A lot of small software modules for communication over the web are much
better and more adjustmentable than one big software product (like today's
leading browsers).
For examle, on the user's system there is an application which supports
TCP/IP, and which runs the needed client (like HTTP, FTP, mail, IRC, etc.),
which is another software module. The client runs the needed interpretor for
the MIME type of the data.
To find the needed clients or interpretors, the active software module could
use a special server and port (on the local computer or on the network, for
example 127.0.0.1 on port 1234) which held the information about installed
clients or interpretors. To get the information, the application should use
a new protocol (for example a request like "client: HTTP" or "interpretor:
XHTML" and a answer like the needed command line to run the client or
interpretor).
Daniel Kraft
PS: Sorry for spelling or grammar mistakes, I'm form Austria.
---
http://www.daniel-kraft.net/