On Fri, Dec 4, 2015 at 1:56 PM, Eric Rescorla <e...@rtfm.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 2, 2015 at 2:13 PM, Robert O'Callahan <rob...@ocallahan.org>
> wrote:
>
>> There are three possible approaches I can see to expose USB devices to
>> third-party applications:
>> 1) What I suggested: Whitelist vendor origins for access to their devices
>> and have vendor-hosted pages ("Web drivers"?) expose "safe" API to
>> third-party applications.
>> 2) Design a permissions API that one way or another lets users authorize
>> access to USB devices by third-party applications.
>> 3) Wrap USB devices in Web-exposed believed-to-be-safe standardized APIs
>> built into browsers.
>>
>
> I can think of at least one more:
> (4) Have the APIs hidden behind access controls that need to be enabled by
> an extension
> (but a trivial one). Perhaps you think this is #2.
>
Yeah it seems like a version of #2.
I think we should definitely support #1. Trusting device vendor code with
>> access to their devices is no worse than loading their device driver, in
>> most respects. Once we support such whitelisting device vendors can expose
>> their own APIs to third party applications even with no further effort from
>> us.
>>
>
>
> Color me unconvinced. One of the major difficulties with consumer
> electronics devices
> that are nominally connectable to your computer is that the vendors do a
> bad job
> of making it possible for third party vendors to talk to them. Sometimes
> this is done
> intentionally in the name of lock-in and sometimes it's done
> unintentionally through
> laziness, but in either case it's bad. However, at least in those cases,
> the third party
> vendor can at least in principle produce some compatible downloadable
> driver
> for the device, and its not much harder to install that than to install
> the OEM driver.
>
> I don't think it's good for the Web for browser to be in the business of
> enforcing vendor
> lock-in by radically increasing the gap between the access the vendor has
> to the
> device and the access third parties do.
>
I see your point, I just don't think it's as important as you do.
Rob
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