slayeroffice - web experiments gone horribly awry

Looking for the drawings? They're over here, and my drawing blog is this way.

Color Picker ActiveX Experiment

  • Current Version: 1.0
  • Last Revision: 04.19.2004
  • Language: Javascript/ActiveX(VB)

Simon Willison posted on his site yesterday a request for a bookmarklet that would allow you to see the hex color value of the pixel beneath the mouse cursor.

I had given some consideration to this same idea a few months ago but abandoned the project because of the requirements of the code:

  • A Win32 OS
  • MSIE5+
  • ActiveX

I generally try to stay away from ActiveX as a rule, but that's really the easiest way to accomplish this particular task. I suspect Java could do it as well - but it would have to be signed to even work, unlike activeX which can be coerced into working by lowering your security settings. I have no desire to drop the cash required to get a cert for either.

I thought I would post the results of my experiment in the off chance that someone might benefit from my very sloppy, purely experimental code. Give it a look here.. Requirements as stated above - you'll also need to set slayeroffice as a "Trusted Site" in MSIE's security settings and set the appropriate settings to enable activeX components for it to work.