Gtk+ 3.0’s ‘Broadway’ Feature Allows Applications to Run in a Browser

In a quick three-minute video posted to Vimeo, Gtk+ developer Alexander Larsson gives us a glimpse of what’s possible with the “Broadway” feature of Gtk 3.0, set to launch alongside GNOME 3.0. Named after an old remote execution plugin for an X Web browser, Broadway is designed to allow people to run Gtk+ applications from within their browser – either locally, or remotely.

The goal is to allow all Gtk+-based applications the ability to run right inside of a browser, but some may be a little too intensive to work properly, and as it is now, we’re still in the relatively early stages of this becoming a viable solution for a lot of people. What are some examples? Well, the video shows off gnome-calculator being run, and also evince. But other Gtk+ applications would also have the potential to be run, such as GIMP, Pidgin, Evolution, Inkscape and others.

The ability to use Broadway is opened up if you compile Gtk+ 3.0 with the ‘–enable-x11-backend –enable-broadway-backend’ switch. To make a Gtk+ application available to a browser, you need to open up a terminal and execute it with a syntax similar to, ‘GDK_BACKEND=broadway application-binary ; firefox http://127.0.0.1:8080/’.

You might notice the reference to Firefox there, and unfortunately, that’s one of the downfalls of Broadway’s early development stage. Currently, the feature only works with Firefox 4, although I haven’t been able to figure out a clear reason as to why. It’s likely that once the development reaches a higher level of maturity, all browsers that adhere to proper HTML5 standards will work just fine.

Broadway might seem like a niche feature, but if implemented into GNOME in a useful way, it might well be an excellent solution for those who are be away from home but just need access to a Gtk+ application at home. I’m thinking primarily of personal information applications, but perhaps there are many other possibilities as well. Either way, the tech is looking very good.