Research CalendarFOXHOLES: News From The Front Line Of The Browser WarsDoctor Robert O'CallahanWhen: Wednesday 1 November 2006, 12 00 PM
Where: CS Seminar Room, Rm 279 Organisation: Novell Corp.
Website:
Abstract: Host: John Hosking
Once viewed by some as technologically stagnant, the World Wide Web is being refreshed by renewed competition in Web browsers and the popularization of advanced "AJAX" Web applications. Yet the Web's future is darkened by severe security threats and competition from technologies that seek to replace the Web as we know it. As a contributor to Firefox, I will discuss challenges facing our project: competition from Internet Explorer and other browsers; changes to fundamental assumptions about code-level security vulnerabilities; sustaining and evolving a complex and fragile codebase; and the successes and failures of our tools and processes. Looking forwards, I will discuss our efforts to keep the Web vital, in concert with like-minded browser vendors and standards organizations, by enhancing the Web platform with vector and 3D graphics, offline Web applications, accessibility, richer typography and layout, enhancements to the Javascript language, efforts to improve cross-browser compatibility, and more. I will talk about why everyone should care and what people can do to help.
BIO: Robert O'Callahan obtained his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University with the help of Daniel Jackson and Jeannette Wing. After three and half years at IBM Watson working on programming languages and tools by day and Mozilla by night, he volunteered for full-time duty in the browser wars, with the substantial fringe benefit of returning to the most lovely country in the world.
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Department of Computer Science