"Helper Application"?

[Richard Gaskin]

J. Landman Gay wrote:

> Richard Gaskin wrote:
>> The RevTalk Dictionary entry for the "environment" function lists 
>> "helper application" as one of the possible values the function can return:
>> 
>>    If the environment function returns "helper application",
>>    Revolution is running as a helper application, configured
>>    by a web browser to display web-based content.
>> 
>> That's not the same as the plugin, is it?  That entry is from the v3.0 
>> dictionary, long before the plugin was even in development.
>> 
>> What does it mean for a Rev standalone to be "configured by a web 
>> browser to display web-based content"?
> 
> Browsers let you specify what apps to open if they can't display web 
> content themselves. So if you click a .rev link on a web page, and you 
> have assigned the browser to use Rev to open .rev files, then the 
> browser will pass the link off to Revolution and launch it. It's the 
> same as assigning .doc files to Word. I didn't know the environment 
> would change when that happens though.

Me neither.

I've used Rev standalones as helper apps before, but IIRC the app just 
gets an odoc event when the browser hands it a stack, and the engine 
doesm't bother to notice whether it was handed the stack from a browser 
or the Finder.

I suspect this may be a holdover from the olden MC days when it was 
Unix-only.  Would be nice if there was a way a standalone could 
distinguish how it was launched, though.  There's a world of 
opportunities still unexploited with helper apps....

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Revolution training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com
  revJournal blog: http://revjournal.com/blog.irv