Wii Firefox?

I don't have anything against Opera. I would just prefer firefox or chrome over it anyday. Plus, a homebrew internet browser would really make the homebrew scene take off.

Wii Firefox. Hmm. That was the first thing I thought when I tried the Internet Channel, it's not comfortable to use at all. And I'm used to using Opera at the PC. But as cr08 states, there's a reason for this not being developed.

@whodares: Dude, I'm on the internet channel all the time, and I know every single bug, design flaw, and error. I can tell you about the scrolling glitch, the upside-down cursor glitch, the favorites glitch, and the network error. Let me give you a rundown of every problem:
If you use the USB keyboard to type something and you put the Wiimote down, the cursor is upside-down and it takes forever to return to normal
Sometimes on pages that take awhile to load, like YouTube, and you try to scroll, the scrolling suddenly stops and and your cursor will still be the "B" cursor. Even if you let go of "B", it still does that until you wave the Wiimote around alot.
And let's not forget my favorite, the favorites glitch. This is like missingNO. but for the internet channel. If you click on a favorite icon that takes awhile to load, you can see that the favorites page zooms in to however much you had zoomed on your website before. You can scroll around the favorites page and EVERYTHING will be screwed up; random white boxes, and so on.
Next, there's the network error. Occasionally, and it could be just me, but the network will just suddenly disconnect for a split second and then come back again.
Next, we have the flaw where if your Wiimote disconnects while you are typing with the onscreen keyboard, the typing sound effect will stop. Nothing major, just thought I'd point it out.
Every so often while watching flash videos, the sound will get out of sync with the picture. This is EXTREMELY annoying!
On top of that, there's no Java, Flash 8 or higher, no shockwave, no NOTHING.

If we made our own browser, we could make several very neccessary improvements! EG, more than one search engine! The ability to disable the onscreen keyboard if you have a USB keyboard, tabbed browsing, keyboard shortcuts, copying/pasting, and SOOO much more!


Note: I am typing this message on the Internet Channel. I must say, I reccommend getting it if you don't have it, because it is the only web browser on the Wii.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2008 09:29PM by strongfan.

Tabbed browsing is a must have for a homebrew internet browser.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/06/2008 10:44PM by Arikado.

You guys realize that there will be no Adobe Flash plugin on any homebrew browser? We would be restricted to only open source alternatives which do not support anything better than what the Internet Channel offers since Abode's version is closed source and they have not released a plugin that will run on the Wii.

@strongfan: Most of what you have posted are really nitpicks and really should not happen under NORMAL use. If you are actively trying to FIND these supposed 'bugs', that's a whole different matter altogether.

The upside down cursor problem for example is not Internet Channel exclusive, but happens in many other places on the Wii which use Ninty's own wiimote pointer library. Try it for yourself sometime.

Another thing is that a MODERN internet browser is much more than simply connecting to an address, feeding a GET request, and then parsing the resulting html data. Even if you were to create your own from the ground up, you'd have to take all this into account on top of a buttload of other details.

And of course the plugin situation comes up again. Without having access to the source code for common plugins like flash, you are never going to get it into your new browser. And 99% of people here would be selfish enough to give you tons of flack over the missing functionality and they'd bitch and moan and just go right back to the Internet Channel.

The idea of a homebrew internet browser in general is commendable, but it is by no means 'easy' while trying to keep in all of the expected functionality. And most of the people here screaming for it at the top of their lungs have hardly any programming experience and expect it to be real easy to do.

Like I keep repeating: You want it so bad? Make it yourself! Nobody else is gonna bow to your whim unless you pony up a good bribe for it.

I wonder if it's more feasible to port Bunjalloo, the DS homebrew browser? It works very well, and runs on the DS which has only 4MB RAM. A program designed for the touch screen might be easier to adapt to Wiimote input than one designed for a mouse (as touch screens, like Wiimotes, aren't terribly accurate), and since the DS doesn't provide any OS or graphic/network/etc routines, it may be easier to adapt a program which has all of those built in than one that expects an OS to supply them. (i.e. the program may be designed in such a way that it's fairly easy to replace them with Wii versions.)

Now THAT is a good idea!

And my main idea hear is that if we make our own, then it would be easier to improve it to fit our needs, rather than Nintendo making one or two versions and then abandoning it all together.

We should come up with a simple, strong design of what everyone wants. Then a simple plan of how one would go about coding such a large project. This would make it more friendly for someone to jump into and code.

Wishlist:
No onscreen keyboard for those who have a USB keyboard(so that you can edit stuff and highlight it and whatever)
Tabbed browsing
Java support.
Maybe flash of some kind
Copy/Past/Cut functions
Add Gamecube Controller support
It you press "enter" on the USB keyboard while in a search box, it will act as if you hit "search"

Quote
strongfan
It appears that it isn't. That makes me wonder how Nintendo got it.

Nintendo ordered the browser and paid for it.

And I am with Whodares: nothings wrong with the Internet Channel, yet.

YES!!!!!!!! And since it appears to be open source, we can add all the stuff we want to it! This is going to be great once he's finished with the basic design!

I don't know when that happened. Occasionally, I browse around wiibrew and I happened to stumble upon it. I figured everyone would like to know.

Ah, yes this is a great bit of news! As soon as hes finished with design and function, i would like to take that hoe for a test drive.