Plugin APIs (was: Agenda, Thu 26 Feb, 2009 telcon)

Hi, Leonard-

Leonard Rosenthol wrote (on 2/27/09 8:42 AM):
> That implies that you would need a browser-specific method?  How
> would my plugin know who its parent is?  Again, no standard API for
> integrating the DOM of the browser with the DOM of the plugin - or
> even just communicating back to the DOM?

Actually, communicating back to the DOM is pretty easy in Javascript:
  http://www.schepers.cc/svg/blendups/scriptbridge/scriptbridge.html

This should work in either a native implementation or using ASV/Renesis. 
  Am I missing something?


> Wouldn't it make more sense if we could convince the HTML5 committee,
> in their work to improve "browser experiences" for users to also
> focus on the needs of plugin developers?   It seems from my reading
> of HTML5 that they would rather replace all common plugins with
> "internal solutions" and support some standards (like SVG, to some
> extent) but not others (like MathML)?

Actually, both SVG and MathML are planned for support.  I think the 
MathML integration issue is mostly solved.

What sort of plugin hooks are you looking for?


> And how does that help the  innovation that plugins also bring
>  for various other standards oreven proprietary formats?

I've pushed for a robust extensibility mechanism in HTML, including 
fallback behavior, but the HTML WG doesn't seem very interested.  I 
think this should benefit selective rollout of technologies, including 
those supported by plugins (or maybe even script libraries).

I think this is orthogonal to SVG (since we seem to have good progress 
on using SVG in X/HTML), but I still think it's worth pursuing in the 
HTML WG.  Larry Masinter seems interested in this sort of extensibility 
as well... you should touch base with him.

I'd be happy talk with you more about what sort of API or hooks you 
think are missing.  It's also possible that this is something we could 
take up in the WebApps WG, in terms of DOM APIs.

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, SVG and WebApps WGs

Received on Monday, 16 March 2009 02:56:43 UTC