Re: Why Emacs should have a good web-browser

[Adam Wołk]

Dnia 21-07-2009 o 22:02:28 Robert D. Crawford <address@hidden>  
napisał(a):

> Adam Wołk <address@hidden> writes:
>
> > I believe that having a good default and supported browser that
> > integrates well with Emacs would be great.
>
> Correct me if I am wrong, but this does not sound like "default" but
> more like "de facto," the difference being that we are talking about
> separate applications that run independently of each other.

They run independently as applications but thanks to extensions like  
mozrepl they can communicate the same way as Emacs + SLIME can with many  
Common Lisp implementations. So really embracing mozrepl would allow  
building a bridge between regular Emacs usage and browsing, focusing on  
conkeror allows us to have a more familiar environment both for usage and  
extending.

> I will not pretend to understand everything that is being discussed.  I
> am interested as a blind user, dependent on w3 and or emacs-w3m.  So
> far, I don't see how I will be able to use emacspeak to speak the
> contents of a conqueror buffer like I can any other emacs buffer.  Am I
> mistaken?
>
> rdc

quote from mozrepl website:
> Connect to Firefox and other Mozilla apps, explore and modify them from  
> the inside, while they're running.
> Execute Javascript, play with browser GUI, sneak into HTML pages,  
> examine functions and variables, redefine them on the fly, hot-fix
> bugs, ... MozRepl itself is programmable from within MozRepl.

Conkeror can be connected both ways with Emacs using mozrepl so I can  
imagine (but can't confirm) that one could implement a feature that would  
send website text content directly to emacspeak.

So my guess is that You could not only pass every browser buffer to  
emacspeak but also wouldn't have problems with pages using heavy  
javascript and flash for navigation. Before You take my words for granted  
it would be wise to wait for confirmation of this possibility from someone  
with actual experience with mozrepl.

I also saw a browser extension for Firefox called 'It's all text' that  
could send text input elements from forms and allow to edit them in  
external editors, sending it back when the editor saved the file. If  
exporting text from regular Firefox this way is possible then I assume  
that the website text content wouldn't be much different.