[pmwiki-users] general browser rant

Joachim Durchholz jo at durchholz.org
Sat Apr 22 05:51:52 CDT 2006


Neil Herber schrieb:
> Just as a heads up warning, Microsoft in a recent IE "upgrade" 
> changed the way that it handles Javascript or Active-X components on 
> a web page. You now need to press space-bar or enter to "activate" 
> the script. Just what we all needed - more activation headaches from 
> MS. (I may have the technical details wrong here, but I have seen it 
> in "action". HA!)

That's one of the few cases where MS isn't guilty. Blame Eolas - they 
hold a patent for automatic activation.
It's a fine example of a patent system long gone overboard: the 
technical solution (automatically activating an embedded control) so 
trivial that nobody would think twice about implementing it, yet Eolas 
holds a patent over it, monopolizing its use, and forcing everybody else 
to either pay (even open source programmers) or to not use that 
technique. It's an excellent example of why software patents in their 
current form are evil, even if it occasionally hits companies like MS 
which are, er, not beyond moral doubt. (Actually I hold that patents are 
evil in the software arena. There are even people who say that patents 
in general are evil, and I find the arguments for that position quite 
substantial.)

Regards,
Jo




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