Netscape delivers Raptor rendering engine

Netscape has delivered on the second step towards opening up its nextgeneration Communicator browser--nicknamed "Mozilla"--with the first betarelease of its "Raptor" rendering engine to developers. The Raptor"technology preview", which is available now for download from the MozillaWeb site, is designed to offer Navigator-basedbrowsers fast, HTML 4.0-based layout, high speed rendering, and full HTML 3.x cascading style sheet (CSS) support, along with the ability to embedthe engine within other programs. For this first release, not all of thesecapabilities are working yet, however.

Netscape is planning on providing a "viewer" release of Raptor in June butwanted to get the code out as quickly as possible for people working withthe Mozilla source code. In July, Netscape will release a "browser" versionof the engine, which will begin to look more like the final release ofCommunicator 5.0. In September, an "integration" release will approach thefinal version of the code.

"We're hoping to find a set of net developers who share the same passion for a great HTML layout system that we have," says a blurb on the MozillaWebsite. Netscape is hoping that the Mozilla developer community will speedthe development of Raptor. Microsoft, in contrast, has had an embeddableInternet Explorer component (which includes all the layout capabilities ofits browser) for almost two years