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I'm probably being dense, but what does this actually do? I get that it's cross-platform and that it's a plugin architecture, but what does the plugin architec
by samstokes 16y ago
I'm probably being dense, but what does this actually do? I get that it's cross-platform and that it's a plugin architecture, but what does the plugin architecture actually enable?
As far as I can tell, it lets you create new browser functionality in C++ and expose it (to arbitrary websites?) via Javascript APIs - am I close?
- statictype 16y agoYep, pretty much. Plugins allow you to run custom client-side code (that has access to the OS and its services) inside the browser. The most popular browser plugin is Flash. It is implemented both as an NPAPI plugin (which is supported by Firefox/Chrome/Safari) and an ActiveX component which is supported on IE. Other plugins include the QuickTime viewer for watching quicktime video. The cross-platform framework allows you to keep one codebase for both types of plugins, which, I presume would encourage developers to write plugins since it's now easier to make it work on all major browsers without having to learn two sets of APIs. You can normally see plugins that are installed in your browser by visiting about:plugins
- samstokes 16y agoGreat, thanks for the explanation. (I was indeed being dense - should have remembered the distinction between plugin and extension!)