Early Remark about Applet security

[Stefan Ram]

Patrick Naughton was an engineer on the Oak-Project, and in
or before 1995 he said this with when discussing Java applets:

»The only thing it doesn't have that matters is security.
That's its Achilles' heel -- it's gonna kill 'em.«

Did he foresee the end of Applets already in 1995?

No - his remark was addressed at VB/VBA as a programming
language for the web (comparing it to Java). It is somewhat
ironic that during the last few years it were exactly the
security problems that have killed not VB/VBA on the web,
but Java applets. (The classic VB was »killed« by Microsoft,
when they wanted to enforce VB.net.)

In any way, this shows that already in 1995 some people at
Sun were aware of the critical impact that security problems
might have on web technologies such as applets. So awareness
of the importance of applet security is not something new.

 

[markspace]

It is somewhat
ironic that during the last few years it were exactly the
security problems that have killed not VB/VBA on the web,
but Java applets. (The classic VB was »killed« by Microsoft,
when they wanted to enforce VB.net.)

Is there any VB/VBA applets left on the web? Or did I misunderstand
your question?

Same question for .Net: What .Net applets do you see?

Maybe it's just the websites that I happen to visit, but I never see a
..Net applet, and I do occasionally see a Java applet.

 

[Stefan Ram]

Is there any VB/VBA applets left on the web?

In 1995 Microsoft announced a »Blackbird« tool for 1996 with a
Blackbird Viewer for Windows to support OLE controls written in
VB 4.0 »as alternatives to Java applets«. At that time, this was
regarded as a serious thread for Java applets.

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Patrick Naughton was an engineer on the Oak-Project, and in
or before 1995 he said this with when discussing Java applets:

»The only thing it doesn't have that matters is security.
That's its Achilles' heel -- it's gonna kill 'em.«

Did he foresee the end of Applets already in 1995?

No - his remark was addressed at VB/VBA as a programming
language for the web (comparing it to Java). It is somewhat
ironic that during the last few years it were exactly the
security problems that have killed not VB/VBA on the web,
but Java applets. (The classic VB was »killed« by Microsoft,
when they wanted to enforce VB.net.)

In any way, this shows that already in 1995 some people at
Sun were aware of the critical impact that security problems
might have on web technologies such as applets. So awareness
of the importance of applet security is not something new.

Applet usage declined more than 10 years ago - not for security reasons,
but due to lack of competitiveness with Flash.

VB and VBA were never web languages. VB was for desktop apps. VBA was
for Office.

VBS was used on the web. Both client side and server side.

VBS client side was IE only and dropped for JavaScript that all
browsers supported.

VBS server side disappeared when ASP.NET replaced ASP (actually
there are still a good chunk of ASP/VBS around).

Arne

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

Is there any VB/VBA applets left on the web? Or did I misunderstand
your question?

Same question for .Net: What .Net applets do you see?

Maybe it's just the websites that I happen to visit, but I never see a
.Net applet, and I do occasionally see a Java applet.

The .NET equivalent of a Java applet is really SilverLigth.

And that is still used some places. Probably more than Java applets. Its
usage is declining though because MS has jumped on the "HTML5"
train.

There were also an earlier attempt to make .NET Win Forms
controls hosted in a browser, but that never took off in any way.

Arne

 

[Arne Vajhøj]

In 1995 Microsoft announced a »Blackbird« tool for 1996 with a
Blackbird Viewer for Windows to support OLE controls written in
VB 4.0 »as alternatives to Java applets«. At that time, this was
regarded as a serious thread for Java applets.

IE has always supported ActiveX controls, but those are somewhat
different from Java applets.

The idea in Java applets was security and no access to PC (with an
option to enable privs).

ActiveX controls in IE was getting full access (I think they can be
sandboxed with Vista and newer) and in that sense was more a browser
extension than an applet.

Actually I believe that Java plugin for IE is an ActiveX control.

Arne