The Dillo project has achieved an alpha release of a next-generation version of its ultra-lightweight CGI forms-capable HTML browser for embedded systems. Dillo-f15f is built against FLTK2 (fast light toolkit, aka “full tick”) rather than GTK, and adds support for anti-aliased international UTF-8 text, among other new features.

FLTK2-based Dillo (Click to enlarge)

The Dillo project first announced a port to FLTK2 in October of 2006. At that time, project leader Jorge Arellano Cid also invited involvement from other developers, as well as from organizations interested in sponsoring the project.

In a brief note announcing the release, Cid called the release a “good milestone,” while noting that the project continues to seek developer help.

Dillo is a very lightweight (about 350 KB, or 850KB for the new FLTK2 version) browser supporting a subset of HTML, CGI forms, SSL, and cookies. It is not really practical for browsing the modern Internet, due to missing support for frames and HTTPs, among other things. However, since it supports CGI forms, it could be useful as a framework for simple interfaces for devices such as survey kiosks and other closed, “walled garden” applications.

Additionally, Dillo has traditionally been popular with web developers due to its excellent HTML error reporting.

Porting Dillo from GTK1 to GTK2 was ruled out due to the relatively large system resource requirements.

[Thanks to Alan Carvalho Assis for calling this story to our attention.]

 
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