From: Jeff Weinstein <jsw@netscape.com>
Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 19:12:03 +0800
To: Ian Goldberg <iang@cs.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Re: Unix plugins for Netscape (Was: Calling other code in Java applications and applets)
In-Reply-To: <3185E5B6.3EE8@netscape.com>
Message-ID: <31A168B8.235F@netscape.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Ian Goldberg wrote:
> 
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> In article <31887DD0.300F@netscape.com>,
> Jeff Weinstein  <jsw@netscape.com> wrote:
> >Ian Goldberg wrote:
> >>
> >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >>
> >> In article <3187209C.3E5B@netscape.com>,
> >> Jeff Weinstein  <jsw@netscape.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >  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.
> >> >
> >> In an alternate universe in which I didn't have projects to finish, I may
> >> be interested in doing something like this.  However, I haven't been able
> >> to find information on how to write Unix (or preferably portable) plugins.
> >>
> >> Any hints?
> >
> >  You can get the unix plugin SDK from ftp://ftp20.netscape.com/sdk/unix/
> >
> I downloaded this, and I notice you don't have a "makefile.linux".  Is that
> just because no one's bothered to make one, or does Linux Atlas actually
> not support plugins at all?  (Quickly checking the binary...)  I see that
> Linux Atlas is still a.out.  Ick.  That would make supporting plugins
> pretty tough.  If it were in ELF, things would be _way_ easier; in fact,
> I'd probably say trivial (but that's just me).
> 
> I'd venture a guess that most people who have a Linux box sufficiently cool
> to run netscape at all, have the ability to run ELF.  In fact, there are
> probably a lot of people (like everyone who bought Slackware 3.0 or a recent
> RedHat) for which netscape is the _only_ a.out binary on their system.
> 
> The reason I'm pointing this out is (obviously) because Linux is my main
> development platform, and I'd like to be able to try writing plugins
> for things like crypto and ecash.
> 
>    - Ian "Add me to the 'Make an ELF Linux binary!!!' list..."

  Ask and ye shall receive.  3.0b4 for Linux is in elf format.  Sorry, but
I don't know what the deal is with plugins on linux.

	--Jeff

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