REBOL Plug-in for MSIE and other browsers
[1/6] from: gerardcote::sympatico::ca at: 13-Jun-2002 13:28
Hello Rebolers,
Can some expert Reboler tell me why the Inferno plug-in (available from
http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/pidoc/intro/index.html) can be installed
and run on IE 6.0 while this can't be done with REBOL. I know that the old
scheme of using the EMBED command is no more supported by MSIE but Inferno
seems to use the OBJECT tag instead.
Is there someone here that has the knowledge and time to write something
like this ? Anyone interested ?
Can someone tell me if we could get some ROI with this kind of product or if
we loose our time instead ?
Can we further enhance the Inferno OS by making available a calling process
for Infernmo to start our REBOL apps ?
Thanks,
A still newbie,
Gerard
[2/6] from: ammon:rcslv at: 11-Jun-2002 18:28
Hi Gerard,
I don't claim to be an expert REBOLer, but I do know a few facts that
answer your question(s)...
First off, no one has said that a plugin *can't* be made for IE 6.0
(actually for IE 5.5 and up) simply that it *hasn't* been done. In fact RT
has asked how many ppl actually want a plugin for IE 6. If you are voting
for one, let your voice be heard! I am also wishing that there was one, but
it must fall into RT's agenda of what is most important to make REBOL succeed.
Secondly, I don't know what Inferno OS is, but if it has commandline access,
or the ability to *launch* applications, you should be able to *launch* REBOL
apps from it.
HTH
Ammon
A short time ago, Gerard Cote, sent an email stating:
[3/6] from: gscottjones:mchsi at: 13-Jun-2002 13:58
From: "Gerard Cote"
> Hello Rebolers,
Hi!
> Can some expert Reboler tell me why the Inferno plug-in (available from
> http://www.vitanuova.com/inferno/pidoc/intro/index.html) can be installed
> and run on IE 6.0 while this can't be done with REBOL. I know that the old
> scheme of using the EMBED command is no more supported by MSIE but Inferno
> seems to use the OBJECT tag instead.
I am not expert, but I acted like one for Halloween one year! :-)
If I recall correctly, newer IE's require an ActiveX plug-in, rather than
using the original Netscape protocol. We carped, and howled, and moaned,
and cried so much that finally Rebol Technologies (RT) undertook to write
the ActiveX version. They even released a first alpha that worked by
launching a REBOL/View instance. However, the resulting app wasn't
*embedded* in the window. We all sweated, and hoped, and prayed, and tried
to be helpful, but apparently it became clear to RT that it wasn't a good
ROI for them. Besides the "point" of REBOL was to break with the "Web" and
use the "Net" more efficiently as pure REBOL. So the project was shelved
indefinitely, as far as I know and recall. I appreciated the effort put in
by RT, and could readily appreciate the position that they were (are) in. I
still wish we had an embedded version of REBOL as a show-case of the
technology, if nothing else.
> Is there someone here that has the knowledge and time to write something
> like this ? Anyone interested ?
If I understand correctly, one would need to re-write the REBOL source,
making interfaces exposed through ActiveX interfaces. Unless I did a Rip
van Winkle, RT has not quite yet released the source.
:-)
8-))
> Can someone tell me if we could get some ROI with this kind of product or
if
> we loose our time instead ?
>
> Can we further enhance the Inferno OS by making available a calling
process
> for Infernmo to start our REBOL apps ?
I don't have an answer for these questions. Sorry.
Inferno is a neat product, and obviously is in the same concept as REBOL.
Hope this explanation fills in some gaps.
Eternally Hopeful,
--Scott Jones
[4/6] from: gerardcote:sympatico:ca at: 13-Jun-2002 15:15
Thanks Ammon for these precisions.
To answer to your question, Yes there seems to be an Inferno cmd to launch
some primitive calls on the hosted OS on which the Inferno Network OS is
installed.
Also for you information, if you want to know more about theis very
promising product - which shares some views about network sharing with
REBOL - look at this site : http://www.vitanuova.com/company/products.html.
You'll find there some concise and interesting information about both
products, that is Inferno Os and Plan 9 OS.
Inferno is an extension of the Plan 9 Network OS - which was conceived and
developed by the fathers of the Unix OS and of the C language, that is
Ritchie, Kernighan, Robs, etc ... all working for the Bell Labs since about
30 years or so). The extension will render Inferno to be an embedded network
OS to be embarked on some small appliance devices - in some way like REBOl
is doing with some other embedded OSes - like Win CE for example. It builds
up from the Plan 9 Network centric OS.
The Plan 9 OS itself is permitting to share information in a distributed,
network centric way, something Unix, Linux and other current OSes are not
doing very well at all, according to the authors of the 2 products.
If I come back to my first discussion subject - that is doing a REBOL
Plug-in for MSIE, do you know - or someone else listening - where I can get
specs about the making of a Plug-in for MSIE (and eventually for Netscape or
other browsers this must be easier to find ...) ?
I spent some time looking for this kind of information on the MS site and
searching for some related info with Google but found nothing like specs or
a tutorial relative to developing this kind of software.
I only found some already done plug-in material. Obviously there must be
some doc about the way to do it ... since there are such products !!!
Thanks in advance for all submitted reference,
Gerard
P.S. As an alternative, "we" could simply retrofit REBOL to work hand in
hand with Inferno on any hosted OS currently available for the products and
get the best of both worlds... Read-on !
[5/6] from: ljurado:bariloche:ar at: 13-Jun-2002 17:02
This text was posted by me some time ago (7/7/2000):
{
I am testing Tego Web Express http://www.tego.com/ with Rebol.
I am loading rebol.htm from IE5 and Rebol View is live in the browser !!!
}
With this plug-in Rebol/view is embedded at full page, but using floating
frames you can get a pretty small window in your page with rebol/view living
in it.
Luis
----- Mensaje original -----
De: G. Scott Jones <[gscottjones--mchsi--com]>
[6/6] from: gerardcote:sympatico:ca at: 13-Jun-2002 17:50
Thank you very much Scott and Luis,
I think I will try to find more on the subject before giving up myself ...
I will look on the Active X side track since it seems to be the way to go -
and probably also the way everybody went since the Inferno plug-in -- and
others I know of too -- currently works only with MSIE for the moment.
However I will also try to find other alternatives, but the Java plug-in I
know of seems a bit too weighty and too lengthy to download on my old
machine (a 166 Mhz PC that doesn't want to be upgraded for now) for what I
want to do with it... even the REBOL graphics engine is a bit slow on this
old machine while with the Inferno plug-in I can get quick and dirty 3D
graphics apps running, be it small after all ...
I'm keeping hope to find some mid-way that I will instantly "buy as is".
Gerard