Re:

["Kevin 'Tex' Houston" <hous0042@maroon.tc.umn.edu>]

Steve VanDevender wrote:
> 
> Rex Lessa Timothy writes:
>  > I think we should use Java instead of SGI-scripts. They have the advantage
>  > that people from all platforms (DOS, Mac, Unix) can program them, so we have
>  > more independance.
>  > Besides that, Java(script) is clearly something that will overrule SGI in
>  > the futere (with a few exceptions of course).
>  > I'm quite sure that in half a year, almost everyone has a Java-compatible
>  > browser, those that haven't are probably not interested enough (You can get
>  > it for free for almost all platforms, and installation is almost without
>  > problems).
>  >
>  > Timothy
> 
> Do you mean CGI (Common Gateway Interface) instead of SGI (Silicon
> Graphics, Incorporated)?
> 
> 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.
>

I think I agree with Steve here.  a lot of the people coming to our site will
be university students sitting in a computer lab (avoiding their homework)
using Lynx or some other text browser.  For the near-term, we should try to 
make sure that our pages work the widest possible audience.  While Java works
great in Netscape and other browsers, CGI works fine also.   

> 
> I also happen to believe that the Web is not just for people with
> Netscape or other graphical browsers.  I can't tell you how disgusted I
> am dealing with "Netscape-enhanced" pages or pages that work only in
> graphical browsers.

The web is for all people, certainly, but if certain sites don't want to take the 
trouble to code the alt="" tags, then text-onlies just have to live with it.  Of
course, the sites that behave that way get fewer hits.  and alienate many potential
friends.

Kevin.