WebKit-gtk, libsoup, cURL and midori

It seems that webkit-gtk developers would like to see libsoup as the default backend in the gtk port, whereas the current setting (which is also used in the Fedora WebKit package) is the cURL backend. And since I have finally gathered enough free space to be able to build webkit, I decided I give it a go. In the following table I've summarized the differences between the two backends (libsoup backend with r40306 selfbuilt and cURL backend with r40351, grabbed from koji) I've, as a user, noticed (click on the images to get the large version).

	libsoup	cURL
Effects on Browser UI Responsivenes	I haven't noticed any effect on UI responsiveness when loading a web page. The spinner is spinning with constant speed, I can freely switch between tabs, create new tabs, ...	I noticed significant effects on the UI responsivenes when loading pages. Especially when loading more pages at once, the UI tends to become unresponsive for a while. Also the spinner animation is not smooth and at times it even stops completely.
Web Authentication	Authentication seems to work pretty good, still there seems to be no way how to use ssh certificate to authenticate to koji	Authentication does not work at all.
FTP Protocol Handling	If you try to access FTP you're straight away told that the site does not exists. I'd expect either a message that it cannot handle FTP protocol or, even better, automagically opening the requested url in file browser (which should know how to handle ftp)	CRASH! Although in the previous built I've been using it was giving, after an unreasonably long wait, listing, without any links or formating, of the requested ftp directory.
AniDB (probably perl handling)	As you can see it gives a similar output to what you get by running e.g. cat /bin/ls. I suspect that the cause is that this site is made in perl.	Works just as expected.

To me, who uses midori (with webkit-gtk backend) as a secondary browser, the option with libsoup sounds better - I can use it to authenticate to fedorahosted, also the UI is much more responsive; and the things that do not work here, I can do with epiphany (still with gecko backend).

Now, I'd share a few words about Midori. It's a pretty interesting browser developed primarilly for XFCE users that is using WebKit-gtk backend. One of its interesting features (among the almost classical basic session management and saving, configurable search engines and google search implemented in address bar) is an option to reopen closed tab. It also has pretty clean and simple UI and I find working with it to be rather pleasant. And on top of that, thanks to webkit backend, it is pretty fast and from my experience generally faster than gecko based browsers (firefox, epiphany). Finally, I like its name - midori (緑) is a japanese for green/greenery.

And to end this post I'd like to write a few features (some of which are being already in progress) I am still missing and some bugs in webkit-gtk that prevents me using it as a primary browser backend:

• Reasonable handling of downloads. It just tells you that document cannot be displayed. Right-click, download works in midori (if you set a download manager in midori settings), but it works the same way as with copy link + wget, which means when the link is actually a html page or some script that forwards you to the real source, it fails...
• As I said earlier, lack to authenticate with ssh certificate
• Inability to upload files - the UI for it works very well, just like in firefox, but when you hit the upload button, the website complains nothing was set to be uploaded.
• Occasional crashes when closing a tab.
• It seems it is not able to keep coockies between browser sessions (i.e. I have to login to web pages every time I restart midori)
• It does not remember my user name at sites like fedoraforum, even when I check "Remember me"
• Sometimes sloppy widget focus - at times cursor is blinking in edit fields but nothing can be written until I switch focus elsewhere and back...

And to answer the obvious question you might have, nope, I have not yet filled bug reports about the things I mentioned above, but will definitelly do so sooner or later (though actually for some of the above mentioned things there already are opened bugreports in webkit bugzilla). Anyway, I wish webkit bright future and hope that the gtk port will soon get to the point where it would make sense to use it in epiphany by default.

Also, to end it on a positive note, among the things that get better since the last time I've built webkit there is improved scrolling which is now really smooth (in past it felt snatchy, especially when one tried to scroll fast) and finally working opening new windows via javascript (though midori forces it to open rather in new tabs which is IMHO really cool). Also, I can finally watch youtube videos (among other things) in webkit as well (in past swfdec just failed to load the necessary files, probably thanks to some bug or missing feature in webkit).