# Re: Images from a server?

Li Gong (gong@games.eng.sun.com)
Thu, 2 Oct 1997 23:39:49 -0700

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    Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 23:39:49 -0700

    Message-Id: <199710030639.XAA05339@games.eng.sun.com>

    From: Li Gong <gong@games.eng.sun.com>

    To: "L. Peter Deutsch" <ghost@aladdin.com>

    Subject: Re: Images from a server?

    In-Reply-To: Jim Graham's mail of Thu, 2 October, 1997

You wrote elsewhere:
> > PNG with embeddable Java
> > class support would be great for totally open graphics storage format.
>
> Given the security problems with Java ...

I was forwarded your message above (full msg below). Given that I am
responsible for overall Java security, I am interested to hear what
specific security problems you were thinking and why these had impact
on what you were discussing. (Please CC me on your reply.) Thanks.

Li

    --
    Li Gong, PhD
    Java Security Architect and Senior Engineering Manager
    JavaSoft, Sun Microsystems, Cupertino, California, USA
    Email: gong@eng.sun.com
    Web: http://java.sun.com/people/gong
    Tel: 408-343-1825 and Fax: 408-343-1993

    > ------------- Begin Forwarded Message -------------
    >
    > Date: Thu, 2 Oct 97 21:34 PDT
    > From: "L. Peter Deutsch" <ghost@aladdin.com>
    > To: donpark@quake.net
    > CC: ivo@hasc.com, java2d-interest@Sun.COM
    > Subject: Re: Images from a server?
    >
    > > PNG was not an option because Netscape does not support PNG.
    >
    > I was told second-hand that Unisys had browbeat Netscape into thinking that
    > the deflate compression method used in PNG might conceivably be affected by
    > the Welch patent, and Netscape caved in by not supporting PNG -- despite the
    > fact that W3 either has approved or is far along the track to approving PNG
    > as a Web image format on a par with GIF.  Whether or not this story is true,
    > the claim is b*llsh*t.  The LZ77 method used in zlib and PNG was published
    > in the open literature before the Welch patent was filed or LZW was invented
    > (in fact, the LZW method covered by the Welch patent is a derivative of the
    > original LZ algorithm), and has been extensively researched against the
    > patent data base.
    >
    > > PNG also does not have multiple frame support for animation.
    >
    > Are you sure?  I haven't read the PNG spec lately, but I thought you could
    > concatenate multiple PNG images in a single file.
    >
    > > PNG with embeddable Java
    > > class support would be great for totally open graphics storage format.
    >
    > Given the security problems with Java and the non-ubiquity of Java
    > implementations (and the lack of good, or perhaps any, free ones), I think
    > it is still very important to solidify some reasonable raster and vector
    > storage formats without executable code, in addition to formats that can
    > include executable content (for which I agree Java is the obvious good
    > choice).  Unfortunately, the industry still seems to be diverging even in
    > the area of raster formats: FlashPix and PNG are new, and while I can't
    > evaluate the need for the former (it seems very complicated and to drag in
    > an amazing number of what are basically OS file system functions), I can't
    > help but think that adding zlib compression to TIFF would have been a better
    > approach than the latter.  As for vector formats, CGM has been around for a
    > long time and is not that bad, but I think a format with a more modern
    > graphics model would be better, and PDF or something close to it seems like
    > the obvious good choice to me.
    >
    > --
    >
    > L. Peter Deutsch         |       Aladdin Enterprises :::: ghost@aladdin.com
    > 203 Santa Margarita Ave. | tel. +1-650-322-0103 (AM only); fax +1-650-322-1734
    >                          | ** NOTE ^^^ NEW AREA CODE AS OF AUG. 1 ^^^ **
    > Menlo Park, CA 94025     |        http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html
    >             "Few things are impossible to diligence and skill."
    >
    > ------------- End Forwarded Message -------------
    >
    >

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