> Jared Nielsen
>
> ActiveX controls aren't "executable programs", but when a browser loads
> them, and interpreter launches which spawns executable interpreted or
> compiled code embedded in the ActiveX control.. which by the way is no
> different from a .dll...
>
> This "passive executability" is identical to the functioning of a
> .pdf file.
There is nothing passive about the code in a dll or com control. The
difference between data and programs is who is directing the action. Data
does not 'do' anything. Programs 'do' things. Programs can make decisions
based on data, but without control structures and conditional operators, you
don't have a program. Scripting languages, interpreted languages, p-code
languages and compiled languages are all used to create programs. HTML,
XML, Rich Text, ASCII and EBCEDIC are all data file formats. I am not
intimately familiar with PDF, but unless it has control & conditional
structures it isn't a program. I will concede that it is possible to
construct trivial examples which perform no conditional operations and do
not use control structures, but they are beyond the scope of this
discussion. Also, some files blur the line, like ASP, PHP or SQL scripts,
and even Postscript (which is actually a program language that is used
almost exclusively for describing data).
-Brad
-------------
For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
