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Mac OS X  |  Internet  |  Other Internet  |  VirtualSafari  |  Nice idea, poor execution

VirtualSafari

VirtualSafari

web-based frontend for Apple's WebKit HTML rendering engine

Version:  1.0

   [ Views: 436 ]

Nice idea, poor execution

Feedback Type:  Review

Contributed by: ryandesign Saturday, October 29 2005 @ 02:47 PM PDT

Product Platform: MacOSX

Used Product For: Less than a month

Recommend Product: NO

Aside from the fact that it doesn't actually work at all (I'm using Safari 2.0.1/WebKit 412.7 with Mac OS X 10.4.2 Tiger), the implementation leaves much to be desired:

  • There's a Perl script that has to talk to a separate OS X application, which it calls to the front on every request.
  • The "integration" between the script and the application is nothing more than the script's assumption that, 10 seconds after asking the application to make a JPEG of the web page, it will have done so. If the page already loads after 1 second, the user waits around for 9 unnecessary seconds; if the page loads in 11, the user gets a broken image.
  • The software leaves temporary files on your hard drive without attempting to clean them up.
  • Paths must be edited in the Perl script before it will "work" at all.
  • There are mistakes in the included HTML files, which will be apparent by observing your server's error log while attempting to access a page.

It's a nice idea, but really needs to be done quite differently.

  
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