How to develop an own browser for Android? How to parse HTML, JS & Co.?

Question

Like the title says, I am thinking about developing my own browser for Android devices.

My first thought is to know what kind of possibilities I have, before I begin creating my software architecture. Are there any (open?) Browser Engines you could include into your library and reuse them? (There are some unknown browsers in the Android Market and I can't imagine they implemented the parsing).

Furthermore: If there IS something like I've described before, is it possible to modify (or "fine tune") the render methods? This is one of the most interesting points I guess.

And to end this question and catch the else-case: What would be the alternative way to begin? [I guess this is not only interesting to know for mobile developers, also for desktop software developers]

Abbreviated version of this question: I want to develop my own Android Browser. How to begin?

Hoping for a booming discussion round.

Chris

Answer 1

Check out the WebKit Open Source Project. The Android SDK has a WebKit package which provides tools and utilities for browsing the web.

Here is an (old) article discussing Android's mobile implementation of WebKit: Android Uses WebKit

Answer 2

The easiest starting point for your own browser would be to check out the standard Android browser's code. It's all open source, so you can check it out here: http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/packages/apps/Browser.git;a=tree