BKNDGTPI.RVW 970119 "Netscape Developer's Guide to Plug-ins", Douglas A. Young, 1997, 0-13-270992-9, U$44.95/C$62.95 %A Douglas A. Young %C One Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 %D 1997 %G 0-13-270992-9 %I Prentice Hall %O U$44.95/C$62.95 201-236-7139 fax: 201-236-7131 beth_hespe@prenhall.com %P 494 %T "Netscape Developer's Guide to Plug-ins" The Netscape browser, in common with most others, is able to handle data and present certain data types. These include HTML, text, and a limited number of graphics formats. In order to present animation, video, and so forth, Netscape uses the concept of a browser "plug-in". A plug-in is an application which can work both with Netscape and the data type to be dealt with. When the browser encounters a specialized data format, it calls the user's copy of the plug-in and passes over the data, which the plug-in presents to the user in the appropriate manner. Young's book is a guide to the Netscape Plug-in API (Application Programming Interface) which programmers can use to develop their own plug-in programs for use with Netscape. The tutorial teaches by having the reader follow along with example programs for special text effects, graphing, and a tic-tac-toe game. The book assumes a thorough determination to learn plug-in programming. The material is not particularly easy to follow, nor overly concerned with the problems associated with the plug-in concept. Distribution of plug-in applications is a major problem, since the user must have the application and also must have installed it before dealing with any data that requires it. This is not really looked at until chapter four, and is then dismissed in half a page. Similarly, plug-ins are platform dependent, and separate programs must be made available for each platform to be addressed. The issue is raised in the book, but any answers are left as an exercise to the reader. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997 BKNDGTPI.RVW 970119 ====================== roberts@decus.ca rslade@vcn.bc.ca rslade@vanisl.decus.ca Ceterum censeo CNA Financial Services delendam esse Please note the Peterson story - http://www2.gdi.net/~padgett/trial.htm