Beefing up browsers - plug-ins and helper applications - Putting the Internet to Work - Internet/Web/Online Service Information - Column

Communications News, Oct, 1996 by Daniel Dern

Despite the growing program size of browsers like Netscape's Navigator, there's still a lot they don't do. A whole category of "helper apps and plug-ins" has been created to fill in the gaps. At the other extreme, our code-happy friends at Microsoft and Netscape are promoting the new notion of "browser as network operating system" so that you never have to go outside it.

Java and similar tools offer one way to extend the functionality of browsers and Web sites, by letting developers create programs written in the Java language (either as mini-programs--applets--or as lines of Java code included within HTML pages).

Java applets run on your computer (assuming your browser supports Java and you haven't disabled this feature). Distribution of Java typically is "just-in-time"--when you encounter a Java-related object, your browser and the server see whether you've already got the required apples, and get it to you if you don't.

But there are many things you want to do from your Web browser which aren't part of the built-in features, notably render and display data other than the few formats they can automatically handle, namely hyper text markup language files (ASCII text with HTML format codes), GIF images, and possibly sound clips and JPG images.

Web sites can contain movie files, streaming audio/video, Microsoft Word or PowerPoint documents, documents in CorelDraw, Shockwave Director, Adobe Acrobat, and others. Web addresses often point to other server types, such as file transfer protocol (FTP), E-mail, or telnet.

Once your browser had the file you could open up the appropriate program to view this file; for example, LVIEW for images, PLANY for sound. Or you could crank up the appropriate telnet, FTP, or other program to work with the specified server.

Increasingly, browsers like Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mosaic, and others are automating and simplifying this process, invoking the appropriate program and helping it find the file. If you have the RealAudio program installed, for instance, selecting a pointer to a RealAudio file causes the program to start up and begin playing the file.

Programs that can be used like this are called either helper applications or plug-ins. There is a distinction between the two, as I've recently learned. "Helper" means that the program can run on its own, without the browser. Examples include the EWAN (Emulator Without A Name) terminal/telnet program, the WS_FTP file transfer client, the LVIEW graphics renderer, and the Amber reader for Adobe Acrobat.

Plug-ins appears to mean that the program won't run by itself, but must be invoked and work through the browser. Plug-ins communicate better with browser programs, and perhaps work more efficiently.

There are dozens of helper apps and plug-ins, including ones for files created by popular corporate applications like CorelDraw, Microsoft Word, Shockwave Director, PowerPoint, QuickTime VRML/virtual reality and other modeling formats, and more. All sorts of programs are being hooked in, using browsers as an interface to the Internet--groupware, Lotus Notes, calendaring, etc.

Typically, sites provide "click here to download" pointers for all plug-ins and helper apps they use, and commercial versions of browsers increasingly include these programs. If you want to go cruising for them in advance, the best place to start looking is the home page of your browser's vendor (for example, http://www.netscape.com,http:// www.microsoft.com,http:/www.sun.com).

For Windows users, other good places to start are Forrest Stroud's Consummate Winsock Apps List (http://www.cweapps.com) and The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software (http://www.tucows.com).

PLUG-INS POSE PROBLEMS

A lot has been written about "overload and collapse" within the Internet. Many of the problems occur outside of your corporate network, beyond your control--for example, oversaturated routes, overloaded web sites, performance problems imposed by current versions of the HTTP protocol, and Web sites designed by people who clearly have never had to sit on the other end of a modem.

However, many problems and limits of Internet use are on your side of the Internet connection, within the corporate network. Many of these, in fact, are strongly related to Java, plug-ins, and helper apps.

Although all these browser-extenders do make browsers more capable, and, therefore, let their users do more, each "improvement" comes at a price.

The first and most immediate is the demand placed on the hardware and software you provide to your users.

First of all, there's platform upgrade. The platform that the most tools are available for is Win95. So if your users aren't already running Win95, you may be pushed into the time, effort, and expense of an unplanned upgrade, plus the halo-effect consequences (internal support, for one). If you have users with Macs, 486s, etc., you may be pressured to buy them new computers ahead of schedule.

Next, these computers need enough muscle aside from raw processing power. Newer versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, the two leading browsers, require 8 to 12 MB of random access memory to begin with.