> I'd like to suggest the OCF do release the code base so > that a project on sourceforge.net can be created, and > development be passed onto the community at large. It > seems this helps other projects thrive, and individuals > who wish to contribute can do so in a timely manner. > > What do people think about this ?
In essence I think it's good but I have serious reservations, as I believe I have stated before. If the card vendors are not enthusiastic enough to continue now, and many of them don't offer free docs/utilities, it is going to be very difficult to retain compatibility with the majority of cards. It will be hard to implement CardService(s) for those cards, as the vendors will probably not produce them any longer if OCF is not "their" project. To me you can look at OCF two way: 1. A framework for sending/receiving APDUs through a reader to a smartcard -or- 2. An extensible system for abstracting card services and removing dependence on specific APDUs. Option (1) is of no interest to me frankly, as it does not offer card independence for applications, and can be written from scratch in a simpler API than OCF. Option (2) is the only sensible approach, but even now there are few CardService(s) available from vendors, and there would almost certainly be less if OCF disbanded. Sorry, perhaps I'm being pessimistic! However, this is reflecting our experiences to date. I think what we really need is for the OCF consortium members to wake up and support Java rather than give up on it. Mass-market smartcard-aware Java applications will never come if OCF disbands, unless there is some support from vendors. There is such -huge- potential for Java applications that use smartcards. ICEMail could use them to store your account details. Your IDE could use them to store your key maps and preferences. Websites could store virtual credits on them using applets. If the API is easy enough, this is a reality. This is what we have started trying to achieve with DCSF and JcardBuilder. We should make it so that people who are not Smartcard experts can add smartcard support to their regular java applications without too much hassle. I'm guessing, but I think that perhaps they only supported Java because of the potential use in Applets on web sites (The "e-Wallet" hype) � because browsers did not have support for smartcards as a cert store in the past. Now that most browsers have this built in using PC/SC, they don't see a need for OCF. Perhaps I'm wrong... Kind regards, Marc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ W ~~~~~ (o) Wangjammer5 (Marc Palmer) ( ) Wangjammer7 www.wangjammers.org = Java Consultants (Web|Smartcards|Crypto) --- > 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.
