Web Browser GIMP Extension v0.3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
by Misha Dynin <misha@xcf.berkeley.edu>
Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Web Browser GIMP extension is not an HTML browser (at least, not yet ;-);
it's just an interface to an external web browser that allows GIMP, using
a PDB call, to instruct a browser to open a URL.
Currently, it works with Netscape, version 1.1 or above, using a protocol
described in detail on http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/x-remote.html.
If Netscape is not running already, the extension starts it, with a URL
as a command-line argument.
Possible uses of this extension:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Providing a set of bookmarks, accessible from the GIMP.
This is implemented -- web-browser.scm, included in a distribution,
builds a menu of frequently accessed GIMP websites. It's cool.
* Implementing GIMP online help.
This is the most promising use of the extension. GIMP plugins and
main application can provide "Help" and "About" buttons, which,
when pressed, cause a corresponding page to be opened in Netscape.
This is doable now; the only problem is to design a standard way
to do that. It would be great to be able to access the documentation
either from the web site or, if installed, from local disk.
(add gimp-path to .gimprc; use as prefix in gimp-help() function?)
I request input of experienced GIMP developers on this.
* Providing a preview in a web browser.
Large percentage of the graphics designed in GIMP ends up on the WWW.
With this extension, you can write a script that automatically
launches a web browser and displays the image as it will be viewed.
Imagine: have a set of scripts defining page style, change one attribute,
and have GIMP not only recompute all the images, but also automagically
open the redesigned page design in a browser window!
How to use the extension:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Interactively:
select Xtns -> Web Browser -> Open URL, type in the URL, press Ok;
* Non-interactively:
use procedure extension-web-browser (url, new-window), which takes
as the first argument a URL of a page to open, and second argument
is a boolean which specifies whether you want the browser to open
a new window with a document (new-window == TRUE) or use current
window (new-window == FALSE). If the browser is not already running,
new-window value is ignored.
I didn't provide a more detailed API on purpose -- making it more
detailed would make it more Netscape-specific, and I want to be able
to add support for other browsers. If someone has a convincing argument
for adding more functions (i.e. to check whether browser is running, etc.),
email me.
Status:
~~~~~~
Netscape support is stable. I haven't tested it on many platforms,
but I don't expect any problems. What other browsers, if any, do we
need to support?
Included "web-browser.scm" has links to the most popular (IMHO)
GIMP pages. I hope that the extension will get incorporated into
the main source tree, and I will not have to maintain the bookmarks
list.
Need help system design based on the web browser extension.
If some GIMP guru (petm? spencer?) tells me what's the right way to do it,
I can implement the help system.
I didn't write a proof-of-concept implementation of the preview
script mainly because I am lazy. If someone writes such a script --
please email it to me.
Building Web Browser Extension
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Compiling it should be fairly easy. I've included Makefile diff's (for
the Makefile in plug-ins directory). webbrowser requires libXmu;
it should be linked with -lXmu.
Enclosed script, web-browser.scm, creates a bookmarks menu in
Xnts/Web Browser/*. Note that there is a bug in script-fu
(at least as of version 0.99.15) which prevents it from handling
scripts with zero arguments. Enclosed patch to
plug-ins/script-fu/script-fu-scripts.c fixes that bug. Without
this patch, web-browser.scm won't work.
Where To Find This Extension
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The extension can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.xcf.berkeley.edu/pub/misha/webbrowser.tar.gz
For the up-to-date information about this extension, check out
http://www.xcf.berkeley.edu/~misha/gimp/
Author
~~~~~~
This extension is written by Misha Dynin <misha@xcf.berkeley.edu>.
I used the code from GUMP plugin, by Adrian Likins <aklikins@eos.ncsu.edu>.
Netscape interface code copyright:
* Copyright <20> 1996 Netscape Communications Corporation, all rights reserved.
* Created: Jamie Zawinski <jwz@netscape.com>, 24-Dec-94.
*
* Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its
* documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that
* the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
* copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
* documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this
* software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or
* implied warranty.
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