Introduce a macOS Cocoa-based UI and CEF helper subprocess support. CMake: enable OBJCXX on Apple, treat mac sources as .mm, set -fobjc-arc, link Cocoa frameworks, and generate helper app targets using a mac Info.plist template; keep libcef logical target off macOS. Implementation: add Objective-C++ implementations for browser_host and nebula_window, convert startup to ObjC++ (prepare NSApplication), add process_helper_mac (CEF helper entry) and load CEF library from main/main_bigpicture on mac. Tooling/docs: add .clangd fallback flags, compile_commands symlink helper, update cross-platform docs for mac status. Misc: add menu-popup UI page, define UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER in platform/types.h, small code cleanups (use (void)layout, include platform/types.h) and update .gitignore.
Introduce a cross-platform platform layer and port scaffolding for macOS and Linux. CMakeLists.txt refactored to select platform sources, set executable type per OS, and use CEF helper macros for runtime deployment. Add platform/types.h, startup/paths/browser_host APIs and implementations for Windows, macOS, and Linux (many are stubs for mac/linux). Refactor app entry and lifetime to use nebula::platform::AppStartup (app/main, run.{h,cpp}), move window/browser host logic into platform/browser_host.*, and update NebulaController to use platform APIs (native handles, sizing, visibility, cache-busting token, etc.). Add README and detailed docs/cross-platform.md describing build layout and porting status.
Add persistent site history storage and plumbing between the renderer settings UI and the native app. The app now loads/saves site_history.txt in the user data directory (max 200 entries, http/https-only, stored one URL per line) and records visited sites on navigation. Settings pages receive the history via injected JavaScript when the settings page finishes loading, and a "clear-site-history" message from the settings UI clears the on-disk history and updates the renderer.
Other changes: allow settings-related process messages from content frames in the CEF client, introduce OnContentLoadFinished to trigger history injection, expose electronAPI.send/sendToHost (and reuse the native postMessage handler) in the V8 context, and remove the BigPicture in-app history UI/refresh/clear handlers (history is now managed by the native app). Also cleaned up includes and added helper utilities for JSON escaping, lowercasing, and file path handling. The initial tab restore logic was simplified to always create an initial tab (home or initial_url) and persist the session.
Enable hardware-accelerated rendering and persist GPU/cache data. Added a BrowserSettings() helper that enables WebGL and use it when creating Chrome/Content/MenuPopup browsers (src/app/nebula_controller.cpp). Configure CefSettings to use a persistent user data and cache directory (src/app/run.cpp) by calling nebula::ui::GetUserDataDirectory() and GetCacheDirectory(). Add command-line switches to initialize the GPU process and avoid sandbox/blocklist fallbacks (disable GPU sandbox, in-process-gpu, ignore-gpu-blocklist, enable-accelerated-video-decode, use ANGLE D3D11) to prevent GPU crashes and Chromium falling back to software rendering (src/cef/nebula_app.cpp). Implement GetUserDataDirectory() and GetCacheDirectory() (preferring %LOCALAPPDATA% with an executable-directory fallback) and expose them in the header (src/ui/paths.cpp, src/ui/paths.h). These changes ensure GPU shader caching, WebGL support, and smoother video/graphics behavior.
Introduce core application structure and browser management: add NebulaController and run entry (src/app/*) to centralize window, tab and CEF lifecycle logic; implement TabManager and NebulaTab (src/browser/*) for tab creation, navigation and state tracking; add URL utilities (NormalizeNavigationInput, JsonEscape) and CEF browser client glue (src/cef/browser_client.cpp/.h) to forward chrome commands and content events. Update app/main.cpp to delegate startup to nebula::app::RunNebula. Add UI assets (chrome.html, chrome.css, chrome.js, lucide, menu-popup updates) and remove obsolete nebot.html. Update CMakeLists to include new sources, add ${CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR}/src to includes and link dwmapi on Windows. Overall this refactors startup and splits responsibilities for cleaner tab and browser lifecycle handling.
andrew
Andrew Zambazos