WebCore
WebCore is a framework developed by Apple, and licensed under the LGPL, to provide an HTML layout engine for Mac OS X.
WebCore combines the open source KHTML layout engine developed by the KDE project, with an adapter library called KWQ (pronounced Quack). Apple created the KWQ adapter to replace KHTML's dependency on code from the Qt toolkit and other KDE modules. KWQ also presents an Objective-C application programming interface to the C++-based KHTML rendering engine, allowing it be easily referenced by cocoa-based applications.
Apple announced WebCore at the January 7 2003 MacWorld Expo with the release of the Safari web browser. Later that day the developers submitted their changes to the KHTML library to the KDE project [1] (http://lists.kde.org/?l=kfm-devel&m=104196912316326&w=2).
Since then, a number of projects have built on the WebCore library, porting it to other platforms like Nokia or GNUstep, or adopting it for their own browsers like OmniGroup's OmniWeb browser.
Although developers can use WebCore to incorporate an HTML layout engine into their applications, Apple recommend the use of the WebKit application framework which is included by default in recent and future versions of Mac OS X and whose interfaces are stable.
External links
- WebCore (http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/webcore/) - from developer.apple.com
- Introduction to Displaying Web Content (http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/DisplayWebContent/) - from developer.apple.com
- Greetings from the Safari team at Apple Computer (http://lists.kde.org/?l=kfm-devel&m=104197092318639&w=2) - initial communication between WebCore and KHTML teams
- Gtk+ WebCore (http://gtk-webcore.sourceforge.net/) - Nokia port of WebCore
- GNUstep WebKit (http://home.gna.org/gswebkit/) - GNUstep port of WebKit