3 ms·

The title of this story is highly misleading. MS have said since around september last year that if you want to target Windows on ARM specifically, then you hav

by damian2000 15y ago

The title of this story is highly misleading. MS have said since around september last year that if you want to target Windows on ARM specifically, then you have to write Metro style apps, using the new WinRT API. Existing desktop apps are not supported - you need to rewrite them. And this applies to all software developers, not just Mozilla/Firefox. "The ARM version of Windows 8 will not support desktop applications. So if you want to write an app and you want it to work on any version of Windows then it has to be a Metro app." -- http://stackoverflow.com/a/7426405/507950 http://stackoverflow.com/a/7426405/507950

dbcooper 15y ago
The issue is that Microsoft will not give access to the API's on ARM systems that are required to do this. http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2012/05/firefox-on-windows-o.html http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2012/05/firefox-... "Here's what's going on. For Windows on X86, Microsoft is giving other browsers basically the same privileges it gives IE. It's not great that you don't get those privileges (certain API access) unless you're the default browser and I think that's deeply unfair (a post for later,) but at least we're able to build a competitive browser and ship it to Windows users on x86 chips. But on ARM chips, Microsoft gives IE access special APIs absolutely necessary for building a modern browser that it won't give to other browsers so there's no way another browser can possibly compete with IE in terms of features or performance. This is in direct violation of the promises they made to developers, users, and OEMs about browser choice in documents which mysteriously disappeared from Microsoft's site -- remember this? I sure do."
- damian2000 15y ago
  Okay, didn't know that - that sounds nuts on microsoft's part.
  - dbcooper 15y ago
    It's a strange move - no Chrome and Firefox is a big turn-off for me.
    - damian2000 15y ago
      Yeah having a decent choice of browsers is important.. Android would probably be leading the way so far.
khuey 15y ago
That's all great, but WinRT does not appear to have the necessary APIs to support a third party browser. There's some detailed reading available at [1]. The tl;dr is that APIs like "allocate some memory here, and allow me to execute it later" that one would need to write a JIT are not available to applications in WinRT. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows_8_Integration https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows_8_Integration

dbcooper 15y ago

The issue is that Microsoft will not give access to the API's on ARM systems that are required to do this. http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2012/05/firefox-on-windows-o.html http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/asa/archives/2012/05/firefox-... "Here's what's going on. For Windows on X86, Microsoft is giving other browsers basically the same privileges it gives IE. It's not great that you don't get those privileges (certain API access) unless you're the default browser and I think that's deeply unfair (a post for later,) but at least we're able to build a competitive browser and ship it to Windows users on x86 chips. But on ARM chips, Microsoft gives IE access special APIs absolutely necessary for building a modern browser that it won't give to other browsers so there's no way another browser can possibly compete with IE in terms of features or performance. This is in direct violation of the promises they made to developers, users, and OEMs about browser choice in documents which mysteriously disappeared from Microsoft's site -- remember this? I sure do."

damian2000 15y ago
Okay, didn't know that - that sounds nuts on microsoft's part.
- dbcooper 15y ago
  It's a strange move - no Chrome and Firefox is a big turn-off for me.
  - damian2000 15y ago
    Yeah having a decent choice of browsers is important.. Android would probably be leading the way so far.

khuey 15y ago

That's all great, but WinRT does not appear to have the necessary APIs to support a third party browser. There's some detailed reading available at [1]. The tl;dr is that APIs like "allocate some memory here, and allow me to execute it later" that one would need to write a JIT are not available to applications in WinRT. [1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows_8_Integration https://wiki.mozilla.org/Windows_8_Integration