Netscape 8 'breaks' IE

[craigsboyd]

ZDNet Article: Netscape 8 'breaks' IE

What are the perceived ethical responsibilities of Netscape and MS to their consumers? What are your thoughts about Netscape releasing a product that breaks IE and your thoughts regarding MS telling it's consumers to uninstall their competitors product?

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com

 

[DrJavaJoe]

For got the



Two strings walk into a bar. The first string says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'll have a beer. u.5n$x5t?*&4ru!2[sACC~ErJ'. The second string says: 'Pardon my friend, he isn't NULL terminated'.

 

[ToniL]

Oh no, it's the TermiGATEor... RRRRUUUUUNNNNNNNN!!!!

Peace,
Toni L.

Windows reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.

 

[EBGreen]

Looks like a straight up IE key to me:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Plugins\Extension

[red]"... isn't sanity really just a one trick pony anyway?! I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking, but when you are good and crazy, oooh, oooh, oooh, the sky is the limit!" - The Tick[/red]

 

[CajunCenturion]

Netscape, or AOL if you prefer, did screw up. However, please keep in mind that in addition to providing its own XML transformation and rendering engine, Netscape 8 tried to offer the ability to use IE's XML transformation and rendering engine because some sites only work with with IE's XML technology.

Good Luck
--------------
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[Dimandja]

>Netscape 8 tried to offer the ability to use IE's XML transformation and rendering engine because some sites only work with with IE's XML technology.

Hummm... They didn't need permission to do this I suppose... And if they didn't need permission, they went about it in a half-cocked way...

 

[CajunCenturion]

Permission to do what? Do you need permission to take advantage of the ActiveX controls that MS provides? I don't think so. Microsoft provides controls, objects, and components - include those for XML - available to all developers. Many of those controls and components create and require registry entries within the Software\Microsoft section of the registry.

What I'm curious about, and have yet to find an answer, is exactly what is the problem.

I've seen lots of sources that recommend that you un-install Netscape 8 and delete the xml subkey. Now my question is,

[li]What value within the xml subkey confuses IE, and more to the point, why does that value cause the IE rendering engine to fail, if removing the key prevents the IE engine failure?[/li]

Again, I'm by no means defending Netscape, but what is going on if removing this key fixes this problem. It seems that IE is using this key, or at least does if the key exits, since something about the key causes failure. Microsoft is well within its rights to have un-documented features, and to reserve things for future enhancements, and so forth, so that is not a problem.

Nevertheless, I think there is something about this particular key that Microsoft is not sharing -- and they don't have to either.

What we do know is that some sites will not work unless the IE XML rendering engine is used, and that this XML key does mean something to IE, but that it's not required by IE. We also know that Netscape tried to use the IE rendering engine to make the IE specific site available to its customer base.

I don't think there is an ethical issue at play. I think this is an unfortunate collision between two different development teams, and in this case, Netscape is at fault.

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Dimandja]

I agreed with much of your argument that Netscape-AOL did not permission to do what it did. If MS does not want to share that key, I'm pretty sure they would have found a way to keep it out of the traffic.

But then you go on to say "I think this is an unfortunate collision between two different development teams, and in this case, Netscape is at fault".

In light of what you said, why should Netscape be at fault? It would seem that MS bungled this one -- if anything, for not disclosing the full specs of that key.

 

[DrJavaJoe]

It would seem that MS bungled this one -- if anything, for not disclosing the full specs of that key.

Why do you think they should have disclosed the full specs of that key?



Two strings walk into a bar. The first string says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'll have a beer. u.5n$x5t?*&4ru!2[sACC~ErJ'. The second string says: 'Pardon my friend, he isn't NULL terminated'.

 

[Dimandja]

>Why do you think they should have disclosed the full specs of that key?

Assuming that this key is available for use to the public, nd assuming that IE depends on certain values in that key in order to work properly, you'd think MS would have at least warned us.

With all those assumptions, if IE chokes on some values, and yet the key is out there for all to play with, this is a MS issue: the registry system is cranky and volatile.

 

[Dimandja]

I know we had been warned: "don't mess with the registry system", although we are allowed to change it (when we know what we are doing).

If that's all there is to it, than Netscape 8 was only unfortunate enough to stumble on a pothole.