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- NetScape Navigator Plug-In Interface
- Navigator documents can be embeded in OLE containers,
and there is the nCompass NetScape plug-in that lets you plug OLE
Controls into Navigator. Navigator's OLE Automation
spec: http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/oleapi.html
- See also OBJECT embedding in HTML.
- NetScape supports a DDE interface on Windows
95, and an OSA interface on MacOS,
compatible with Spyglass's Browser Remove Control API. It allows other applications
to open urls, register as protocol handlers, content viewers, etc. NetScape's
DDE spec: http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/ddeapi.html.
NetScape's OSA spec: http://home.netscape.com/newsref/std/mac-remote-control.html.
- Java
- Java is not a plug-in to Netscape, it is actually built-in, because
the plug-in interface is not robust enough to support Java as a plug-in.
- The Java dynamic code linker is not enabled, so you cannot link
in native methods, but people have figured out a way to subvert that, and
dynamically load in native methods anyway.
- Right now, Java does not have much access to the capabilities of
Netscape Navigator, but that will change.
- The Navigator Java Environment: Current Security Issues: http://developer.netscape.com/standards/java-security2.html
- JavaScript
- JavaScript will be able to send messages and access state of plug-ins
and Java applets, but can only get at the form elements yet.
- Netscape plug-ins as well as Java applets can execute Javascript
and get the results back as a web page, by getting the url "javascript:/**/func(arg)"
where /**/ is an ugly hack to keep Netscape from appending its own "/"
after the "javascript:" and causing a syntax error. A stream is
returned that contains html, with a title of the original code, followed
by anything that the JavaScript printed out. Totally disgusting, but the
only thing that works right now.
- NetScape's JavaScript authoring guide: http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/Gold/handbook/javascript/index.html
- NetScape runtime
- NetScape plans to be a cross platform virtual operating system,
and has embraced Java as its primary extension language
in the long term, even though JavaScript (completely
different language than Java) is getting a lot of cycles and attention in
the short term. They have to come up with a much more robust plug-in strategy
than the stop-gap they have presently. It will most likely involve plugging
in code modules as Java classes, and using Java as the "software backplane"
through which plug-ins communicate.
- TODO
- Attach my review of the plug-in interface.
- Attach my description of the scriptx plug-out.
- Summarize my latest thoughts.