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[REBOL] Re: REBOL Web Browser Plugin (Alpha)

From: sterling:rebol at: 13-Jun-2001 17:36

The goal is to integrate REBOL with the browser in the best way possible. I think we would like, eventually, to cover these three actions: 1. Click a .r file link on the web and that script is launched in REBOL. It needs to make it's own window to display anything. The browser does not go anywhere. This is solved by associating .r files to REBOL right now. Netscape calls them Helper Applications. 2. Handle anembed tags in a web page which also launch to a REBOL process. This allows for the web and REBOL to exist side by side. This requires a plugin though it would seem that a second MIME type s needed to differentiate between the plugin and the helper app so the corect one is launched. If the plugin is launched for a .r link, the browser is stranded on a blank page. The current plugin handles the embed tag but the second MIME type has not been finalized and the IE version has a little registry work that is required to store the proper MIME type and file extension of the plugin on installation. If the plugin did this and only handled EMBED tags while the helper app handled links, people would have a stable way to display REBOL scripts within the web environment while we work on getting #3 working. 3. Embed the REBOL window output within the browser window itself like shockwave, realplayer, and more. We, not being plugin or browser experts, do not yet know what is required for this to happen. It may not be possible. At the very least it would probably (just guessing) impose many usage restrictions on the programmer as they could not create new windows, resize the working window ,and maybe some other stuff. But it would be cool to have an active REOBL app just sitting right there in the browser. I think that covers the plugin goals. Both the IE and NS plugins use the NS plugin dll but there are limitations to the IE support for NS plugins so maybe and ActiveX one is required to do it right. Any insights you have into this process would be invaluable. Feel free to contact me on or off list. Sterling