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On Friday 05 July 2002 17:10, Shawn Rutledge wrote:
> I agree.  The few applet exploits that have been discovered have been
> pretty tame curiosities.  I think the fear of Java is just a knee-jerk
> reaction, or maybe related to the slow start-up times on Netscape 4.x,
> or its broken threading model which can allow applets to hog CPU time.

I think you hit the nail right on the head.

> For performance reasons I also agree plain HTML is better when you can
> use it, but in some cases you need more interactivity than that.  But
> of course chatrooms can be built with frames, one frame pulling data
> from a CGI in real-time as the conversation progresses, and another frame
> with the form for posting a comment.  But some people get their panties
> in a knot about frames too, which I also don't understand.

This is a slightly better idea (Yahoo! Chat used to offer the HTML option).  I 
would also point out that the Macromedia Flash chat rooms I have seen seem to 
work well.

Concerning frames, it isn't that we have a problem with them.  The problem 
stems from the same source that the hate of Flash comes from: bad design.  
Oftentimes, the use of Flash and/or frames is an attempt to cover up a poor 
implementation of a web site.  In your example, frames would be perfectly 
acceptable.

Actually, skimming through this seems to sum up the frames issue:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9612.html

> Also why re-invent the wheel.. general-purpose IRC is better and
> perhaps more efficient than single-purpose chatrooms isn't it?

Now there is an idea!  I love it!  There are plenty of great IRC clients out 
there just waiting to be used.

On that note, what is the advantage of a mailing list over an NNTP server?  If 
we were using Usenet, then this whole discussion about overloading people's 
mail servers would never have happened. :-)

- -- 
						Voltage Spike
      ,,,
     (. .)
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