QuickTime 7.3 Javascript and Safari 3.0.4 on MAC OS X 10.4.11 is BROKE

Question

*UNBELIEVABLE lack of QA on APPLE's part!!!* I am totally embarrassed by this, guys... I've been successfully using the embedded object method of instantiating QT movies since May of 2007 on Safari first; and Firefox, et al browsers second. Safari was the clear winner when it came to movie file load times, and blew away number two(firefox); but recent releases(in the past couple of weeks) have broken their own browser by displaying a sad little 'Q' logo instead.
To add insult to injury, I am developing a RIA(Rich Internet App) that relied on this H.264 decoder's ability to run reverse rate speeds of -2x, -4x, and -8x like a champ. Now, sadly; that TOO is broken and only reverse rates of anything > -1 and < 0 seem to work. Did I mention I delved into the Javascript code in AC_QuickTime.js and found even more embarrassing code to report. I didn't use these functions, because I chose to procedurally create DOM child nodes in JavaScript to do the work of adding in <object><embed></embed></object> structures, and APPLE uses a sophomoric technique of building up a concatenated string of literal XHTML4 code. Okay, so that's not as big a problem as them BREAKING the tool; but it might be a hint into the quality of staff they employ to provide these interfaces to us.
Sooooo. What's next, ya'll? I need to move on, and will; but I sure hope someone will help cattle prod these guys into better QA upon subsequent releases; and please keep me advised of when the fix finally arrives. Sorry about the rant; but these type of goofs could've been avoided in my humble, but vocal opinion.

Answer 1

Hello Again. I'm back after referring to the web page you sent me, fellow Texian; and appreciate your time. I dug into this section of text with a fine tooth comb, and discovered this was written for IE-centric developers; which I'm guessing you might be first. I'm a SAFARI first kind of dude, just because I'm too lazy to use anything else to get started on my MACBOOK PRO. I see the explanations of what you refer to(and the documentation refers to as "external"), but it's still a function call in the AC_JavaScript.js file, which I've seen before. EMBED is STILL ALIVE and in use here, FYI.
Nothing was different about my usage, except that I attacked the problem from a lower level.... BUT... I DID find one subtle thing that I had been getting away with since last May 2007; and Safari's JavaScript interpreter just let me do it. In the OBJECT tag, the use of PARAM was being used for the SRC argument. So, I dug into my JAVASCRIPT BIBLE(6th edition) authored by Danny Goodman et al, and in the Bonus Chapter section here is what I'd like to share:
The PARAM is considered an ODD CASE, per the authors, and it is uniquely passed to Applets, plug-ins, and activeX controls, as one would do on the server side using JAVA NATIVE INTERFACE calls from JAVA to a compiled DLL or SHARED OBJECT file. SWIG is another example of interpretive interfaces to native code methods and variables. The authors go on to say you can't really get to them with JavaScript calls, or alter them because of this uniqueness and the fact that they are bound at load time only. So, you MUST use PARAM and not Attribute or Property because they are truly different; and it's the way that APPLE provides the interface to their decoder we know and love as QuickTime. APPLE just fixed their oversight and tightened the restrictions on this in their latest release, and my old code was made to adhere to the W3C standard all of a sudden.
I went into my DOM node method and changed the element to be of type PARAM, and everything I knew to have worked before was suddenly reinstated. What's odd is how this misapplication of attribute allowed FIREFOX on MAC OS X to load, play, pause, and FF without error, but exhibited the reverse rate problem only -- that's too weird.
In closing, you or the article may not have solved my problem directly, but through this conversation; it stimulated my thinking to find the root of the problem from a different
pathway.
Cheers and Happy Holidays and I hope I don't have to bother the forum again anytime soon -- if you know what I mean, jellybean... And sorry APPLE for my first impressions -- I brag on you guys to my boss all the time, making him wish he'd switch to MAC instead. My motto still lives, "ONCE YOU GO MAC; YOU NEVER GO BACK!"
Carl Eckhardt