Szymdows Browser

This is my attempt at creating a web browser from scratch. It's called Szymdows Browser and uses the Szymdows Web Engine which I'm also building.

Building the Project

For Linux and WSL:

To build, run the following command: ./szym build

To run the browser after building: ./szym run

For Windows:

To build, run the following command: szym.bat build

To run the browser after building: szym.bat run

outdated - Follow the Windows requirement install guide! Windows Setup Guide

What Works Right Now

• Parsing and rendering <h1> tags
• Parsing and rendering <p> tags
• Basic HTML parsing (though it doesn't handle nested tags yet, working on that)

System Requirements

• Rust (I'm using version 1.70+ but other versions might work)

• C++ compiler (MSVC on Windows or GCC/Clang on Linux)

• CMake version 3.10 or higher

• Python 3 for the build script

• Pkg-config

• GTK 3 Development Libraries

• You can install all of these dependencies with this command: sudo apt update && sudo apt install build-essential cmake python3 pkg-config libgtk-3-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

Known Issues

• Nested HTML tags don't work properly yet (I'm trying to figure out how to handle them)
• The UI is very basic right now, it just displays text in a minimal window
• Memory management might have some issues, still learning about that

Planned Features

• Support for more HTML tags (div, span, a, etc.)
• Actual graphical rendering instead of just formatted text in a minimal window
• CSS support eventually
• JavaScript support (this will be really hard)

Notes

This is my first time building something this complex, so the code might not be perfect. I'm learning as I go and trying to understand how browser engines work by reading about Gecko and Blink.

Windows Setup Guide for Szymdows Browser - outdated

Warning

Setting up on Windows is more complex than Linux/WSL. If possible, use WSL2 instead.

Prerequisites

1. Visual Studio

• Download Visual Studio Community from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/
• During installation, select "Desktop development with C++"
• Restart after installation

2. CMake

• Download from https://cmake.org/download/
• Get the Windows installer
• During installation, select "Add CMake to system PATH"

3. Rust

• Go to https://rustup.rs/
• Download and run rustup-init.exe
• Follow the prompts (default options are fine)
• Restart your terminal after installation

4. Python 3

• Download from https://python.org/downloads/
• Run installer
• IMPORTANT: Check "Add Python to PATH" during installation

5. GTK for Windows (The Hard Part)

• Download GTK Runtime from: https://github.com/tschoonj/GTK-for-Windows-Runtime-Environment-Installer/releases
• Install to default location (usually C:\Program Files\GTK3-Runtime Win64)
• Add to PATH: C:\Program Files\GTK3-Runtime Win64\bin
• Add to PKG_CONFIG_PATH: C:\Program Files\GTK3-Runtime Win64\lib\pkgconfig

Setting Environment Variables

1. Search for "Environment Variables" in Windows
2. Click "Environment Variables"
3. Under "System Variables", find "Path", click Edit
4. Add: C:\Program Files\GTK3-Runtime Win64\bin
5. Create new variable: PKG_CONFIG_PATH = C:\Program Files\GTK3-Runtime Win64\lib\pkgconfig

Building

Open Command Prompt or PowerShell, and type in: szym.bat build

Running

Open Command Prompt or PowerShell, and type in: szym.bat run

If GTK doesn't work...

Consider using WSL2 instead. It's much simpler!

WSL:

I really do recommend installing and using WSL since it's much easier to build and test this web engine/browser!