HACKER Q&A
📣 atomicnature

Any real "programmable web browser"?


Something that's been bugging me lately - why is there not a single real "programmable web browser" (if there's one do let me know)

Something like the smalltalk environment - where I can customize/program every aspect of the browser using language of my choice (JS in the least - if possible golang/python etc with WebAssembly).

Why can't I coordinate tabs, automate tasks, run scheduled jobs, customize views, and so on right within the browser.

Why isn't there a browser + IDE hybrid for power users who can program?

Note: Automation frameworks like Selenium/Playwright, or the debug console do not count. They're not integrated into the browser itself by design

  👤 mindcrime Accepted Answer ✓
Old Mozilla / Firefox with XUL / XPCOM[1] was probably about as close as you get. If you were willing to use the low-level interfaces, you could change just about anything as far as I can tell. But that led to security issues and issues with maintaining comparability when there was a need to change those low-level interfaces. So Firefox largely moved away from XPCOM and blocked extensions from calling XPCOM interfaces.

That said, AFAIK Pale Moon still allows use of XPCOM. And I think Seamonkey may be the closest remaining browser to the Mozilla of old. I believe you can still use all of the XUL/XPCOM stuff there, but don't quote me on that.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPCOM

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaMonkey

👤 burntoutgray
Why not go the other way around? For example, with Pharo, there is a WebBrowser project which could be further refined to do more of what you are proposing.
👤 sexyman48
Nyxt. Also, google is your friend.