Henry found the URL listed below interesting. I found it to be another telling example of the incredibly overblown puffery surrounding Java scripts. If this is an example of what Java can/will deliver, it will never find acceptance in my corner of the world. The most glaring short-coming of this technology is that it fails to provide any indication of when it is active vs when it is waiting for input. That, coupled with rather slow network connections in most cases, dooms it to failure in its current mode. Example: From the opening screen window, which looks like some kind of structure drawing program, I clicked on the right button labeled aromatics. The button depressed, then NOTHING HAPPENED FOR 30 SECONDS. That is forever when you are sitting in front of a computer screen and are expecting some response. Then a new window opened - blank - and nothing happened for about 10 seconds. Finally, I got a menu of aromatic structures. Then I clicked on one of them. Repeat the experience just described above. On my Apple system, when I supply input to an application, and there is going to be a significant delay in response, the system/application alerts me to be patient by showing a clockface, hour glass, or some other icon that indicates the system is busy, but it knows I am waiting and will return a response as soon as it can. When I supply input to a Java applet, my cursor disappears and then nothing happens for seconds or more typically - minutes. Then, several mouse clicks later, the applet starts responding, but usually it is responding to a state that existed several minutes ago, not the state that exists now. When I see this delayed response, my reaction is - Hey, maybe it is working now - so I click again to try to do what I initially began. But the result is merely repeated. The applet has to start again, my cursor disappears, there is no indication of what, if anything is going on, or how long it might be before I should expect a response. Reading through the E-mail comments suggests others are similarly frustrated. Most of the developer responses take the form - please allow time time for the application to load, response may be slow due to loading delays, etc. Please, people, get real. This is not a viable system in its present state. The only thing you are doing by showing off such crippled examples is convincing me not to believe anything I hear about Java. Others may have similar responses. Tim Pickering Virginia Tech =============>>

Date: Sun, 2 Feb 1997 22:08:38 GMT Reply-To: h.rzepa@ic.ac.uk Originator: chemweb@ic.ac.uk Sender: chemweb@ic.ac.uk Precedence: bulk From: "Rzepa, Henry" <h.rzepa@ic.ac.uk> To: Multiple recipients of list <chemweb@ic.ac.uk> Subject: Active Labs demo X-Comment: Chemistry Webmasters Discussion list

This is an interesting URL for client/server based Java chemistry applications

http://www.acdlabs.com/activelab/

If anyone has come across similar environments, do please post this list.

Dr Henry Rzepa, Dept. Chemistry, Imperial College, LONDON SW7 2AY; rzepa@ic.ac.uk; Tel (44) 171 594 5774; Fax: (44) 171 594 5804. URL: http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/

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