This Is Cool: An HTML5 Back-End For GTK3

Version 3.0 of GTK+ that is set for introduction with GNOME 3.0 already boasts a bold feature set. GTK+ 3.0 is less dependent on X11 (meaning it can work with Wayland and better support on Mac OS X, etc), provides X Input 2 support, uses Cairo more for drawing, eliminates DirectFB support, and boasts cleaner rendering. A new feature though for GTK+3 is being worked on and its quite interesting: an HTML back-end that allows GTK applications to run natively within a HTML5 web-browser off a web server.

The GTK+3 HTML5 back-end is being worked on by Red Hat's Alexander Larsson. This work has been underway for the past few weeks as is explained in this blog post and best summarized by this video below.

As mentioned on the GTK-devel mailing list, this HTML5 back-end work has been pushed upstream and is currently living under a GTK+3 branch under the name "Broadway" in Git. This back-end currently works with Mozilla Firefox 4.0, but other web-browsers will be supported eventually.