From: Jeff Weinstein <jsw@netscape.com>
Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 20:19:39 +0800
To: Alex Strasheim <cp@proust.suba.com>
Subject: Re: Calling other code in Java applications and applets
In-Reply-To: <3185E5B6.3EE8@netscape.com>
Message-ID: <3187209C.3E5B@netscape.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Alex Strasheim wrote:
> 
> >   Our Navigator 3.0 release will allow java and javascript to call into
> > plugins.  Since plugins are native code, you will be able to freely mix
> > C and Java.  Of course you will have to get the user to install your
> > plugin on their disk.
> 
> That's the problem, installing the plugin.
> 
> I (and some others, I think) was hoping that it would be possible to build
> powerful crypto applets and put them up on web pages.  That way everyone
> with a java enabled copy of Netscape could use a remailer or send crypted
> mail without having to download, install, and configure software.
> 
> If people have to download and install a plugin to use a java mixmaster
> applet, why not just download and install a native mixmaster client?
> 
> Of course there are other reasons to use java -- platform independence,
> for example.  But it's the user's ability to download and run applets just
> by jumping to a web page that has everyone excited.  With that gone (for
> crypto), java loses a lot of its lustre (again, for crypto work).

  It might be interesting to make a small plugin that just does some core
stuff like gathering entropy, mod-exp, and related stuff difficult or too
slow in java.  I mainly brought it up because people were asking about
calling native code from java.

	--Jeff

-- 
Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist
Netscape Communication Corporation
jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw
Any opinions expressed above are mine.