You might have want to read this today: Mozilla Foundation Announces More Open, Secure, Scriptable Plugins. Apple, Macromedia, Opera and Sun Microsystems join in push to modernize plugins and create a richer web experience.
So, what do think? Are we finally getting somewhere?
Perhaps though if Microsoft go off in another direction then little ground will be gained.
Are plugins really that important?
If it means Mozilla will finally allow access to the plugin DOM from HTML, then it's definitely a step forward. Sadly, interactive SVG pages (i.e.: ability to control SVG from JavaScript on the HTML page) are one of the only things for which I have to tell people they still need to use IE.
This is good news for browswer users. What's important is that the Mozilla Foundation is heading a technology initiative - an aggressive move. With IE lying dormant, Mozilla's steady releases have been stirring things up. Is this the first shot in a new browser war? IE has the greatest market share; and therefore, has the most to loose should users have to choose between one technology and another. I think Microsoft will look to prevent this by getting on board. Users are unlikely to switch browsers unless one offers something the other doesn't.
Yes, this is an important move. This kind of collaboration of these companies with the Mozilla Foundation is A Good Thing™.
Keith, the problem is that the parent object (javascript/ecmascript) is not supported by the browsers (IE & Opera) and the plugins (Adobe & Corel). IE has a solution. Instead of parent you can use top. When I was developing my SVGPainter I found out that this solution didn't work with the Corel SVG Viewer.
This might also be a solution, but it didn't work for me: Inter Document Communication.
So in my opinion there isn't a (clean & simple) solution for IE either.
For me this looks really like a step forward, a step away from IE, to working browsers...
I mean, i wouldn't have any problems with IE, if it would support the standards, but this way... I can only hope..
WHAT WG is also an initiative outside of W3C that focuses to create web application standards which will make for a more interactive and better web.
I like all these intitiatives, and support them whole-hartedly. No one is served by Internet Explorer not supporting these new standards, though, so if Microsoft suddenly wants to hop on board, they should be welcome. I doubt that will ever happen though; they have way too much catch-up to do on 5 years old standards like CSS 2.
CSS2.0 was exactly six years old some time ago.
Yes, of course. I have no idea where I got five years from. I must have been either tired, drunk or momentarily stupid when I wrote that. :-)
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