Hi,
>I want to be able to plug in the Black Box framework in my Browser
> >transparently) and let the framework sort out all the communication
> >middleware shit with the server, especially if I can run a BlackBox
> >framework there as well.
Blackbox *is* the browser.
There is no reason in principle why the BCF should not be able to read web
pages and convert them into Blackbox views (although this would probably
require a richer set of controls than we currently have in BB). These views
are then editable and can be saved in the same way as newly-created BB views
or, if required, as html pages or some other format in a web server folder.
All of this should of course be transparent to the user - ie, saving a
document on a remote server should be no different to saving it on a local
disk or lan folder. Of course, in some cases the system will need to dial in
to the network, and the operation is likely to be slower than saving to a
local disk. However, there should be no need for the user to know about ftp
or any such techie stuff. This would conform with Berners-Lee's original
idea for 'browsers' to be both browsers and document editors and is also
entirely consistent with Wirth's original Oberon, which is a system for
networks.
If Blackbox is to rule the world then perhaps it should be positioning
itself as the future of browsers, and making our interactions with the web
as easy as they are with our local (or lan) disks. This is not beyond the
realms of possibility - Opera seems to have carved a decent little niche for
itself in the browser market by offering lighter weight, non-Microsoftness
and other 'rebel' attributes. A BB web-document editor/browser would make
all other browsers that I've used look very primitive indeed.
And now that Prof. Szyperski is working at Microsoft Research perhaps we
will see some of his ideas and the ideas underlying BCF bear fruit so that
we see BB or something very much like it as part of Microsoft's standard
offering.
The recent Festschrift for Prof. Wirth ('The School of Niklaus Wirth')
includes some interesting articles on why ETH spin-offs have not been great
commercial successes despite their technological superiority. I work in
bog-standard commercial DP departments where most of the IT people are
unlikely to have computer science qualifications. Believe me it is an uphill
struggle to get people to understand some very basic principles, let alone
understand why something like BCF is so superior.
Sometimes a product can be too good for its own good.
Bob
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Received on Fri Jan 04 2002 - 18:13:52 UTC