Winternight-Classic development

[ClassicNick]

This topic is specifically to discuss development of Winternight-Classic (which is an upcoming fork of the Firefox 3.0 codebase, but with support for the deprecated "Windows" GFX toolkit, Visual C++ 6.0, and Windows NT4/9x support included). The purpose of Winternight-Classic is to have a fork of Firefox that is "lightweight", but still supports semi-modern web technologies, and also still supporting Windows NT4/9x and Visual C++ 6.0.

[roytam1]

I do hope if it can work in NT 3.51, while the missing ETO_GLYPH_INDEX in old NT gives me headache.

[ClassicNick]

Update: I managed to do a modified Firefox 3.0b4, and Firefox 3.0b5 build, but the most notable problem with the builds is the absence of EnsureDeviceContext() in nsDocShell.cpp which is responsible for setting the font size for the menu bar to ~128 pixels. Also, most of the text in the context menus have font sizes ~1-2 pixels in size, which is too small to read, and at the moment, I'm unsure of how to remedy that problem.

My Firefox 3.0b4 Visual C++ 6.0 mod:

My Firefox 3.0b5 Visual C++ 6.0 mod:

 

My last successful build of Firefox 3.0 was 3.0a4, so I think I want to revert more of the code in suspicious directories (layout/* ?)  to what existed in Firefox 3.0a4. @roytam1 I assume you know about comparing changes between files using diff file readers. Can you recommend some diff file viewers that are compatible with Windows 2000 and/or XP (specifically one with support for viewing multiple files)?

[roytam1]

On 3/31/2023 at 3:23 PM, ClassicNick said:

Update: I managed to do a modified Firefox 3.0b4, and Firefox 3.0b5 build, but the most notable problem with the builds is the absence of EnsureDeviceContext() in nsDocShell.cpp which is responsible for setting the font size for the menu bar to ~128 pixels. Also, most of the text in the context menus have font sizes ~1-2 pixels in size, which is too small to read, and at the moment, I'm unsure of how to remedy that problem.

My Firefox 3.0b4 Visual C++ 6.0 mod:

My Firefox 3.0b5 Visual C++ 6.0 mod:

 

My last successful build of Firefox 3.0 was 3.0a4, so I think I want to revert more of the code in suspicious directories (layout/* ?)  to what existed in Firefox 3.0a4. @roytam1 I assume you know about comparing changes between files using diff file readers. Can you recommend some diff file viewers that are compatible with Windows 2000 and/or XP (specifically one with support for viewing multiple files)?

WinMerge

 

and by the way there is way too much changes between every firefox3 alpha/beta versions, it is better to check CVS changes for details: https://github.com/roytam1/mozilla-cvs-history-subtree

Edited May 29, 2023 by roytam1

[schwups]

You can give Notepad++ extension Compare a try, too. https://sourceforge.net/projects/npp-compare/files/

Last Notepad++ for XP is 7.9.2. Yes, I also like and use WinMerge. 

[ClassicNick]

So far I got Firefox 3.0a4 working on Windows 98 SE, but not 95 or NT 3.51 or 4.0:

 

 

https://github.com/ClassicNick/Fx3.0a-VC6-mod/releases/tag/Fx3.0a4-Win98

Edited December 4, 2023 by ClassicNick

[ClassicNick]

Locally, I have an unofficial build of Firefox 3.0a1 from June 22 2006 (bug 330276 reverted) working on Windows 95 (my favourite version of Windows preceding 2000), and a build from October 5 2006 that does not work in Windows 95. It fails with an error stating "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down". Apparently Firefox causes an error in kernel32.dll. Between those 2 dates, Mozilla introduced problematic JavaScript code that breaks Windows 95 compatibility in the browser directory (nsSearchService.js, and nsSafeBrowsingApplication.js) in Firefox 2.0. I'm not sure if that is the only thing causing incompatibility with Windows 95 in 3.0a1 though. @roytam1 I can use the Windows Server 2003 R2 SDK if I add the directory paths to "start-l10n.bat". That means I can use the Thebes GFX toolkit using Visual C++ 6.0 SP5, however, it breaks Windows 9x and possibly NT4 support. I haven't tested whether usp10.h and usp10.lib in the October 1999 SDK will work with the Thebes GFX toolkit though (needed for Visual C++ 5.0 and Windows NT 3.1/3.50 support). 2 options are on the table: 1. Create a GetGlyphIndices stub that works in Firefox 3.0a5 and later, or 2. Use the Windows GFX toolkit with Windows 95 and NT4 support ready to go.

[jumper]

A stub for GetGlyphIndices{A|W} should take five parameters and return GDI_ERROR. A small, full version that calls Usp10:ScriptGetCMap is in KernelEx:UberGDI.c.

 

[ClassicNick]

Update: After trying a snapshot of Mozilla's source code from May 10th 2007, and still having context menus fail to display, I decided to batch revert code from Firefox 3.0a4, and found out my problem is in the DOM directory (I haven't narrowed it down yet though). Also, I got my custom Firefox 3.0a4 build to work with Windows 95 (replaced db/sqlite3/src/os_win.c with an older version from July 24th 2006), but still no Windows NT 4.0 support yet.