Tom wrote:

We don't have much interest in further developing the software client (DS).
We'll also look into working on a standalone for this.

Stand-alone browser shells are actually one of CEF's explicit use cases, one reason I'd suggest it (though maybe you guys have a better plan in mind).

Tom wrote:

However, the browser control in the webclient works fine, and just uses whatever browser the webclient is embedded in.

The biggest problem with this is compatibility. Without a thick abstraction layer (as far as I can tell newdms will be pretty thin even when complete) it subjects "innocent" BYOND users to the vagaries of having to support arbitrary browsers, which will undoubtedly be an obstacle to adoption by new users (not to mention annoying at any skill level).

Just for example:

XNaruto4EverX: So I wrote some interface code, and all the players say it's broken
XNaruto4EverX: But it works for me...
XNaruto4EverX: What do I do? Here's the code:
XNaruto4EverX: <<\5 lines>>
MrWebDeveloper: Yeah, lines 1, 3, 4, and 5 won't work in IE.
MrWebDeveloper: Get the HTML5 shiv from <<\link>> and implement that
XNaruto4EverX: okey-dokey
XNaruto4EverX: how do i do that
[3 hours later]
XNaruto4EverX: Dang, it still doesn't work!
MrWebDeveloper: Oh, we're not done yet. Now get <<\this shim framework>>.
MrWebDeveloper: That *should* fix line 3.
XNaruto4EverX: ok
MrWebDeveloper: Now get a polyfill from <<\link>>. Implement that too. That'll fix line 4.
MrWebDeveloper: Then use this work-around for line 5:
MrWebDeveloper: <<\hax>>
XNaruto4EverX: i don't understand
[4 hours later]
XNaruto4EverX: Now it works for some people at least.
XNaruto4EverX: But a lot of people still say it's broken!
XNaruto4EverX: What do I do now?
MrWebDeveloper: That was only IE. Here's what you do next:
XNaruto4EverX has quit ("What use do I have for the web client? I'm not going to go out of my way to support it.")

To state the obvious, having a decent standard embedded browser helps with this.
Even if the client is set to automatically use the player's choice as default, just having the embedded available would be helpful since it gives devs a fallback option:

   /client/New()
        if(!src.browser || !src.browser.supports("<\ dialog\ >"))
            src.forceEmbeddedBrowser()
        return

So much less code is required to support legacy browsers: all the developer has to do is check functionality (or version) and force the fallback if it's lacking.

Though in the end I have no idea how much work this would take on your end, so it might or might not be worth it at this stage of BYOND's development.

Also it looks like people are eager to discuss the webclient in general, but this might not be the best place for it. Maybe we can continue in the "BYOND Discussion" section (there's certainly a lot to talk about).

Great post, spot on too.

Pretty sure http://modernizr.com is shim & polyfill in one.