Netscape on Monday shipped a preview of the new Web page "layout engine" that it first told developers about last month. The new engine forms the guts of future versions of the Communicator browser.
The company said that an early version of the software, codenamed Gecko, portends smaller, faster browsers that support existing Web standards. A browser's layout engine is a critical part of the software code that handles the display of Web pages.
In releasing a preview of Gecko, the company expects developers will begin experimenting with the new software -- which does not even have a complete user interface -- and offer the company feedback on its problems.
In addition to being used by Netscape's browser, developers can use it as the "rendering" engine for any application that needs to display Web-style HTML content, such as email software.
Gecko is the first Netscape-branded software product to emerge from the company-sponsored Mozilla open-source initiative. Mozilla is unique, taking as it does contributions from thousands of developers working collaboratively over the Internet to test, develop, and improve the Netscape browser code.
Last month, bowing to pressure by Web-site developers, Netscape said it would work to make sure the next version of Communicator would get the engine overhaul.
The company originally held off committing the new technology to Communicator 5.0 but gave in after growing complaints by developers that its current technology had grown stale.
