Another option for an MC plugin

[David Bovill]

No downsides I can think of - gets my vote!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Gaskin" <ambassador at fourthworld.com>
To: "MetaCard List" <metacard at lists.runrev.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2003 8:01 PM
Subject: Another option for an MC plugin


> When most clients or marketing types say they want to be able to run MC
> stuff inside a browser window, what they're not thinking about is the need
> to download, install, and support a new plugin.  What they're really
> thinking about is the Flash or Java experience, in which pre-installed
> components simply run whatever you put in the page.
>
> If you walk them through the practical ramifications of requiring
end-users
> to download and install a new plugin (in which a large majority of any
user
> for whom the plugin is not critical to their work will simply bypass the
> media that requires it and surf on), the next question they'll have is
> likely:  "Why not just build it in Flash?"
>
> In thinking abut this further, it seems the benefits of MC and the
> limitations of an MC plugin can both be accounted for by turning the
problem
> on its head:
>
> How about generating SWF files from MC?
>
> The file format is openly available, and with the subset of things one
would
> do in a plugin I suspect the task of translating relevant MC bytecode to
> ActionScript bytecode would not be as daunting as it seems.
>
> Making a plugin woud satisfy a marketing bullet point, but in a way that
> would rarely be used in practice.  Generating SWF satisfies that bullet
> point in a much more efective way, and rather than competing in the plugin
> wars with Macromedia they would instead become a comarketing force for it.
>
> What are the downsides?
>
> --
>  Richard Gaskin
>  Fourth World Media Corporation
>  Developer of WebMerge 2.2: Publish any database on any site
>  ___________________________________________________________
>  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com
>  Tel: 323-225-3717                       AIM: FourthWorldInc
>
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