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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Browser rival to ActiveX in the offing

TechWorld: "Web browser makers Apple, Opera and Mozilla are collaborating on an expanded plug-in specification that allows for more powerful Web-based scripting - just as security concerns have finally convinced Microsoft to step back from its own scripting system, ActiveX. The companies have signed up plug-in makers Adobe, Macromedia and Sun to back an expanded version of the Netscape Plugin Application Program Interface (NPAPI), a plug-in model used by most non-Microsoft browsers. The updated API will create a standardised way of increasing interactivity between browsers and plug-ins, which will be built into Apple's Safari, Mozilla's Firefox and the Opera browser. Mozilla said the new API would shortly begin appearing in developer versions of Firefox, with finished versions shipping in browsers this autumn. The new features won't be usable until plug-in makers begin supporting them; future versions of PDF Reader, Java, Shockwave, Flash and QuickTime are to work with the new API, but developers didn't set a timeline."

Hopefully, these companies can deliver something that's as functional as, but more secure than, ActiveX. It should be an interesting test.

[ Posted at 9:20 AM | Permalink ]