On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:16 AM, Torsten Bergmann <astares@gmx.de> wrote:

In the days of web based applications and Smalltalk web
frameworks etc. it is often very usefull to open a browser/URL
from within Smalltalk.
Currently one has to load FFI and ExternalWebBrowser
package.

Why not add support into the VM for that. This would
allow us:

�- provide a link to the homepage of Squeak and Pharo
� �in the about box so people can easy access it
� �right from the image

�- to give Seaside/Pier/Iliad/Aida served images
� �a button that opens the browser to the served
� �sites

�- server an html based "Help system" from the image
� �and by choosing "Help" from the menu open it

�- ...

On Windows it is just a ShellExecute API call - dont
know about the other platforms. Is it possible that
VM developers agree on a common protocol and provide
it in the next VM release cycle?

Any comments?

The thing is... why adding it in the vm and not in the image directly via FFI? I mean, you already have support in the vm for that -> FFI plugin (and Native boost in NBCog).� And it's abstract enough to do the job...

I think that in the path to 2.0 there is the idea to have NativeBoost/FFI in the core distribution. It's just that there are plenty of things to do before :P.

Thx
T.