Java Interface/IDL for HTML aware objects

I was wonder if anyone knew of any attempts to define an applet-like interface
for Java (or any embeddable code) that would allow the object to render itself
correctly for any user agent? Such an interface should include ways for the
object to:

    a.. access the style attributes applied to the <object> element
    b.. access the DOM DocumentFragement of the associated <object> and its
children
    c.. register itself as a member of a parent <form>, if available
Also, the user agent should be able to access various rendering formats such
as a GUI block, text of varying levels of stylization, or sound and speech.

I bring this up because I believe java applets are extremely limiting in the
larger context of things. They assume a GUI-centric world where size can
predefined in pixels as if they were a device independent measure. Given that
AWT has always allowed for dynamic scalable interfaces, this has always
confused me.

If no such effort already exist, I think it is time to develop a new standard
for interactive objects.

Andrew n marshall
  student - artist - programmer
    "Everyone a mentor, Everyone a pupil"