Mozilla introduced “Chromeless”, an initiative that challenges developers to create their own browser, using HTML, CSS, JavaScript and other web technologies.
As explained by those responsible in a message published online, the objective of the project, still in the experimental phase, is to allow the user interface to be removed from a browser and replace it with a completely flexible platform that will allow the creation of new interfaces by the programmers.
The strategy also includes providing a tool that allows programmers to create their own interfaces navigation, using standard Web technologies, such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Currently the interface Firefox is mostly based on XUL (XML User Interface Language), which is also one of the main tools used in the development of browser extensions.
Although the language allows some customization of the interface, it has certain limitations and barriers, in addition to being only fully supported by the Gecko rendering engine – making some of the applications not work in browsers such as Chrome and Safari or Internet Explorer, which they turn to others.
The project’s name, “Chromeless”, comes from the idea of ​​creating a solution that does not depend on XUL-based applications.
Thus, the pre-alpha version of the platform uses iFrames – instead of loading XUL, the application is run from an HTML file. With HTML-based browser features, developers can now create their own browsers using Web technologies. Mozilla shows an example, which we provide below.
