[whatwg] Web Forms 2.0 - what does it extend , definition of same, relation to XForms, implementation reqs.

[Henri Sivonen]

On Jan 1, 2005, at 20:13, Bill McCoy wrote:

> 4. This is only indirectly covered in the spec, but the assumption 
> that the
> spec should not dictate a plug-in based implementation for Internet 
> Explorer
> is difficult to understand,
...
> And the model for users to grant one-time permission to install a
> trusted plug-in is well-understood and there are examples of 
> widely-adopted
> commercial-grade plug-ins to Internet Explorer (e.g. Macromedia Flash, 
> Adobe
> Reader).

Macromedia Flash is a special case. The existence of a special case 
does not prove anything about the general feasibility of plug-in-based 
solutions. The installed base was built by aggressive bundling.

The Adobe Reader PDF plug-in is not a good example of the willingness 
of the users to install plug-ins, either. Virtually everyone needs a 
PDF viewer. Whereas Gnome, KDE and Mac OS X users get a PDF viewer with 
a platform-consistent UI with the platform distribution, Windows users 
do not have a viable alternative to Adobe Reader. The fact that the 
installer of the de facto must-have standalone PDF viewer for Windows 
installs an ActiveX control for IE as a side effect does not prove 
anything about the general willingness of users to install plug-ins.

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen at iki.fi
http://iki.fi/hsivonen/