Sidewinder

Determining the behaviour of an application at run-time using parameters is a well-established practice. But whilst it's possible with command-line and server-side applications, the scope for passing information to client-side internet applications is limited. With the growth in internet-facing desktop applications, widgets and gadgets, there is a need to pass parameters directly to the application, rather than via a server, and this post looks at how that might be achieved.

Recently, I've had the chance to spend time on some of the more presentational aspects of Sidewinder and this work has led to the addition of the Sidewinder Application Gallery to the installer. The purpose of the Application Gallery is to act as a showcase for the many different kinds of application that can run in Sidewinder.

This week I am making a start on bringing WebKit into LibRender, the rendering component of Sidewinder. When I'm finished, this will leave our reliance on Microsoft's XML parser as the last remaining hurdle before we can start porting Sidewinder to other platforms. The prospect of finally addressing these two tasks is something that I'm rather excited about.