One increasingly important platform that I believe does not support Java applets is the iPhone.
I think also that only recent versions of the Java plugin (>= 6 update 10, released within the last year) have included LiveConnect, which provides a standard way to manipulate the DOM within the applet (http://java.sun.com/javase/6/webnotes/6u10/plugin2/liveconnect/). In fact, I believe that Apple has not yet released Java 6 Update 10 for MacOSX. Javascript also has better browser integration than does Java. The browser's native zooming, for instance, will zoom in and out of a Javascript application correctly but not in and out of a Java applet (although I suppose that this would not be an issue for an applet that solely manipulated the DOM). I do think, however, that the recent releases of the Java plugin have a number of cool, innovative features that will make applets more competitive (of course, right now there are tasks that simply cannot be accomplished with Javascript). On the flip side, the most recent generation of browsers feature greatly enhanced Javascript engines, which will provide a better user experience to end users of Javascript applications (GWT is noticeably faster on Firefox 3 than on IE6 or IE7, for instance). Tony -- Tony Strauss Designing Patterns, LLC http://www.designingpatterns.com http://blogs.designingpatterns.com On Mar 29, 6:52 pm, Dobes Vandermeer <[email protected]> wrote: > After some more research it looks like the java plugin isn't as > popular as I thought, only 50%-80% penetration, whereas javascript is > supported in all browsers, and flash has 80%-99% penetration. > > Thus, applets are not cool ... oh well. > > On Mar 29, 3:17 pm, Dobes <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Recently while cursing the slowness of GWT compilation, the slowness > > in the browser, and the lack of Java 6 features, it occurred to me > > that if GWT had simply been built on top of the Java Applet technology > > it could really overcome these limitations. > > > Does anyone know why GWT wouldn't be much better if it were java > > bytecode running in an applet? All the major browsers support > > applets, the Java VM runs the code nice and fast, and applets have > > decent access to the DOM and the ability to run javascript. > > Everything that is needed to implement GWT is available to an applet, > > as far as I can tell. > > > Thoughts? > > > If I had time I'd experiment and try making a knock-off of GWT using a > > hidden applet so I could just write every in Java, run and debug it in > > the Java VM ... could even use Java's built-in RPC mechanism if I > > wanted to. Interesting concept, although it's likely I'm missing > > something important about why the GWT team didn't go this route in the > > first place. > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Web Toolkit" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Web-Toolkit?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
