Well said.... 6/29/01 9:34:56 AM, Michael Bender <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >(Note, philosophical discussion to follow) > >> To explain: My viewpoint is that of creating applications that use >> smartcards as one feature of their operation, in a user-centric way. i.e. >> IF the user has a smartcard, they may be able to use it with my >> application. As a result, ease of reader installation and trouble-free >> running is the order of the day! Buggy drivers and installation of >> multiple obscure .EXE files in the right order and not hot-plugging >> devices as you can other devices, is not what end-users will endure if >> given a choice. > >We (the industry) should turn this problem around. If I develop an >application that needs to read and write a file, I don't also have to >bring along the filesystem code and the disk drivers as well, yet >that's where we are in today's world with respect to smartcards! Why >do you, as an application developer of an application that uses >smartcards need to worry about reader drivers, EXE files, ocf.jar, >pcsc.dll, etc...? Why don't operating systems have native (in the >"included by default" meaning of that word) smartcard support? > >My opinion is that the market for smartcards on computers is just >not big enough (and will it ever be) compared to devices like >telephones, cell phones and mass transit applications. There is not >yet enough customer pull for smartcards on the desktop. Witness >for example Microsoft's recent exodus from the smartcard arena. >One has to scratch their head when one sees Microsoft leave any >area of technology! > >So, what do we see customers deploying in the real world? We see >them deploying proprietary solutions from ActivCard, Gemplus, >Schlumberger, Bull, etc..., solutions for which a high level >framework like OCF or even PC/SC is not really necessary. > >Customers are surely interested in "open standards" until they >see that the "open standards" on one platform do not play with >the "open standards" on another. So, what is their response? They >go to a vendor that provides them with a proprietary smartcard stack, >APIs and complete application integration. Sure it's proprietary, >but it works the same way on their UNIX platforms as it does on >their WinTel platforms as it does on their PDAs as it does on >their cell phones, and usually the top level of that stack provides >the real APIs that the customer needs such as PKCS#11, free-form >data store, e-purse, etc... > >What does this say for frameworks like OCF and PC/SC? In my >experience it says that currently what's needed is a solid >reader abstraction layer, but that we're not yet ready for >putting a card abstraction into a generic framework like >OCF or PC/SC. > >I hope this isn't hearasey :-). > >mike > > >--- >> Visit the OpenCard web site at http://www.opencard.org/ for more >> information on OpenCard---binaries, source code, documents. >> This list is being archived at http://www.opencard.org/archive/opencard/ > >! To unsubscribe from the [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list send an email >! to >! [EMAIL PROTECTED] >! containing the word >! unsubscribe >! in the body. > _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com --- > Visit the OpenCard web site at http://www.opencard.org/ for more > information on OpenCard---binaries, source code, documents. > This list is being archived at http://www.opencard.org/archive/opencard/ ! To unsubscribe from the [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list send an email ! to ! [EMAIL PROTECTED] ! containing the word ! unsubscribe ! in the body.
