[Mono-list] Applets in C#?

[A Rafael D Teixeira]

You can run Windows.Forms apps inside IE. You just HTML link to a exe (the 
important thing is the mime type sent in the headers by the web server not 
the extension), a extension installed by the .NET framework setup inside IE, 
looks at the file bytes, to find if it is a .NET file, and then runs it in a 
sandbox, depending on from where the file is being downloaded. The good 
thing is that it automatically downloades and caches any other assemblies 
(.NET DLLs) as needed (on first use of class inside it).

Obviously this is only secure when the assemblies are digitally signed 
(strong-named).

So some pieces are still missing:

- Sebastien work on strong-naming assemblies must be completed.
- Our runtime needs to treat security so that we can sandbox applications, 
limit what they can do, as needed.
- Our runtime also needs to verify code before running it, so malicious or 
malformed code can't harm it.
- Finally we need to create such a mime-filter to integrate with 
mozilla/galeon/Konqueror/etc....

<spec>
The spec for the filter goes somewhat like this:

When detecting the right file type the filter must spawn the mono runtime to 
verify and run the downloaded app.
There comes the, let's say... interesting, second part: run the application 
INSIDE the browser, merging menus/toolbars if needed.
</spec>

So we need many helping hands...

Cheers,

Rafael Teixeira
Brazilian Polymath
Mono, MonoQLE Hacker




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