[MUD-Dev] javascript

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

[Chris Gray:]

> Why JavaScript (Active Scripting, to MS folks) rather than straight Java?

It is a matter of curiosity, but javascript/dhtml is more important to
browser vendors than java, so I think you may see better quality (read
stability) there in the future.

> Java would run faster for anything needed on the client side, 

Display code is the real bottleneck, with javascript you will rely on
the browser engine.  You should keep the client so small that the user
can access your world with the same speed and ease as when you access a
regular webpage. I don't think java loads fast enough, or without
complications..

Think of it as putting a mouse trap on the web.  "Oops, what is this?
Kinda neat..." And naive users are good because they don't know of
anything better and are reluctant to learn a new interface after
learning yours.

> and at least
> has a security model. That could lead to more people being content to
> run it. I know I refuse to run JavaScript in my browser, but could be
> convinced to run Java in it for a good cause. Also, with Java, you can
> make your stuff run as either an Applet in a browser, or as a standalone
> Java application.

But you and your likes are < 1% of the overall web population so it
doesn't really matter if you are right and I am wrong.  Most potential
users are dead wrong. :)

The real challenge is to come up with something very simple and powerful
that 50-90% of the web population can load and use.

Ola.




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