Show HN: I built a small browser engine from scratch in C++

Summary

Built a small browser engine in C++ to understand how browsers render HTML to the screen. Implemented core structures: HTML/CSS parsing, layout calculation, and rendering from scratch. This is a learning-focused project, not a production browser. Introduction Hello, I'm a korean high school senior (Grade 12) planning to major in Computer Science. I wanted to understand not just how to use technology, but how it works internally. I've built several websites with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but I never really understood how the browser executing this code actually works. "How does a browser render HTML to the screen?" To answer this question, I spent about 8 weeks building a browser engine from scratch. C++ was entirely new to me, and I struggled with countless bugs, but I eventually completed a small browser that can parse HTML, apply CSS, and render images. While not perfect, it was sufficient to understand the core principles of how browsers work. Table of Contents Key Features This browser supports the following features: HTML Parsing: Tokenization, DOM tree construction, automatic error correction CSS Rendering: Selector matching, style inheritance, Cascade application Layout: Block/Inline layouts, Position property support Images: Local/network/Data URL support, asynchronous loading, caching Navigation: Link clicking, event bubbling, history (back/forward) Tech Stack Component Details Language C++17 GUI Framework Qt6 (Core, Gui, Network) Build System CMake 3.16+ Rendering Qt Graphics View Framework Build & Run Prerequisites macOS, Linux, or Windows (MSVC support) CMake 3.16+ Qt6 installed (development libraries) C++17-compatible compiler Install Qt6 on macOS (using Homebrew): brew install qt6 Linux (Ubuntu/Debian): sudo apt-get install qt6-base-dev cmake build-essential Build # 1. Navigate to project directory cd /path/to/small_browser # 2. Create and enter build directory mkdir -p build && cd build # 3. Configure with CMake cmake .. # 4. Build make # After build...