First post, first Big question. html layout engine, looking for ahowto

[The Hajj]

As seen in the subject, I'm curious about layout engines. I've done a
brief search here and there and I can't find what I'm looking for. A
coworker suggest(actuall y made it mandatory I subscribe, btw if you're
reading this from the lone star, "Outage" went from under 400 line to
almost 1500 line in one day!!) this group.

I'm looking for theory and yes some code examples as well but mainly
theory. I want to learn how to do rather than how to use someone's
framework. I hope I'm making sense. Any suggestions?

[Gordon]

Re: First post, first Big question. html layout engine, looking for ahowto

On May 14, 3:21 am, The Hajj <hajji.hims...@ gmail.comwrote:

As seen in the subject, I'm curious about layout engines. I've done a
brief search here and there and I can't find what I'm looking for. A
coworker suggest(actuall y made it mandatory I subscribe, btw if you're
reading this from the lone star, "Outage" went from under 400 line to
almost 1500 line in one day!!) this group.
>
I'm looking for theory and yes some code examples as well but mainly
theory. I want to learn how to do rather than how to use someone's
framework. I hope I'm making sense. Any suggestions?

Are you saying you want to write a HTML layout engine? Sorry, but
this is the wrong group for that, you'll want groups related to HTML
and to programming, as most layout engines are implemented in compiled
languages such as C I'd suggest you look in C related newsgroups.

[The Hajj]

Re: First post, first Big question. html layout engine, looking for ahowto

Yes I want to write one, but using php.

[Gordon]

Re: First post, first Big question. html layout engine, looking for ahowto

On May 14, 1:51 pm, The Hajj <hajji.hims...@ gmail.comwrote:

Yes I want to write one, but using php.

Well regardless of the language used the basic principles should be
the same, but like I said, most existing engines are written to be
part of a browser or HTML editor or similar, so you still might want
to check those out. The Gecko engine is open source so you can
examine its inner workings to your heart's content.

As for doing it in PHP, newer versions of PHP include a DOM
manipulation extension, this is probably the best place to start. I
can't give you more help than that I'm afraid, as I've never used the
DOM extension before, but there should be plenty of quality
documentation on php.net.

[The Hajj]

Re: First post, first Big question. html layout engine, looking for ahowto

On May 14, 10:32 am, Gordon <gordon.mc...@n tlworld.comwrot e:

On May 14, 1:51 pm, The Hajj <hajji.hims...@ gmail.comwrote:
>

Yes I want to write one, but using php.

>
Well regardless of the language used the basic principles should be
the same, but like I said, most existing engines are written to be
part of a browser or HTML editor or similar, so you still might want
to check those out. The Gecko engine is open source so you can
examine its inner workings to your heart's content.
>
As for doing it in PHP, newer versions of PHP include a DOM
manipulation extension, this is probably the best place to start. I
can't give you more help than that I'm afraid, as I've never used the
DOM extension before, but there should be plenty of quality
documentation on php.net.

That's more than what I got off the net! I've used the DOM before and
shoot me later but I like it better in javascript. In javascript you
don't have to iterate over a element to get sub elements. You end up
creating a foreach jungle before you know in php. I hope they improve
it.

[Rik Wasmus]

Re: First post, first Big question. html layout engine, looking for a howto

On Wed, 14 May 2008 22:12:33 +0200, The Hajj <hajji.himself@ gmail.com>
wrote:

On May 14, 10:32 am, Gordon <gordon.mc...@n tlworld.comwrot e:

>On May 14, 1:51 pm, The Hajj <hajji.hims...@ gmail.comwrote:
>>

Yes I want to write one, but using php.

>>
>Well regardless of the language used the basic principles should be
>the same, but like I said, most existing engines are written to be
>part of a browser or HTML editor or similar, so you still might want
>to check those out. The Gecko engine is open source so you can
>examine its inner workings to your heart's content.
>>
>As for doing it in PHP, newer versions of PHP include a DOM
>manipulation extension, this is probably the best place to start. I
>can't give you more help than that I'm afraid, as I've never used the
>DOM extension before, but there should be plenty of quality
>documentatio n on php.net.

>
That's more than what I got off the net! I've used the DOM before and
shoot me later but I like it better in javascript. In javascript you
don't have to iterate over a element to get sub elements. You end up
creating a foreach jungle before you know in php. I hope they improve
it.

Some XPATH wizardry is a certain plus for finding / accessing elements you
either know or suspect to be there directly. Takes a lot of the
edge/foreach loops off :)

For majorly dynamic sites, where everything has to be able to change from
anywhere, I certainlly like PHP's DOM. Might be way over the top for sites
with a more reliable static layout.
--
Rik Wasmus
[SPAM] Now temporarily looking for some smaller PHP/MySQL projects/work to
fund a self developed bigger project, mail me at rik at rwasmus.nl. [/SPAM]