaOS. Arca Noae is the only one with resources that can help with this, the rest of the community does not generate any incomes to be directly invest on the OS.

I applaud Paul's effort, but as he says, we need someone with understanding of the OS/2 API that can connect the webengine. Even if it is younger developer that does not knows OS/2, at least hire him permanently to learn the OS/2 API in a few months.

Arca Noae strategy at first was to support OS/2 on modern hardware, but it has to change and evolve to include key software development to help people use the OS for their everyday activities.

Regards

Remy:
Hi !

I agree, Paul did a very big and great job on QT6, webengine and the browser is very near to be usable all day.
I'm retired with some health problems and have missing knowledge in the language used for QT6 and OS2 API   

I'm sure that the free low shared memory issue, some silent crashes can be quickly resolved by a developer from ArcaNoae.
May be some issue could be connected with usb or audio drivers (interrupt handing?) - it mostly occurs when moving my usb mouse pointer or viewing youtube videos.   
   

Dariusz Piatkowski:
Martin, everyone...


--- Quote from: Martin Iturbide on April 26, 2025, 05:11:42 pm ---...I also agreed that Arca Noae should bring a developer to the scene to finally got a modern web browser on ArcaOS. Arca Noae is the only one with resources that can help with this, the rest of the community does not generate any incomes to be directly invest on the OS...Even if it is younger developer that does not knows OS/2, at least hire him permanently to learn the OS/2 API in a few months...
--- End quote ---

Umm...folks, we are a DEAD platform...I hate to say it, but that's just the pragmatic part of me screaming in my head!!! LOL

So Martin, as much as I would love to contribute ($$$) again to this effort, the reality is that you can't simply go fishing for a resource, especially someone younger that needs to do a WHOLE STACK worth of learning only to develop a skill that's basically completely unusable anywhere else.

Yup, that's that.

The problem I have always seen as the proverbial "brick wall" of our platform is the fact that we seemingly still do not hava a ready 'out of the box' DEV enviornment. This is a significant mountain to climb for anyone that even attempts to do this.

Look, I've been professionally employed writing code (albeit Oracle PL/SQL DBMS stuff, and some other stuff) but the point is, that's sort of like learning how to ride a bike, and once you figure that out it's just a matter of getting used to different gear sets, handling, etc.

I will tell you this: having tried to upgrade our DISKIO utility (and that thing is a tiny, itsy-bitsy piece of functionality) it's been nearly impossible to find all the pertinent references that allow us to account for how things have changed between the '90s where OS/2 was still a viable platform to how things are today.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a coding Pro, but I'm no newbie when it comes to DEV environments, IDEs, libraries, etc...so why does it always feel like getting anything off the ground on our platform is like climbing Mt. Everest???  :o ::)

Dave Yeo:
As pointed out, we're running an ancient system in PC terms, 20 years since IBM dropped all support, 30 years since most active development was stopped, 35 years since OS/2 2.x was basically designed.
We have a mickey mouse tool chain, Paul has done an excellent job of keeping our GCC fork up to date, but it is a fork and parts of it are ancient. Aout object format as an example with no one having the skills and interest in updating to a more modern object format such as ELF or even what Windows currently uses.
We're also missing other tools to lint our code to find obvious bugs like perhaps a missing free(), and those tools probably would require more then 4GB's of ram, especially to check the Qtwebengine.
Browsers are supported by large organizations, Google, Mozilla and Apple are about it. Even MS switched to being based on Google's work. Development happens fast and just keeping up would take a team of people. We saw with Mozilla, one person trying to keep up leads to burn out.
Our platform is missing modern features. Getting IPC working has proved to be hard, we have to run the browsers in --single-process mode, which is unsupported and may be the source of memory leaks. Seems the problem is our TCPIP stack just craps out on local socket operations that are too big.
For a developer to do much, they would have to be a guru, an OS/2 guru, of which there is a severe shortage of. And they would have to be full time, perhaps with a team. Expensive.
I hate to say it, but a modern browser is not likely. A semi-modern one might be possible. Pale Moon could perhaps be done by a decent OS/2 programmer as an example. All the code is in the Mozilla tree and it is a fork, though lots of changes there. Even then a lot of web sites would  not work.
We're an ancient platform. I'm lucky as most of what I do, our SeaMonkey is good enough with work arounds like my Credit Union where clicking an icon doesn't work but using the menu does.

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