Perry E. Metzger wrote:
Jeff Weinstein writes:
All of these security measures are implemented by Netscape in the current release. Specifically, Netscape Navigator 2.0beta2 includes all the applet security precautions detailed in the recent comp.lang.java posting. Netscape has been shipping the fixed applet security model for over a month(since 2.0Beta1), and Netscape and Sun continue to cooperate and work closely on applet security issues.
I've got to note just one thing -- every Netscape 2.0beta2 I've used has been so full of bugs, and so prone to problems, that I have my wonders about what the security code looks like. I know, Jeff, that its all done by different groups -- but the Java stuff I've run in 2.0beta2 is so weirdly different than the supposedly compatible stuff I've run under HotJava -- especially when it comes to crashing (and it HAS crashed on me) that I have serious worries about the security of the thing. I'd say the quality looks very much like an alpha release, not "beta". I don't want to turn this to Javapunks so I won't say more on this topic any time soon -- its already been beaten into the ground.
The version of Java in Netscape is not compatible with the version of Java in the summer release of HotJava. There were incompatible changes made by Sun between their alpha(summer HotJava) and beta (Netscape 2.0 and Sun's JDK Beta). As I understand the situation, applets that were written for HotJava must be ported to the beta API for them to work with more recent releases of Java. I would agree that Java is not as stable as the rest of the 2.0 release. That is one reason why we have added a preference to disable Java. If you are worried about it you can just switch it off. I argued for this switch because I knew that there would be people who would not want to trust Java until it had some mileage on it. The early beta releases we do are mostly intended for developers and early adopters who want early access to the new features. We had a great leap in quality between B1 and B2, and I expect that to continue with the future betas. --Jeff -- Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist Netscape Communication Corporation jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw Any opinions expressed above are mine.