RE:

[David Levine <David@InterWorld.com>]

>Having worked with CGI a fair amount and knowing more or less what Java
>is, I can't agree at all with your proposition.  While you can do a lot
>of neat things with Java applets, they are by no means a complete
>replacement for CGI -- most importantly, because Java applets run on
>your computer rather than on the web server, there are things that would
>be easy to do with CGI that would be almost impossible to do with Java.
>Certainly, the converse is also true; you can do things in Java that are
>almost impossible to do with CGI.
>
>Probably the most useful thing you can do with CGI is search databases
>on a server or do other computation- or data-intensive tasks that would
>be impractical on a typical personal computer.  I can't see any
>efficient way to do that using Java applets.  You won't see Alta Vista
>(http://www.altavista.digital.com/) implemented as a Java applet any
>time soon.

Sun is developing a new type of java program... in addition to applications
and applets, we will soon have servlets.  Servlets allow you to use java
to extend the functionality the same way a CGI does... the difference
being that CGI scripts are new processes, while java servlets (like ISAPI
or NSAPI dll's) are merely new threads - hence providing a substantial
savings in memory and an AMAZING savings in speed.  Take it from someone
in the business... computationally intensive server-side programs will
soon all be written as a library to a server using a special API, whether as
C/C++ code (the majority right now) or as a java servlet (coming soon to
a theater near you).  Our company switched (first to NSAPI, then to ISAPI)
from CGI over a year ago, and the savings in every facet of performance
has been truly unbelievable.  Our company wouldn't exist today if we were
still using CGI... we just wouldn't be competitive.

I __DO__ however, agree with Steve that not everyone will have a
Java or Javascript capable browser, and it will be much smarter to
write any computations as server-side (whether using APIs or CGI)
as it will be compatible with EVERYONE, even Lynx.