Wishlist: Plug-in to embed Multivalent browser?

oblomov · Post by *oblomov » 2003-04-04, 15:46 UTC

There is an extremely powerful and versatile viewer: the Multivalent browser ( http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~phelps/Multivalent/ ); it would be very nice if TC could embed it in its viewer interface. Multivalent has been designed to be embeddable, but the problem is that it's a Java application, and therefore it is designed to be embedded in Swig applications. Could a "bridge" to Multivalent be built for TC?

Horst.Epp · Post by *Horst.Epp » 2003-04-04, 17:35 UTC

What should be the benefit of this viewer ?

There are already viewer plugins for most files.
If you configure IEVIEW for example you can view
office files, PDF (thru acrobat reader) and anything which is supported by QuickViewPlus. For sources there are SynUS and others.
Graphics are fully supported vy Irfanview or XNview.

oblomov · Post by *oblomov » 2003-04-04, 23:50 UTC

The IEVIEW plugin is quite interesting; even though I don't like its reliance on the MS Explorer/IE combo (mostly for security reasons, but also because I don't like the tools in and by themselves), it is extremely powerful (even so more if ActiveX control are activated: by using for example OpenOffice.org 1.1beta one can access all MS and OOo documents quite easily; of course this sets some security problems as well.)

But Multivalent browser has its own advantages: support for uncommon document formats like DVI (which I use a lot) or XDOCS/PDA; a consistent interface for all supported formats (HTML, PDF, DVI, XDOCS, etc), some very interesting tools ("lenses"), etc. While it would not necessarily replace the other viewers, it would be a very interesting complement. But the main question (this time aimed at developers) is: considering that it's a Java application, can the thing actually be done?

Gregory · Post by *Gregory » 2003-04-05, 09:50 UTC

oblomov wrote: Multivalent browser has its own advantages: support for uncommon document formats like DVI (which I use a lot)

That would be great to have DVI support in TC. I don't think it's very uncommon format. Every person who deals with TeX uses it.

oblomov · Post by *oblomov » 2003-04-05, 12:26 UTC

Gregory wrote:
oblomov wrote: Multivalent browser has its own advantages: support for uncommon document formats like DVI (which I use a lot)
That would be great to have DVI support in TC. I don't think it's very uncommon format. Every person who deals with TeX uses it.

Well, this is precisely why I'm interested in it

Ok, maybe rather than "uncommon" I should have said "non mainstream" ...

Geoffrey · Post by *Geoffrey » 2003-04-07, 07:03 UTC

It should be possible to write native (C/C++) code that instantiates a JVM, and to embed this browser in there.
What I'm wondering then is if this would not be too heavy or to slow to be useful.

Regards,
Geoffrey

oblomov · Post by *oblomov » 2003-04-07, 12:28 UTC

Geoffrey wrote:It should be possible to write native (C/C++) code that instantiates a JVM, and to embed this browser in there.
What I'm wondering then is if this would not be too heavy or to slow to be useful.

Well, it wouldn't be fast for sure, but would it be slower than, say, IEVIEW?

Geoffrey · Post by *Geoffrey » 2003-04-09, 07:07 UTC

Indeed IEView is quite slow, and I don't use it very often.

However, I was just expressing my concern about the speed of a Java-based plugin. Now, I don't know anything about Multivalent browser. Is it freeware/open source ? It (or parts of it) may be written in C/C++ and embedded into Java (though I doubt it), in which case one could base on this native code to write such a plugin.

You should call for volunteers

Regards,
Geoffrey

oblomov · Post by *oblomov » 2003-04-09, 12:48 UTC

The Multivalent browser (whose link is there in the first post

) is fully written in Java; source is available (though I'm not sure about the license type). Oh, I don't think it would be fast as a plugin --it's slow as a standalone program already!

Post by *ghisler(Author) » 2003-04-09, 20:46 UTC

You can still define it as an external viewer for some file types via Configuration - Viewer/Editor, and then open it with Alt+F3...

oblomov · Post by *oblomov » 2003-04-10, 11:09 UTC

ghisler(Author) wrote:You can still define it as an external viewer for some file types via Configuration - Viewer/Editor, and then open it with Alt+F3...

Now that's a pretty good idea! I had never realized it was possible to have different external viewers for different filetypes!

Of course having it integrated as a plug-in would allow it to be used in the quickview panel ... but in the mean time that's a pretty good solution, thanks!