Project info for Java applets in Wikipedia
Created 6 Nov 2009 at 07:39 UTC by audriusa, last modified 9 Nov 2009 at 15:00 UTC by audriusa.
Homepage:
http://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Java_applet_support
Notes:
The purpose of this project is to investigate possibilities
to allow Java applets in Wikipedia community pages. The
project originated from Wikipedia call for strategic
proposal that is now set as the project home page and has
long and quite stormy discussion page, I even needed to
start dividing it into sections.
This project also has some very active opponents who
contributed to the criticism section.
Apart Wikipedia strategy site, this project also includes:
- A submission of proposal to Sun Microsystems to allow to
put further restrictions into applet .jar manifest files.
This will eliminate the threat of DOS attack on the hosting
server with that the applet otherwise can talk. It has the
RFE Id 6898850
.
- A work in OLPC
talk page, discussing, how Java should optimized to fit
there.
- A work on search of FOSS java scanner, capable to assist
the code reviewing (PMD is
under evaluation).
- A work on search of the appropriate code reviewing tool.
- A work on search of how to arrange compilation flow on
the server side.
- A Web wide search of Java applets, written to spread
knowledge and demonstrate concepts.
- An investigation, one by one, all past security issues
involving unsigned Java applets.
The project currently has no any code developed but this
will change after moving from information gathering and
design into implementation stage.
The current state of discussion in Wikipedia proposal on the
talk page can be summarized as:
Having applets open source, compiling on the server and
reviewing the code should resolve the most of security
issues that are not so big anyway. However applet ability to
talk with the parent server needs a special care; better to
place applets into separate domain. The good coding style
should be to store applet text messages separately so they
could be translated by non-programmers. It may not be
possible to develop applets on some limited devices and some
very limited (likely mobile) devices may even not be capable
to run them. However applet development is possible on
majority of recent computers and they should run on most of
E-books, actually adding more value for them. Requirement to
know programming will limit the number of people who can
contribute writing applets; others will need to treat
applets like images that may also have POV concerns. People
from developing countries may not be ready to program but
giving them serious possibility to apply programming skills
can stimulate to learn. JavaScript is another serious
alternative for Java applets; it deserves separate proposal
and can be discussed separately. Applets can be introduced
in a highly unobtrusive way, enabling them only through user
preferences, but then some people may just not be aware that
they could enable Java applets. It is important to know why
do we need Java applets after all; the goal is to add more
interactivity and this way increase the quality of the
content.
License: GFDL
This project has the following developers: