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RE:
- To: Rex & Timothy <Lessa@worldnet.att.net>, "'Steve VanDevender'" <stevev@efn.org>
- Subject: RE:
- From: David Levine <David@InterWorld.com>
- Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 15:44:31 -0400
- Cc: "KellySt@aol.com" <KellySt@aol.com>, "kgstar@most.fw.hac.com" <kgstar@most.fw.hac.com>, "jim@bogie2.bio.purdue.edu" <jim@bogie2.bio.purdue.edu>, "zkulpa@zmit1.ippt.gov.pl" <zkulpa@zmit1.ippt.gov.pl>, "hous0042@maroon.tc.umn.edu" <hous0042@maroon.tc.umn.edu>, "rddesign@wolfenet.com" <rddesign@wolfenet.com>
- Cc: "lparker@destin.gulfnet.com" <lparker@destin.gulfnet.com>, "DotarSojat@aol.com" <DotarSojat@aol.com>, "neill@foda.math.usu.edu" <neill@foda.math.usu.edu>, "101765.2200@compuserve.com" <101765.2200@compuserve.com>, "T.L.G.vanderLinden@student.utwente.nl" <T.L.G.vanderLinden@student.utwente.nl>, "pbakelaar@exit109.com" <pbakelaar@exit109.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.