Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 23:39:49 -0700
Message-Id: <199710030639.XAA05339@games.eng.sun.com>
From: Li Gong <gong@games.eng.sun.com>
To: "L. Peter Deutsch" <ghost@aladdin.com>
Subject: Re: Images from a server?
In-Reply-To: Jim Graham's mail of Thu, 2 October, 1997
You wrote elsewhere:
> > PNG with embeddable Java
> > class support would be great for totally open graphics storage format.
>
> Given the security problems with Java ...
I was forwarded your message above (full msg below). Given that I am
responsible for overall Java security, I am interested to hear what
specific security problems you were thinking and why these had impact
on what you were discussing. (Please CC me on your reply.) Thanks.
Li
-- Li Gong, PhD Java Security Architect and Senior Engineering Manager JavaSoft, Sun Microsystems, Cupertino, California, USA Email: gong@eng.sun.com Web: http://java.sun.com/people/gong Tel: 408-343-1825 and Fax: 408-343-1993> ------------- Begin Forwarded Message ------------- > > Date: Thu, 2 Oct 97 21:34 PDT > From: "L. Peter Deutsch" <ghost@aladdin.com> > To: donpark@quake.net > CC: ivo@hasc.com, java2d-interest@Sun.COM > Subject: Re: Images from a server? > > > PNG was not an option because Netscape does not support PNG. > > I was told second-hand that Unisys had browbeat Netscape into thinking that > the deflate compression method used in PNG might conceivably be affected by > the Welch patent, and Netscape caved in by not supporting PNG -- despite the > fact that W3 either has approved or is far along the track to approving PNG > as a Web image format on a par with GIF. Whether or not this story is true, > the claim is b*llsh*t. The LZ77 method used in zlib and PNG was published > in the open literature before the Welch patent was filed or LZW was invented > (in fact, the LZW method covered by the Welch patent is a derivative of the > original LZ algorithm), and has been extensively researched against the > patent data base. > > > PNG also does not have multiple frame support for animation. > > Are you sure? I haven't read the PNG spec lately, but I thought you could > concatenate multiple PNG images in a single file. > > > PNG with embeddable Java > > class support would be great for totally open graphics storage format. > > Given the security problems with Java and the non-ubiquity of Java > implementations (and the lack of good, or perhaps any, free ones), I think > it is still very important to solidify some reasonable raster and vector > storage formats without executable code, in addition to formats that can > include executable content (for which I agree Java is the obvious good > choice). Unfortunately, the industry still seems to be diverging even in > the area of raster formats: FlashPix and PNG are new, and while I can't > evaluate the need for the former (it seems very complicated and to drag in > an amazing number of what are basically OS file system functions), I can't > help but think that adding zlib compression to TIFF would have been a better > approach than the latter. As for vector formats, CGM has been around for a > long time and is not that bad, but I think a format with a more modern > graphics model would be better, and PDF or something close to it seems like > the obvious good choice to me. > > -- > > L. Peter Deutsch | Aladdin Enterprises :::: ghost@aladdin.com > 203 Santa Margarita Ave. | tel. +1-650-322-0103 (AM only); fax +1-650-322-1734 > | ** NOTE ^^^ NEW AREA CODE AS OF AUG. 1 ^^^ ** > Menlo Park, CA 94025 | http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html > "Few things are impossible to diligence and skill." > > ------------- End Forwarded Message ------------- > >