>1. Although you and I hear a good many requests for this sort of thing, for
>most folks there are only three tolerable plugins: Real, QuickTime, and
>Flash. All others have such a tiny slice of the download pie that they're
>not even worth mentioning.
Yes, I agree. But there are other specialized plugins -- like Chime
for 3-D molecular modeling, for example -- that fill a particular
need for a particular group of people, and are considered well worth
the hastle of downloading and installing by those users.
>While useful for intranet projects, the appeal among the public at large,
>who often can't figure out how to even download and decompress common .zip
>files, would likely be rather modest.
My point, exactly. A MC plugin might be best suited for specific
audiences, but very likely not the public at large. But I don't see
that as a problem. After all, many (most?) MetaCard developers
design custom apps for small audiences. We wouldn't be trying to
create another ubiquitous plugin. It would be consistent with the
marketing of MC itself.
<big snip>
> Given the problems inherent in downloading
>and installing plugins (most users simply don't), it would seem we'd be
>limited to intranet deployments.
Yes, and I believe that would be a good thing!
>Maybe the best solution is to migrate
>projects to Flash as its scripting capabilities continue to grow.
Eeeeh. This is what I'm afraid will happen. If you've looked at
Flash's scripting language and editing tools, you know how
frightening a prospect that is!
>From: "Blair Moxon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>I agree (it has been asked many times but one more time can't hurt). If
>there was a small plug-in or player object that would run the typically
>small filesize of an MC app (with all of the inherent richness of the MC
>interface)...it would be an incredible marketing coup...(wrt to some
>previuos e-mails). If you could get it to launch as a helper app inside the
>browser that would be even better.. I have looked at the suggested methods
>for running MC over the web but unfortunately the descriptions of how to do
>this are not clear. Maybe I don't understand it but it seems the process of
>how it works is kind of convoluted.i.e. you basically have to have MC
>installed on your machine with a downloaded MC app running. Then from within
>that app you click on buttons that download data from the web using http
>back into your MC app. Wouldn't a plug-in be alot easier? Or am I missing
>something here?
Well, Blair has certainly echoed my feelings. And because everything
is on the Web these days, wouldn't it make more sense to tie into the
browser rather than simulate a browser in MC? The MC plugin would
seem to provide the richer experience for the user and a broader set
of options for the developer. No? Mind you, I'm not advocating
moving everything to the Web. But that is the locus for so much of
today's content that the absence of a direct method of integrating
MetaCard with it would seem to be a serious shortcoming of the
product.
Craig
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