[WEB4LIB] RE: Netscape plug-ins and helpers

[Charles F. Bearden]

On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, John T. Benedetto wrote:

> On Wed, 13 Jan 1999, Charles F. Bearden wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 8 Jan 1999, Hagen Amen wrote:
> > > Why can't you just remove the actual plug-in from the plug-ins
> > > directory?
> > > Hagen Amen
> > > MCL Automation Services
> > > 
> > > On Thu, 7 Jan 1999, Kucera, Ann wrote:
> 
> > > > According to our PC help desk, the only way to get rid of the plug
> > ins is to
> > > > uninstall Netscape and reinstall it without the plug ins.
> 
> > Sometimes the problem is in the associations between the file 
> > extensions and the plugins, e.g. the Real Player plugin has claimed 
> > the .rpm extension, which makes it impossible to download Red Hat 
> > (or, I suspect, Caldera or SUSE) Linux packages.
> > :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> > Chuck Bearden                                   cbearden at rice.edu
> 
> I wasn't aware that the Red Hat files were ".rpm" but two thoughts popped
> in my head when I read your message...
> 
> - Does RealPlayer count as a plug-in?  I thought it claimed the .rm and
> .ram extensions... did not know about .rpm.  I would call it a helper app,
> not a plug-in. That is a slight difference, but significant in this case.  
> It has it's own uninstall options, both in the control panel, and in the
> "Real" program group.

The version I recently downloaded for the Windows platforms does 
install as a plugin.  It doesn't appear in the list of helper apps, 
but does appear in the "About Plugins" screen.  It shows the correct 
MIME-type there, but it gives .rpm (not .ra .rm or .ram as one might 
think) as the only extension!

I just now tried to verify the downloading of an RPM file after 
installing RPlayer for Windows, but updates.redhat.com wasn't 
responding.  When I tried this before, it did indeed start up RealPlayer.
 
> - to save a file, just SHIFT-click it.  I do that all the time.  You
> should also be able to right-click it, and have an option to save it.
> While you cannot save streaming media, such as RealPlayer files, you can
> save many many other types.

Thanks for reminding me of this option, which I often forget.  I'll 
try it next time I can connect to updates.redhat.com from a Windows 
box.  It lets one get around misconfigured webservers sometimes (last 
I checked, three of RealNetwork's six U.S. download servers sent a 
MIME-type of text/plain when I downloaded RealPlayer). 

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Chuck Bearden                                   cbearden at rice.edu
Electronic Resources Librarian    
Fondren Library--MS44                        713 / 527-8101 x3634
Rice University                              713 / 737-5859 (fax)
P.O. Box 1892
Houston, TX 77251-1892
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