I don't know. I found this stuff interesting so I thought that other people would find this stuff interesting, so it's a FYI.
XUL is a XML-based user interface that is created and used to by Mozilla.org for it's software. You see it's based on established webstandards like CSS and javascripting...
Basicly in addition to rendering webpages, Mozilla/Firefox uses the same rendering technology to render itself. The toolbars and google url window and all that is basicly a sort of webpage. You can actually modify it's behavior and look by specifiying custom CSS stylesheets for the actual "application" part of the window.. That file is located in your profiles directory and is called userChrome.css and a sample one is made aviable with every default install with a slightly modified name.
Well Mozilla has worked on and improved the XUL stuff and it's archatecture to be more then just a Firefox browser. They have created a entire framework for building application frontends and tying them into various application languages thru stuff like XPCOM
So using it you can build web-based applications that open up in their own window as a sort-of standalone application, run applications from within a Firefox/Mozilla-based browser, or use it to build completely independant applications that a user can easy download and install. And as a plus it's completely cross-platform. The rendering stuff is supported in every platform you can run Mozilla/Firefox web browsers in.
If your interested I gathered a few links for more information:
mozilla.org resources for XUL, them XML-based user interface language. (here are links to other parts of Mozilla's technology), various Mozilla projects
XULplanet.com.
Note that there are more renderers and support behind XUL then just Mozilla. Check out the Open XUL alliance
Joy of XUL (see the case study were a corporation built a application using XUL interface in Linux and then ported it to Windows and Mac in less then a week.)
more links from mozilla.org
All in all I think that XUL would be a great thing for intranet applications and such and avoid creating dependancies on any one vendor or operating system. After all most people here are already using a XUL application: Mozilla/Firefox.
mozdev.org has a few examples of stuff. Including various games built using Mozilla
Most are pretty ghetto, but I like the pacman clone game.
A fairly good example of a more full application is fireftp. It's currently beta and it's a ftp application that runs using firefox. You install it and restart firefox and you can go to tools --> fireftp and it will open up in a new tab. It's a nice little beta ftp client.
this company builds Linux-based application/file/email/backup servers that serves up crossplatform (Windows/Mac/Linux) applications like Office productivity tools, email clients, database application and a bunch of other stuff using XUL and Mozilla technology with other open source stuff (Mysql, Apache server, etc). The software portion is called the OEone platform.
another commercial XUL-based application is Komodo. It's a IDE-type developement platform that can run in Windows, Solaris, or Linux. They have a personal version that is free (no-cost) to use for non-commercial purposes.
komodo review
So maybe somebody will find this stuff usefull. Beats waiting around for XAML I guess.
Now I don't understand everything it does.. But I am pretty sure that it's not for building applications, you'd use C++ or javascripting or python or whatever for doing that, what you use XUL for is just creating user interfaces.
A alternative would be something like XForms which is a up and coming W3C-sanctioned web standard. It's a XML-based markup language, or something like that. Something like that would be usefull for building rich ui and applications to be used on websites and such. It's more a overall framework for building applications. Plus it's not Mozilla-centric. It's something that is for building real standards and is supported by people like IBM, Apple and Oracle as well as gaining future support from Mozilla/Firefox once it's standard is finalized.
I don't know, seems interesting to me and have interesting possiblities.
XUL is a XML-based user interface that is created and used to by Mozilla.org for it's software. You see it's based on established webstandards like CSS and javascripting...
Basicly in addition to rendering webpages, Mozilla/Firefox uses the same rendering technology to render itself. The toolbars and google url window and all that is basicly a sort of webpage. You can actually modify it's behavior and look by specifiying custom CSS stylesheets for the actual "application" part of the window.. That file is located in your profiles directory and is called userChrome.css and a sample one is made aviable with every default install with a slightly modified name.
Well Mozilla has worked on and improved the XUL stuff and it's archatecture to be more then just a Firefox browser. They have created a entire framework for building application frontends and tying them into various application languages thru stuff like XPCOM
So using it you can build web-based applications that open up in their own window as a sort-of standalone application, run applications from within a Firefox/Mozilla-based browser, or use it to build completely independant applications that a user can easy download and install. And as a plus it's completely cross-platform. The rendering stuff is supported in every platform you can run Mozilla/Firefox web browsers in.
If your interested I gathered a few links for more information:
mozilla.org resources for XUL, them XML-based user interface language. (here are links to other parts of Mozilla's technology), various Mozilla projects
XULplanet.com.
Note that there are more renderers and support behind XUL then just Mozilla. Check out the Open XUL alliance
Joy of XUL (see the case study were a corporation built a application using XUL interface in Linux and then ported it to Windows and Mac in less then a week.)
more links from mozilla.org
All in all I think that XUL would be a great thing for intranet applications and such and avoid creating dependancies on any one vendor or operating system. After all most people here are already using a XUL application: Mozilla/Firefox.
mozdev.org has a few examples of stuff. Including various games built using Mozilla
Most are pretty ghetto, but I like the pacman clone game.
A fairly good example of a more full application is fireftp. It's currently beta and it's a ftp application that runs using firefox. You install it and restart firefox and you can go to tools --> fireftp and it will open up in a new tab. It's a nice little beta ftp client.
this company builds Linux-based application/file/email/backup servers that serves up crossplatform (Windows/Mac/Linux) applications like Office productivity tools, email clients, database application and a bunch of other stuff using XUL and Mozilla technology with other open source stuff (Mysql, Apache server, etc). The software portion is called the OEone platform.
another commercial XUL-based application is Komodo. It's a IDE-type developement platform that can run in Windows, Solaris, or Linux. They have a personal version that is free (no-cost) to use for non-commercial purposes.
komodo review
So maybe somebody will find this stuff usefull. Beats waiting around for XAML I guess.
Now I don't understand everything it does.. But I am pretty sure that it's not for building applications, you'd use C++ or javascripting or python or whatever for doing that, what you use XUL for is just creating user interfaces.
A alternative would be something like XForms which is a up and coming W3C-sanctioned web standard. It's a XML-based markup language, or something like that. Something like that would be usefull for building rich ui and applications to be used on websites and such. It's more a overall framework for building applications. Plus it's not Mozilla-centric. It's something that is for building real standards and is supported by people like IBM, Apple and Oracle as well as gaining future support from Mozilla/Firefox once it's standard is finalized.
I don't know, seems interesting to me and have interesting possiblities.
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