[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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