[moz-bonobo-list] (no subject)

[Luca Padovani]

Hi everybody,

A few weeks ago we were discussing about how to let the browser open a
new page as the result of an action on a plugin. Jean proposed the use
of a property in the property bag that mozilla-bonobo would listen for
changes. However, the more I look at the plugin for MathML rendering
(thanks to the mozilla-bonobo developers!) the more I think of things
that are not easiliy solvable with a property bag. Here are a few
examples, I'd like to hear comments from other developers:

a) size negotiation. Is it possible to let the plugin size itself just
the minimum that is needed to render its content?

b) what about cut&paste? Is there any way I can select something in the
plugin (say a fragment of XML document) and paste it elsewhere?

c) What about accessing the other attributes of the <EMBED> element, and
possibly its <PARAM> children?
(http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html)

d) What about accessing the data attribute without assuming it is a URI
to the resource to load? This point is especially relevant for the
survival of mozilla-bonobo because of the Eolas patent issue

If all this is out of the scope of mozilla-bonobo then I'll just shut my
mouth. But in case at least some of this matters (personally I think it
does), do you think the property-bag mechanism is still a feasible
mechanism for the implementation?
Wouldn't it be a good idea to devise a specific IDL interface for the
plugin (to be implemented optionally, in addition to those already
required), and one for the browser, so that the needed communication can
take place more naturally using CORBA messages? Is it _that_ hard to
implement?

Hope to get some interesting discussion on these ideas.

All the best,
-- luca