Take a look at this

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by philip.j.fry

Could you explain what it is you want to do exactly. Do you want to just compile firefox from source code without making any modifications to said source, or do you actually want to make a whole new browser based on firefox/gecko?

If what you want is to learn some programming language, choose which one first (either Java or C++ are good) then find a good online guide or book.

Ill build a whole new browser. Do you think im mad?

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by WNA

Ill build a whole new browser. Do you think im mad?

No, but if you want to make something on the level of Firefox/IE/Opera etc where the developers have had years to build the products and years or programming experience then you're not being realistic. A good project for you, if you want to get some programming skills behind you and to start on making a new browser is to build a very basic web browser using Java. I had to do this for a piece of coursework in my first year of Uni and is not particularly complicated because Java has an HTML rendering engine package as standard that you can use.

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by philip.j.fry

No, but if you want to make something on the level of Firefox/IE/Opera etc where the developers have had years to build the products and years or programming experience then you're not being realistic. A good project for you, if you want to get some programming skills behind you and to start on making a new browser is to build a very basic web browser using Java. I had to do this for a piece of coursework in my first year of Uni and is not particularly complicated because Java has an HTML rendering engine package as standard that you can use.

How would i go about doing it?

[philip.j.fry]

Originally Posted by WNA

How would i go about doing it?

You'd need to learn Java first

Firstly you'll need the Java compiler (j2sdk) from java.sun.com. I'm just off to bed but I'll definately give you more help tommorrow if you want it. Tonight, once you've got the compiler, look for an online tutorial and see if you can get the 'hello world' program to compile and run. </school teacher>

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by WNA

The thing im having trouble with already is that it wants the mozilla.org directory and i only have Firefox. Now im gonna take your suggestions and start small. Could you give me some suggestions on what i can do and what tools i need.

Start with making your own theme.
It's easy enough, you just need an in-depth knowledge of CSS and Javascript.
These are both worth learning BTW if you haven't already.

[MadGamer]

Originally Posted by philip.j.fry

You'd need to learn Java first

Firstly you'll need the Java compiler (j2sdk) from java.sun.com. I'm just off to bed but I'll definately give you more help tommorrow if you want it. Tonight, once you've got the compiler, look for an online tutorial and see if you can get the 'hello world' program to compile and run. </school teacher>

If you could give me a direct link it would be useful because i entered in the search box the critera you mentioned and it returned a list of results and i didn't know what to download.

Incog puts her head in her hands and ponders the strange mix of enthusiasm,the sheer depth of faith married to a complete lack of experience with a great dollop of imagination and a wonderful Alice in Wonderland view of the world,balanced by a sudden realisation that the task is bigger than expected,that is WNA, a far from average teenager.

Oh well I've said it before-give the lad a chance.We've all been newbies at summat in our lives at some point.

Remember this-that sometimes we have to fail in order to learn how to succeed.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Incog puts her head in her hands and ponders the strange mix of enthusiasm,the sheer depth of faith married to a complete lack of experience with a great dollop of imagination and a wonderful Alice in Wonderland view of the world,balanced by a sudden realisation that the task is bigger than expected,that is WNA, a far from average teenager.

Oh well I've said it before-give the lad a chance.We've all been newbies at summat in our lives at some point.

Remember this-that sometimes we have to fail in order to learn how to succeed.

We've encouraged him to try and learn the basics first, I see no wrong in that, if he'd decided to try brain surgery would you suggest that we show boundless enthusiam when he pulls out the hacksaw?

[MetaWraith]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Oh well I've said it before-give the lad a chance.We've all been newbies at summat in our lives at some point.

Remember this-that sometimes we have to fail in order to learn how to succeed.

Well said, we need the "shoot the moon" types just as much, if not more than was need incremental plodders.

That said i'd definitely advise you, WNA, to develop the skills necessary to take on such a project first, before diving in where sharks fear to swim and getting disillusioned.

Originally Posted by Bifta

We've encouraged him to try and learn the basics first, I see no wrong in that, if he'd decided to try brain surgery would you suggest that we show boundless enthusiam when he pulls out the hacksaw?

I wasn't critisising anyone at all Bifta but he ISN'T performing brain surgery is he?

He may fail but so what.At least he will have tried.His enthusiasm is really a refreshing change to the usual apathetic teenagers I come across in everyday life so I reckon encouragement can't hurt.SO if he fails he fails and maybe he will have learned the lesson you think he should learn.Whom will he have hurt in the process?

How many of us always listened to our elders and betters all the time and never made a mistake.Mistakes are how we really learn.We can watch and learn by example(other peoples mistakes) but I bet everyone here remembers that the best lessons learned were the ones when we fell flat on our faces.

Incog.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

I wasn't critisising anyone at all Bifta but he ISN'T performing brain surgery is he?

He may fail but so what.At least he will have tried.His enthusiasm is really a refreshing change to the usual apathetic teenagers I come across in everyday life so I reckon encouragement can't hurt.SO if he fails he fails and maybe he will have learned the lesson you think he should learn.Whom will he have hurt in the process?

How many of us always listened to our elders and betters all the time and never made a mistake.Mistakes are how we really learn.We can watch and learn by example(other peoples mistakes) but I bet everyone here remembers that the best lessons learned were the ones when we fell flat on our faces.

Incog.

Somehow I don't think you've comprehended the enormity of what he's trying to do, it's a mammoth task for somebody exceptionally well versed in various programming languages, at the last count, going by the questions he's asked previously, he has no knowledge in that field. Learning the basics first will give him a good grounding and make him in the future able to perform the task he wants to do now, frankly, as a teacher, I'm surprised you don't encourage this sort of thing instead of just telling people to jump in feet first.

Originally Posted by Bifta

Somehow I don't think you've comprehended the enormity of what he's trying to do, it's a mammoth task for somebody exceptionally well versed in various programming languages, at the last count, going by the questions he's asked previously, he has no knowledge in that field. Learning the basics first will give him a good grounding and make him in the future able to perform the task he wants to do now, frankly, as a teacher, I'm surprised you don't encourage this sort of thing instead of just telling people to jump in feet first.

Whom is this going to hurt if he starts and gives up?He has already had several people told him the pitfalls and if he still hasn't comprehended the ENORMITY of it then the process of finding out how big it is will be the first and possibly last mistake/failure he makes.Do you know how many teenagers just couldn't be bothered to even try?There is now among young people a real phobia of failure.They won't try anything for fear of failing which is stupid as it is a way of learning.

Anyway as a teacher I expect people to fail from time to time,they can't get things right every time.

I wonder where the present computer software would have come from if it hadn't been for the young pioneers of software who were probably told what they wanted to do wasn't possible.

Anyway it's up to WNA what he's going to do.Maybe he will heed your warnings maybe he won't but he alone will decide.

Incog.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Whom is this going to hurt if he starts and gives up?He has already had several people told him the pitfalls and if he still hasn't comprehended the ENORMITY of it then the process of finding out how big it is will be the first and possibly last mistake/failure he makes.Do you know how many teenagers just couldn't be bothered to even try?There is now among young people a real phobia of failure.They won't try anything for fear of failing which is stupid as it is a way of learning.

Anyway as a teacher I expect people to fail from time to time,they can't get things right every time.

I wonder where the present computer software would have come from if it hadn't been for the young pioneers of software who were probably told what they wanted to do wasn't possible.

Anyway it's up to WNA what he's going to do.Maybe he will heed your warnings maybe he won't but he alone will decide.

Incog.

It's not going to hurt anyone, but obviously he's trying to get something meaningful out of it, quite why you're being so argumentative about it is a mystery to me, we've offered him advice that'll further his knowledge as opposed to him jumping in at the (very) deep end and learning nothing other than, well, to take OUR advice as opposed to yours.

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by WNA

If you could give me a direct link it would be useful because i entered in the search box the critera you mentioned and it returned a list of results and i didn't know what to download.

This would be what you want to download.

You should take a look around the sun site, there's a fair few starter documents on there to get you going - if you are serious about learning java, you may want to look at this as well - it's not the best book in the world (though better than others) - but it is free to download and should be enough to get you properly started.

Edit :

Also - a good IDE is a life saver when it comes to development - there's a fair few out there, but the 2 front runners tend to be Eclipse (which I found a real pain in the neck to get up and running but is free) and Intellij which IMO is a dream to work with - but it does cost money - though you can get a 30 day evaluation key.

Also look at build tools - Ant, Maven - getting a decent tool to build, will save you a lot of effort messing around with classpaths and so on.

[aliferste]

Im building a spaceship