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You can demonstrate this for yourself by displaying navigator.xul, for example, in the Mozilla or Netscape 6 browsers. What you see when you do that is a Web-like page displayed in the Web page
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Be careful when you display navigator.xul in a Mozilla-based browser. It will be interactive and functional. That means that if you click something such as File > Exit in the page display of navigator.xul, that will close the browser. A Mozilla developer points out that the Mozilla browser is "more than a web 'page' - it has application access to your system, the files are mostly local files, it has much more functionality... etc. etc." |
XUL (pronounced zuul) is pretty much unique to Mozilla. It is a Mozilla implementation of XML that is used to describe the interactive Web-like page faces of Mozilla-based applications. Think of XUL as the Mozilla developers' name for an XML-based language used to describe the UI (User Interface). Creating your own Mozilla skin is mostly a matter of hacking the XUL, XML, CSS, JS and so forth that define the chrome and skin, and/or redoing the graphic images and widgets they use.
The Mozilla Applications Programming Framework
Mozilla-based Web-browser suites, including the navigator, e-mail, news, and composer components, all are applications built to run upon the underlying Mozilla applications programming framework. And what you see when you run such Mozilla-based Web-browser suites also are interactive Web-like pages.
To some degree, Mozilla is not exactly a program. It is more of an application programming framework upon which you can build programs such as a browser, composer, or e-mail program. You also could build an FTP client, a Telnet client, an IRC client, or just about any other sort of program on top of the Mozilla framework.
Custom Mozilla-based client and/or application building is not limited to merely Internet clients. One can build all sorts of applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, image editing, and other such applications on top of Mozilla.
When Mozilla is ready for prime-time, the software and OS wars raging over the PC landscape could be swallowed up and lain asunder by the new order of Mozilla-Scape!
For more information about Mozilla the organization, Mozilla the application programming framework, and Mozilla the Web browser suite, please see the series, Mozilla--A Lizard for All Seasons. (Please check the Resources Section at the end of this article for links.)
Article Index |
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Page 1
Introduction &Overview |
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Page 2
Comparing the Mozilla & Netscape Skins |
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Page 3
Branding Your Lizard |
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Page 4
Mozilla Is Right Choice |
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Page 5
Mozilla Skinning Easy |
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Page 6
Mozilla Applications Programming Framework |
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Page 7
Lizard Skinning Tools |
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Page 9
More Resources |
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