Turn any web page into a desktop application

I've just finished implementing a new feature in the Sidewinder Viewer, which further simplifies the task of turning any web page into a desktop application. If invoked with a command line argument that specifies the document to load, the viewer now also checks the fragment identifier for the presence of a meta XPointer scheme. The expression associated with this scheme allows you to set a number of application-level properties, such as the window title, height, width, position and so on.

The available properties are the same as those that were already accessible via the XHTML meta element inside the document; in the event of any conflict, properties that are set via XPointer take precedence. However, the beauty of this new approach is that it can work with any document that is already published on the world wide web, even those over which you have no control. For instance, the screenshot below shows the BBC Sport website, docked to the top edge of the display with a custom title and specific settings for height and width. This was achieved with the following command:

SWViewer2 http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport#meta(title=BBC%20Sport,width=774,height=327,anchor,autohide,position=top)