I am developing a web application that aims to give a desktop feeling for the end user. That means I need a cross-browser feeling to the application (who doesn't? eheh).
So, I found about .htc files, for working around some IE tweaks (doesn't support border-radius yet, for example). My doubt is: Why isn't everyone using them? Does it come with some problems I am ignoring? From the place I am seeing, it appears to be almost the holy grail for the front-end programmers...
Quoting Wikipedia:
HTML Components (HTCs) are a
nonstandard mechanism to implement
components in script as Dynamic HTML
(DHTML) "behaviors"[1] in the
Microsoft Internet Explorer web
browser. Such files typically use an
.htc extension.
An HTC is typically an HTML file (with
JScript / VBScript) and a set of
elements that define the component.
This helps to organize behavior
encapsulated script modules that can
be attached to parts of a Webpage DOM.
In two paragraphs, the following are mentioned:
- Internet Explorer
- JScript
- VBScript
- nonstandard
I think it's obvious why not everybody is using this technology.
How to use border-radius.htc with IE to make rounded corners
The server has to server the HTC with the correct MIME type (text/x-component)
That alone is enough to stop JavaScript frameworks such as jQuery or MooTools from being able to use them. The dependency on configuring anything a server in order to get client-side functionality working is beyond unacceptable.
It's a real pity though, htc files really are capable of a lot of interesting things.