Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> Sat, 21 Aug 2004 @ 23:42 -0400, Louis Guillaume said:
> 
> 
>>Really? Who says that HTML is the be-all and end-all of the WWW?
> 
> 
> Who says it isn't?
> 
> There is no WWW without HTML.  HTML is the hypertext standard for the
> WWW.
> 

Certainly it's the basis and the standard. However it's not the only 
thing out there. It's really up to what the browsers will support.

> 
>>>This "SWF" media crap really must die.
>>>
>>
>>...that ain't gonna happen! What about JavaScript and PostScript? That's 
>>foreign code too.
> 
> They are putting PostScript in web pages?  Ick...
> 

Adobe's Acrobat reader plugin has been there since the dawn of plugins, 
I believe.

Any kind of file can be transferred and run as long as there is a plugin 
on the client side that is set up to handle the mime-type describing the 
content coming in. This is dangerous in general.

I believe the plugin mechanism is an open standard (but don't really 
know that for a fact). But there doesn't seem to be an open standard for 
display of SWF files. You need the player from Macromedia. Therein lies 
the problem.

> 
>>What would be good is an Open and portable standard for Flash-like 
>>content. Then the developers of plugins and containers that execute this 
>>content on the client machine would be able to reliably provide 
>>protection from evil foreign code.
> 
> 
> Snoball's chance in hell, methinks.
> 
> I'd like to see it, but I don't think it will happen.
> 
> I suppose time will tell since there are some projects created to fill
> this need.  No idea how well they are doing.
> 
> 

Yeah, it probably won't happen, but maybe Macromedia may take the high 
road and hook us up with an open source dev. kit for flash content 
(speaking of snowballs in hell) :)

Louis