Compiling WebKit for Windows8-Metro Environment

Question

I would like to ask the SO community for the following information: - Is it possible to compile WebKit for Windows8-Metro Environment, either in the form of a WinRT component or just as a linked library in a C++/XAML application? - Which are the main steps to achieve this goal? - Which are the possible things that would make this not possible or very difficult? - Is it an endeavour someone is working on just now? - Is it possible to gather interested people so they work on this?

Answer 1

I think you will not be able to just "compile" Webkit for WinRT/Metro Style. Metro Style applications are restricted in the kind of API calls they can make, for example there is no GDI/GDI+/MFC for WinRT. WebKit has several building modes that you can use, you can either build it using QT as rendering engine, or using GTK, or plain GDI, but on all those cases, when you create new builds for Windows OSes you will be using GDI at the very end.

Nevertheless, you could modify Webkit source code and add a new rendering engine that uses WinRT new APIs. You could probably become famous if you do.

As a side note, even when there is a "Windows Store" version of Chrome, by looking at the source code of Chromium it seems to me that this version is just a simple app launcher that communicates with the "normal" desktop version using an IPC channel. It does not appear to be a real Windows Store build of the whole source code.

Answer 2

I am not sure if the WinRT environment will allow this, but there is a project called Awesomium that is a wrapper around Google Chrome and Google Chrome is based on WebKit I think. It also has a .NET wrapper, so you can embedd it onto your .NET app.

I never tried using it, neither I know about if this library is applicable with WinRT, but at least it is a start.

• Awesomium
• Awesomium .NET samples
• DownMakerWPF, an application embedding it to display markdown.

Answer 3

WinRT is a combination of managed and native code, so, you have a chance to port WebKit, but remember - native code have some sandbox restrictions.

Also you can choose XNA instead.