pyxpcom

[hg]

Hi,

Can one tell me what the status of this project is ?. I did google ...
but not much out there.

Regards,

hg

 

[Trent Mick]

Hi,

Can one tell me what the status of this project is ?. I did google ...
but not much out there.

PyXPCOM source is in the main Mozilla CVS tree. It is being maintained by Mark
Hammond (the original developer of the extension). There isn't a lot of
activity on it, I think, because:
1. Mark did such a good job of implementing it the first time around that it
needs very little work
2. It is very high learning curve to get into playing with PyXPCOM because
there are no conveniently packaged builds of PyXPCOM for current (or any)
versions of Firefox or Mozilla.

Interestingly, Mark is currently working *full* support for Python in the
Mozilla code base, i.e. being able to use Python anywhere you can currently
use JavaScript (in <script> tags in XUL and HTML). Look for "nsdom" and
Python. Note that it is still very much in development phase, is only part of
the Mozilla trunk (I believe) -- hence only really applies to Firefox versions
well beyond FF2.

The pyxpcom mailing list is here:
http://listserv.activestate.com/mailman/listinfo/pyxpcom

PyXPCOM is heavily used in Komodo
(<http://www.activestate.com/Products/Komodo/>, the IDE that I work on at
ActiveState).

Regarding #2 (from above): Mark started some discussion a while back about the
what it would take to provide builds of PyXPCOM. The answer is that it would
probably be very hard.
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/pyxpcom/3167613


Cheers,
Trent

 

[hg]

PyXPCOM source is in the main Mozilla CVS tree. It is being maintained
by Mark Hammond (the original developer of the extension). There isn't a
lot of activity on it, I think, because:
1. Mark did such a good job of implementing it the first time around
that it needs very little work
2. It is very high learning curve to get into playing with PyXPCOM
because there are no conveniently packaged builds of PyXPCOM for current
(or any) versions of Firefox or Mozilla.

Interestingly, Mark is currently working *full* support for Python in
the Mozilla code base, i.e. being able to use Python anywhere you can
currently use JavaScript (in <script> tags in XUL and HTML). Look for
"nsdom" and Python. Note that it is still very much in development
phase, is only part of the Mozilla trunk (I believe) -- hence only
really applies to Firefox versions well beyond FF2.

The pyxpcom mailing list is here:
http://listserv.activestate.com/mailman/listinfo/pyxpcom

PyXPCOM is heavily used in Komodo
(<http://www.activestate.com/Products/Komodo/>, the IDE that I work on
at ActiveState).

Regarding #2 (from above): Mark started some discussion a while back
about the what it would take to provide builds of PyXPCOM. The answer
is that it would probably be very hard.
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/pyxpcom/3167613


Cheers,
Trent

Thanks,

My need is as follows: I have developed an activex component to access a
smart card on the client side / do some web site logon.

Are xpcom / pyxpcom advanced/stable enough for such an implementation
under Linux / Windows ?

Regards,

hg

 

[Trent Mick]

My need is as follows: I have developed an activex component to access a

smart card on the client side / do some web site logon.

Are xpcom / pyxpcom advanced/stable enough for such an implementation
under Linux / Windows ?

You mean to provide the equivalent functionality for Firefox that your activex
component does for IE? Yes, xpcom and pyxpcom are quite stable, however
putting together a Firefox extension that gets PyXPCOM itself up and running
in a client's Firefox install will be quite challenging.

Trent

 

[hg]

You mean to provide the equivalent functionality for Firefox that your
activex component does for IE? Yes, xpcom and pyxpcom are quite stable,
however putting together a Firefox extension that gets PyXPCOM itself up
and running in a client's Firefox install will be quite challenging.

Trent

Exactly ... are you saying I need to distribute Firefox compiled
differently in order to achieve that ?

This is less a python issue clearly if that is the case: would I have
the same issues to resolve if I were to write the module in C++ ?

Thanks,

hg

 

[Trent Mick]

Exactly ... are you saying I need to distribute Firefox compiled
differently in order to achieve that ?

No. But you'll have to get comfortable building your own Firefox and then
building the PyXPCOM extension and then packaging the built PyXPCOM bits that
a normal Firefox install does not have already into a Firefox extension. This
would also mean packaging up parts of a Python build and possible needing to
have a custom Python build to (1) get shared library loading to work correct
and (2) ensure there isn't crosstalk between the python that PyXPCOM uses and
possibly other Python installations on the target machine.

This is less a python issue clearly if that is the case: would I have
the same issues to resolve if I were to write the module in C++ ?

A little, yes: I believe you'd need a Firefox build in a development tree to
build a vanilla C++ XPCOM component. However, I am not sure of that.

Mostly, no: You wouldn't need to worry about all the PyXPCOM/Python
build/install issues.


Trent

 

[hg]

No. But you'll have to get comfortable building your own Firefox and
then building the PyXPCOM extension and then packaging the built PyXPCOM
bits that a normal Firefox install does not have already into a Firefox
extension. This would also mean packaging up parts of a Python build and
possible needing to have a custom Python build to (1) get shared library
loading to work correct and (2) ensure there isn't crosstalk between the
python that PyXPCOM uses and possibly other Python installations on the
target machine.


A little, yes: I believe you'd need a Firefox build in a development
tree to build a vanilla C++ XPCOM component. However, I am not sure of
that.

Mostly, no: You wouldn't need to worry about all the PyXPCOM/Python
build/install issues.


Trent

Thanks Trent,

I'll do some testing and bug Mark in the process I'm sure

Regards,

Philippe