Re: What is wrong with Applets?
On 04/09/2010 06:16 PM, jesbox wrote:
There is major momentum for JavaScript and in some ways Flash to make
active code to run in the web browser.
The Java Applet technology seems largely forgotten. Are there
technical reasons for not using Java Applets?
Java has suffered from a noticeably long load time, so people do notice
when applets are loading.
AJAX also has somewhat looser security controls (you can load any HTTP
page you want with XHR (if you do a few things, none of which involves
signing your code), Java limits you to connections to your source server).
Predominantly, I think the major reason for the drop in use of Java
applets is that they stand out more in terms of UI. AJAX displays
basically using the same techniques as the webpage, so the UI is a lot
more seamless; Java applets will typically be using default Swing or AWT
settings, so they really stick out if they have anything hinting at UI.
If someone made something like AJAX but using Applets for the client-
side execution, how would that compare to the omnipresent JavaScript
solutions??
I'm not quite sure what you're asking here. Applets have pretty much
been more featureful than AJAX since AJAX was first contrived. Perhaps
people may find it just too hard to prototype stuff quickly in Java
compared to JS, but I've found that not to be the case whenever I've tried.
Are there issues with browser compatibility, security or inferior
functionality? Are Applets actually better but neglected??
Ultimately, I think applets are much more powerful than "Web 2.0" tools.
However, they do have very noticeable issues in terms of startup
performance and UI seamlessness.
--
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it. -- Donald E. Knuth