PWAs For Firefox port

[VictorTheVictor]

I have very little experience with Rust, but have plenty of experience hacking C++ programs to run on older than prescribed Windows versions. How did you get Rust to compile a 10.7 compatible binary? I want to try and port PWAsForFirefox but I don't even know where to get started. I have access both to a MacBook running Monterey and one running Lion. If someone helped me with the very basics of getting it to compile properly, I could easily figure out the rest. I know Rust9x completely reworked the standard library so compiled programs can run on Windows 98, did you do something similar?

[RJVB]

On Tuesday May 06 2025 13:20:19 Victor wrote: How did you get Rust to compile a 10.7 compatible binary?

I don't know how i3roly did this but there are 2 approaches: 1) patch the rust code so it builds with the latest rust toolchain to support the target platform or better, 2) patch the rust sources so they work on the target platform. I've also managed to use a current rust toolchain on Mac after relinking it with the MacPorts legacy-support system library that adds implementations of a number of missing functions. I have the impression that the rust runtime libraries are pretty well written using weak linking and runtime checks if certain system calls are available or not. Is your PWA thing written purely in rust or does it use nodejs too? That can be a much harder nut to crack for older platforms!

[VictorTheVictor]

The extension uses JS, but the native client is pure Rust, I believe

[Wowfunhappy]

I looked into this some time ago and ultimately decided it would be easier to create my own Firefox Dynasty based PWA system for legacy macOS... which is in fact what I did. You might appreciate https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Firefox-Dynasty-Web-App-Template/releases.

It works a bit differently from PWAsForFirefox in that the apps are fully self-contained, which is bad for disk space but nice in that you can move the apps between computers and such, they don't rely on a local Firefox installation.

Edit: Oh but you're on Lion, I think I need to update the template to use the latest version of Firefox Dynasty before it'll work. I'll do that at some point relatively soon.

[RJVB]

On Sunday May 11 2025 05:30:41 Jonathan wrote: It works a bit differently from PWAsForFirefox in that the apps are fully self-contained, which is bad for space but nice in that you can move the apps between computers and

Runtime too, in that launching a PWA doesn't start nor runs in your main browser session?

[Wowfunhappy]

Runtime too, in that launching a PWA doesn't start nor runs in your main browser session?

Correct. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the main Firefox installation, they don't interact.

[Wowfunhappy]

Hey @VictorTheVictor , for what it's worth my web app templates should work fine in Lion now. https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Firefox-Dynasty-Web-App-Template/releases

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm going to close this because I don't think there's anything to be fixed in Firefox Dynasty.