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- 2 — Microsoft's Vision of the Internet's Future

- Combining Connectivity with Computing
- How Is ActiveX Different from Java?

- How Does ActiveX Fit into the Big Internet Picture?

- How the Internet and the Web Changes with ActiveX

- The Internet Today
- The World Wide Web Today
- The Internet and Web with ActiveX

- What's Next

##
2 — Microsoft's Vision of the Internet's Future

For the most part, when people want to make use of information on the Internet, they use Internet-connectivity software specifically designed to be an excellent communicator, such as a Web browser. When people want to create new information, they use business applications with computational abilities, such as a spreadsheet or word processor. Because most connectivity programs don't have much computational ability (which I like to call "smarts"), when people use them to surf the Internet, they generally don't create new information—they simply view existing information stored remotely. Presently, most business applications don't have any serious Internet connectivity built in, so when new information is created using these applications, real work occurs only locally, without remote Internet access or work-sharing between remote users.

The Internet, however, has grown enough in sophistication, reliability, and speed to support a new class of programs, one that blends the smarts of business applications and the communications abilities of Internet programs. All that's needed to take advantage of the Internet for real computing is the software tools to make it happen, and Microsoft is creating the tool to do it: ActiveX.

This chapter suggests what sort of applications can be created by using ActiveX, hypothesizes how the Internet can be used in the near future, and looks at how the Internet is currently being used with the first ActiveX-enabled applications.

###
Combining Connectivity with Computing

ActiveX combines two traditionally separate types of applications into one, with an emphasis on one type of application or another. For example, ActiveX can give an Internet application, such as a Web browser, true computing power and give a business application, such as a spreadsheet, true Internet connectivity—ready to use existing Internet protocols to communicate with the outside world with the single click of a mouse button.

In other words, ActiveX makes an entire range of Internet-enabled programs possible. On one side of the scale, a Web browser might perform simple computations itself, easing the burden on a traditional Web server; on the other side, a word processor might use its built-in Internet connectivity to allow remote filesaving through FTP sites. Somewhere in the middle, a spreadsheet might have a "chat window" in it to allow two people connected through the Internet to work on the same spreadsheet file at the same time, without a separate Internet communications program and even without dedicated Web or FTP servers. (See Figure 2.1.)

Figure 2.1. What ActiveX can accomplish—different classes of programs.

This example of the spreadsheet application is possibly the most exciting, since it breaks completely new ground by combining elements of traditional computing and connectivity programs, allowing people separated by vast distances to get real work done through the Internet. With this sort of spreadsheet program, not only can the two collaborators "chat" by typing messages to each other in real-time, but they can work on the same worksheet file at the same time—as one person enters values, the other sees them instantly and can further modify them.

With ActiveX, business applications can indeed communicate effectively over the Internet, and Internet communications programs could compute information for themselves, reducing Internet bandwidth and increasing speed.

###
How Is ActiveX Different from Java?

Without getting into ActiveX specifics yet, it's important to point out that some of what's been described seems similar to what can be done by using Sun Microsystems Java programming language—but not all of it, and certainly not in the same way.

Java, an object-oriented language that looks and feels like C++, excels at bringing some computational power to Java-enabled Internet communications programs, mostly Web browsers for now. Although it has communications abilities, these abilities are used with the existing communications abilities of Web browsers and aren't expected to be communicators on their own. Java can be written to perform all communications itself—and even to create entire applications from scratch—but it seems that only Sun itself can write an entire application with Java from scratch (such as the HotJava Web browser).

ActiveX, on the other hand, is designed to be easy to use for not only adding smarts to existing communications programs such web browsers, but also for adding Internet communications ability to existing business applications and for creating entirely new hybrid applications from scratch, using familiar methods and a range of programming languages.

####
How Does ActiveX Fit into the Big Internet Picture?

For the most part, ActiveX works with a minimum amount of standards rewriting for the Internet, which is important if ActiveX is to gain popularity. In fact, it embraces a great deal of existing technology, so even programmers and clever Web page authors who have already dived headfirst into learning Java and JavaScript find that what they know is enhanced by using ActiveX. Here's how ActiveX Technology can be combined with existing technology to create active, innovative Web pages:

- ActiveX makes use of existing standards, such as URLs and Internet communications protocols already familiar to Internet users. New, dedicated servers aren't required for ActiveX-enabled Web pages or applications
- You can use ActiveX modules, called controls, alongside existing Java applets in your Web pages, so using old and new computing features in a Web page is possible.
- With ActiveScripting, you can still use JavaScript to "glue together" new ActiveX controls on a Web page, allowing complete flexibility and providing a bridge to ease the transition from old to new technology.
- When new features and protocols are needed for new types of communication, ActiveX can encapsulate its new commands and protocols within existing ones, eliminating the need for new types of Internet servers as new technology and software is introduced.

###
How the Internet and the Web Changes with ActiveX

It's not quite accurate to say that ActiveX will change the Internet; instead, it will change the way people use it and think about it. After all, the Web and hypertext didn't change the Internet either—they, too, merely changed the way people used it and thought about it. In fact, when you review the current state of both the Internet and the Web, you can see how ActiveX will change how you use the Internet.

####
The Internet Today

This section's discussion on the Internet outlines not necessarily the cabling and hardware that connect networks, but rather how the Internet is used by people who aren't necessarily using a Web browser.

Without Web browsers, Web pages, and index sites like Yahoo, the Internet is basically location-centric, and information is tied intimately to its location. If you want to get information about a specific topic, since there aren't any links to follow, you would have to almost intrinsically know a gopher or FTP site, telnet IP address, or a specific newsgroup. Existing indexing programs must not only keep track of information and the sites the information is in, but also present these details on your screen in a useful way.

However, once you do locate a site with information you're interested in, have figured out how to interact with it (since any one of several communications protocols might be used), and sorted through file-type issues by using converters and such, the Internet is exceptionally useful. However, you must keep track of many things yourself: locations, formats, protocols, and different access programs. This was the scope of the Internet before the World Wide Web; without Web browsers, it continues to be.

####
The World Wide Web Today

If nothing else, the World Wide Web transformed the way the Internet is used—from being location-centric and program/protocol-centric to being information-centric. In effect (fancy graphics and special effects notwithstanding), the Web lets users concern themselves only with finding some information about the subject they're interested in; thanks to hypertext links, they can find similar information without worrying about locations or protocols. The Web browser acts somewhat like a common information viewer and retriever.

Once the Web browser finds existing information on the Internet, it's generally expected to just browse it—hence its name. It interacts only superficially with this information, unable to truly make changes. Also, Web browsers aren't universal file viewers. Their focus is to navigate the different protocols and networks that form the Internet and make it all look simple; therefore, not every bit of information can be viewed unless it's first converted into a browser-friendly format.

####
The Internet and Web with ActiveX

With the introduction of ActiveX, all of the above will remain true for those Internet users and Web surfers who aren't using ActiveX functionality. Since ActiveX doesn't force the online world to bend a certain way to work, existing web pages with "conventional" functionality can continue to function as they always have.. However, for those people using ActiveX-enabled programs and sites, three big changes are in store:

- Documents no longer need to remain static—that is, true interaction with either information or applications will be possible. This dynamic will permit "living documents" and sources of interactivity.
- Web sites don't have to be simply pretty stores of information—they can be interactive "Web applications." A site can perform a particular task, rather than just provide existing information.
- There will be interactive information sources online that are far more than simply "Web sites". Since ActiveX will enable business applications to use the Internet for communication, collaboration between people working on a common task won't need a central site to act as a "common ground" between them and their conventional "communications programs." Instead, they can use their Internet-enabled applications to work directly with other people's Internet-enabled applications, thus creating and calculating new information directly.

###
What's Next

The next section, beginning with Chapter 4, "The Components of ActiveX," begins exploring the specifics of ActiveX and shows you how to start using it today. Before you can, however, you need to use an ActiveX-enabled program in the form of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, version 3.0. The final chapter in this introductory section, "Internet Explorer 3.0: Microsoft's Gateway to the Internet's Future," shows you how to get and install version 3.0 of the Internet Explorer and highlights some of its newer features.

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