Member Avatar for Barefootsanders

Hey everyone,

I currently have in interest in making a specialized internet browser however I don't know where to start. I was hoping to create a basic one and then add functionallity to it as time goes on. I have knowledge in C/C++ and some PHP. I know I'm going to have to lean a lot more but I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!
-Barefoot

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jbennet

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Short roadmap oriented to a working prototype, with tradeoffs and concrete next steps.

As has C/C++ experience, and as observed, there are two broad routes: build a UI around an existing browser engine, or try to modify/build an engine itself. For almost every practical project the fastest way to validate ideas is to prototype with an existing engine so you can focus on your specialty feature instead of reimplementing parsing, layout, JS, networking and security. A good primer on the pieces you’ll be touching is How browsers work.

Useful embedding options to evaluate (each has documentation and samples): Chrome-based embedding (Chromium Embedded Framework), platform WebView controls (for Windows the WebView2 control), and higher-level frameworks that ship a web engine (Qt WebEngine, Electron). Embedding gives modern web compatibility and saves enormous effort, but you still must handle process model, data/storage paths, certificate handling and update/patch workflows. See the CEF repo for C++ examples: https://github.com/chromiumembedded/cef and Microsoft’s WebView2 docs for Windows integration: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webview2/.

If the goal is to modify an engine or write one from scratch, prepare for a large long-term project: study tokenizer/parser, DOM tree, layout, painting/compositing, JavaScript engine integration, and sandboxing. Building Chromium/Firefox locally is time-consuming; start by building their minimal sample apps and read the architecture docs before changing anything. Also check licensing (open engines use different licenses) and the security implications of shipping your own build.

Concrete next steps: pick the smallest embedding that matches your target platform, run its sample app, implement a minimal shell (address bar, navigation, render view, devtools), then add your special feature. Instrument and test early for security and performance.

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Member Avatar for jbennet

well easiest option would be to make your own custom frontend around an existing internet engine (you can do this in visual studo using IE, for example) or if your feeling more adventurous you could get hold of the mozilla sourcecode

Member Avatar for Barefootsanders

Thanks. Ill see what I can come up with. Any other suggestions?

Member Avatar for jbennet

yeah, its very hard to write a whole browser engine yourself so i think it would be wise to vhoose the oath of either modifying mozilla (god bless open source :)) or using something like Visual Studio to make a custom in terface to IE.

I did the latter option in VB.NET lataly, i built a whole custom (ie6 looking lol) interface to IE as my dad didnt liek IE7s new look

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