[dsalfdslfdsa]

I was recently browsing their docs, and kept finding references to choosing a "browser chrome" (options including Qt and AppKit). Is this some new usage of the word "chrome" that I'm not familiar with, or does it use chrome libraries?

[Lammy]

Google co-opted an already common term into a Proper Noun™.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Chrome

http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/jargon/html/C/chrome.html

Netscape called it that and thus so does Mozilla. Try loading up `chrome://branding/content/about-logo.png` for an example of the chrome URI scheme in Firefox!

[Findecanor]

Around the turn of the century, the "Mozilla" browser used to support themes for its chrome, written in XUL [0], which also supported inline images. The themes were available in a repository called "Chrome Zone".

Google later appropriated also the name "Chrome Zone", for a chain of retail stores in the UK. [1]

[0]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUL

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

[asddubs]

Specifically google originally chose that name for chrome because one of their goals was reduction of chrome. They made a bit deal out of it when the browser was new, how it didn't have a bunch of menu bars or whatever

[Lammy]

The Scott McCloud comic mentions this on page #24: https://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/big_24.html

[ben0x539]

It's a usage that predates and conceivably inspired Google-brand Chrome (and by contrast arguably Rust?), referring to the UI parts of the browser rather than, I think, rendering and javascript and stuff.

[flohofwoe]

The term "window chrome" is common to describe the parts of a window that are outside the client rectangle and managed by the window system (titlebar, scroll bars, resize widgets etc..). AFAIK the term also predates "Chrome, the browser" by a long time.

[gtufano]

The "chrome" of an app is the part surrounding the main windows, like toolbars and the such.

IIRC when Chrome appeared, the name was chosen because it was a browser without chrome (ie: it used to be just the rendering windows with the url bar on top), differently from other browsers at the time.

[asicsp]

As per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome:

>User interface chrome, the borders and widgets that frame the content part of a window

[gertop]

Firefox always referred to its user interface as the chrome (hence userchrome.css) and Google engineers decided that it should be funny to name their browser that.

[dishsoap]

>Is this some new usage of the word "chrome" that I'm not familiar with, or does it use chrome libraries?

Neither.

[akie]

That's the old usage of the word "chrome", as far as I know.

[kleiba]

It's "chrome" as in cars and bikes.