Lightweight embedding of Firefox Gecko into application whose top level is Python--possible?

[Kenneth McDonald]

Sorry for crossposting to several lists, but from what I can tell, what 
I want to do may involve several different areas of expertise. (None of 
which I have :-( )

I'd like to use Gecko as the UI for an application mostly implemented in 
Python. Ideally, I'd like to somehow come up with a Python module that 
wraps the Gecko, so that I can:

1) Create windows whose content is drawn by Gecko.
1) Dynamically manipulate what is shown by Gecko.
2) Respond to mouse events and keypresses occurring on the window Gecko 
is in.

I really don't need, or want, anything beyond this. Presumably Gecko 
does have some notion of the DOM, since it handles CSS (which I do want) 
and CSS needs the DOM to be meaningful. And I'm also assuming that Gecko 
has or requires JavaScript, in order to actually do things with the DOM, 
or at least to handle DOM events. (Or at the very least to handle mouse 
events, since key events could in theory be handled outside of the 
layout engine.) But I'd like to be able to build something with _just_ 
those features.

Given the above, using Firefox or even Xulrunner seems to be very 
heavyweight and unnecessary. It would be somewhat nice to be able to 
manipulate a XUL DOM to created panes, menus, etc. But even that is not 
necessary--so far as I can tell, DOM manipulation+CSS has the ability 
right now to do menus, scrollable sidebars, panes, etc.

I'd like to get away from the rest of the FF/Mozilla baggage (especially 
XPCOM) because:

1) I don't want to have to deal with XPCOM, chrome stuff, XUL, make 
details, XPIDL (or whatever it is), etc. etc. My brain is already too 
full. :-)
2) Even if I did want to deal with the above, I find the documentation 
for it disorganized and, more often than not, out of date. Not a 
criticism, just an unavoidable weakness of open source development with 
a large number of developers.

Given that the _only_ thing I really want to use is the Gecko layout 
engine with some sort of relatively rudimentary keyboard and mouse 
handling (I'll do all of the sophisticated handling in Python), it'd 
just be nice to be able to dispense with all of the rest of the stuff.

For the record, I do know that PyXPCOM is still being developed, and 
what little I've been able to glean suggests it's been going reasonably 
well. However, I'm not sure it will do what I want it to. It appears to 
be a way to write XPCOM components in Python, and I have no idea if that 
will allow me to just use Python in the same way JavaScript is used 
right now, which is what I want. From what little I've been able to 
track down it seems that PyXPCOM may only be the starting point for 
moving towards using Python for DOM scripting. Also, I'm not sure when 
it will actually be done. Up-to-date online info about PyXPCOM (aside 
from bug tracking) seems very sparse.

Given all of that, answers to the following questions (or suggestions 
related to the whole endeavour) would be appreciated.
1) Does this even seem feasible? Can Gecko be 'broken out' from the 
other Moz technologies to this extent?
2) Does anyone know of similar projects?
3) Can anyone point out a simple example of encapsulating Gecko in a 
small C/C++ app, and then running/communicating with Gecko from that 
code? (i.e. a Gecko embedding "Hello world") This is in some sense what 
I'd be doing, since using Gecko from Python would involve (I assume) 
wrapping Gecko in a Python-compatible C wrapper. I've come across a 
number of embedding Gecko tutorials, but nothing that starts at such a 
basic level.
4) Do I need to somehow provide/link in a windowing system of some sort, 
or do I get that with the version of Gecko appropriate for the target 
platform?
5) Will PyXPCOM let me do what I want? And is it close enough that I 
should just wait for it? (It doesn't bother me if all of the rest of the 
Moz/FF stuff is included in my app, just as long as I don't have to deal 
with it.)

Many thanks,
Ken McDonald