[Desktop_architects] 64 bit desktop

[Mike Shaver]

On 28-Nov-05, at 6:23 PM, Brooks, Phil wrote:

>   The simplest example
> of this issue is with Firefox (distributed as a 64 bit executable  
> on the
> 64 bit desktop) that can not use 32 bit plugins like MacroMedia Flash
> player.

Indeed, and this also bit us pre-emptively with OS X's nascent  
support for Intel CPUs.

Doing out-of-process plugins, like Konqueror has done for _ages_,  
would take that problem away, but would involve a lot of  
infrastructure work now that there are a fair number of plugins that  
implement and invoke XPCOM interfaces beyond the limited contact  
surface provided by the classic NPAPI.  I think it would also force  
us to diverge our plugin model -- especially in key event and render- 
schedule areas -- between Linux and Windows, which divergence we try  
to avoid wherever possible, because getting enough test coverage on  
Linux is hard enough as it is.

But man, yeah, every now and then I put my head down on my keyboard  
and beg someone to do out-of-process plugins for us.  We might get  
another kick at that can when we move to cairo for our graphics,  
because we'll have to trick the plugins on all platforms about their  
rendering areas anyway.

Mike