Newest Safari and liveconnect woes

Question

Dear all,
Part of my site relies on liveconnect, which is ok except for Apple users. Despite all Apple's bragging about its prowess in all matters Java, there seems to be no way at all to reach javascript properties and functions from an applet.
Nor is it possible to make tapping into an applet from javascript work with any browser, with the possible exception of their own Safari. If you have the Java 1.4.2 plugin, that is, or so Apple claims.
So I got the plugin, but it seems to no avail. For instead of simply not recognizing an applet as an object, Safari now returns the error that the Object applet does not allow calls. That, however, is simply untrue, as any wintel machine testifies.
The (uniquely named) applet is retrieved as:
document.getElementsByName("name_of_the_applet")[0]
In the applet tag the MAYSCRIPT attribute is present. Including it as MAYSCRIPT="true" or even adding it as a parameter does not make any difference.
Can liveconnect function on OSX.machines at all (version 10.3.4), or can't Apple cut it at all?
Thanks for all input,
Rik
(p.s. this sort of multidisciplinary question was also posted in the plug-in forum)

Answer 1

All the essential code was in my original post, it's not that complex. The error reported is exactly as I said:
"Object does not allow calls."
To see what happens, check out:
peptalks.nl/testjava/Applet.html
There, I put a minimal applet plus some javascript tapping into it: Four functions which should return different parts of the applet. The first three return a variable (string), a string constant returned by a method, and a string constant plus a string parameter from a method, respectively, the fourth switches the background color of the applet between red and yellow. The source code of the applet is at the bottom of this post, the javascript can be seen in the source of liveconnect.html itself.
This all works nicely on Wintel machines, but nothing works on apple of course, in any browser.
Another thing: a couple of days ago there was a liveconnect-demo somewhere inside the Apple site itself, which did not seem to work either. Since then, I've tried and tried to find it again, but it seems to have vanished into thin air. All that's left is Apple's repeated and confident but unsubstantiated claim that the newest Safari supports liveconnect.
Finally, the applet source:
import java.awt.Color;
public class Applet extends java.applet.Applet {
public String testvar = "testvar";
public String teststr() {
return "teststr";
public String teststrparam(String s) {
return "teststrparam (" + s + ")";
public void testvoid() {
if (getBackground() == Color.yellow) setBackground(Color.red);
else setBackground(Color.yellow);
repaint();
public void init() {
setBackground(Color.red);
} // end of class
Rik