Quicktime and Mozilla

Jarod has been tooling around with this type of question lately and has me wondering about some of these things too. When we view a video now, there is no Quicktime code embedded in our client correct? We have to download and install Quicktime so that our client can hook into the installation and run it as a seperate process, controlled by the client, so that the Quicktime window appears to cover a prim face. Any commands we use simply send a value to the Quicktime process so that it reacts accordingly.

That's not the same thing as LL having embedded Quicktime code into the SL client because then they would be obligated to make at least that portion of the client code available to anyone that could download and use the executable. Right? Is this the fine line LL don't want to cross when they say that we'll be able to view a static web page on a prim face but not interact with it?

I don't think that has anything to do with it. Quicktime is not open source - they would have to license the technology from Apple to integrate it into the client, but they would not be obligated to share any modified code. I have never seen a product that used Quicktime for playback that did not require that Quicktime be installed on the system, generally using a separate install program (and don't get me started on how much I hate Quicktime on Windows).

As far as Firefox, it is an open source product that can be integrated directly into the client, and makes sense to do so for a vairiety of reasons. I am not sure what the licensing restrictions are in terms of what they will have to share, but they don't have to open up the code of the entire client just to use this - they already have some other open source technologies integrated as well (OGG comes to mind for sound playback).

I think the limitation on interactive webpages in the first release comes from the complexity of integration, along with some security implications as well (for example, an LSL script being able to read the cookies from the browser and steal a password). Interaction with the web will be possible eventually - I look forward to it, as it opens up some really interesting possibilities. I am curious what kind of hooks they will put into LSL and into the browser to allow transmission of data - perhaps even extending the secondlife:// protocol beyond simple location data.

Right. As far as I know, from reading the MPL FAQ:So, Linden Lab won't have to show a lick of their code, so long as the Mozilla code is kept in a seperate library. They will, though, as I read it, have to share the library with modified Mozilla code.

Okay I see that now. Quicktime is not open sourced, it has an API so that it can be used as a development platform. That's why you have to install the libraries on the PC.

The Mozilla license doesn't say that we have to open the entire client, only that we have to make the source for the executible section that includes the mozilla code assuming that I'm interpreting it correctly. That's why I'm asking.

Are security concerns the reason we don't have XML/RPC as well? Or is that strictly a performance related issue?

Basically, yes. That and so people don't use XML-RPC to DOS SL itself.

It's been proposed that there be a standard file on webservers that says whether or not SL can access XML-RPC there. The SL servers would look it up and add the server to their trusted sites list, updated regularly. XML-RPC connections could then be initiated from the client.

The reason we don't have this yet is because the Lindens haven't had the time. Unfortunately, until they do, XML-RPC will be of HIGHLY limited usefulness.