Re: [cgmo-webcgm] IE ActiveX Update

[Lofton Henderson <lofton@rockynet.com>]

Benoit,

One quick clarification ...

At 04:49 PM 4/4/2006 -0400, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>   Microsoft is about to release some troubling IE updates for ActiveX
>   controls... this is regarding the EOLAS vs Microsoft lawsuit. The
>   deployment (Windows Automatic Update) of these updates will
>   apparently start in April. Future versions of Windows and IE
>   (pre-installed on systems) will be shipping with the update
>   (specific dates unknown).
>
>   A system with such an updated version of IE will require user
>   interaction (via a click) before a CGM file embedded in HTML can be
>   displayed on screen. A bad user experience is about to begin for CGM
>   users unless they start changing their web pages.

...embedded via <object> element, right?  Does this apply to *any* data 
format, as well as CGM, that is embedded via <object>?  I.e., it would 
apply to SVG as well, right?  Or PNG for that matter?

I'm curious ... is there any awareness of this within SVG WG (I haven't 
seen any)?  Or for that matter, what does the HTML WG think of it?  Or the 
Hypertext Coordination Group (or whatever it's called).

Unless I'm missing what's actually affected (i.e., it would look like *any* 
embedded non-HTML object), then perhaps we should add some items to the 
"multiple levels" list below.  Esp., what is going on in W3C and its many 
affected WGs about this?

-Lofton.


>   The workaround suggested by Microsoft, Apple, Macromedia etc... is
>   to remove the <object> tag from HTML pages and add a script to every
>   web page which dynamically inserts an object tag (if the <object>
>   tag is dynamically inserted, it's not in violation of the EOLAS
>   patent).
>
>   This needs to be dealt with at multiple level...
>   - CGM vendors have to deal with this (generators of HTML + CGM)
>   - Users needs to update their existing web page (or block the
>   update).
>   - How do we (cgmopen) ease the transition for the webcgm community?
>   - The test suite will need to be updated (in my opinion).
>   - Some early experiences with Itedo's code base shows some problems
>   with the WebCGM 2.0 'onload' param when the <object> tag is
>   dynamically inserted. This may be specific to our implementation,
>   but if not; the group needs to take some decisions about the
>   'onload' param.
>
>   It would be good if vendors/users of this mailing list could
>   collaborate about this as it affects all of us.
>
>   Ralf, if some of the information is inaccurate, please let us know.
>
>   Regards,
>
>--
>  Benoit   mailto:benoit@itedo.com
>
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