[lazarus] [OT] mywebos

[Michael A. Hess]

Baeseman, Cliff wrote:
> 
> Hey Mike H take a look at www.mywebos.com and tell me how on earth
> this thing is working. It will only run under IE 5.0 at the moment but
> does not seem to be running any plugins or java???

I signed up to look at it but it required IE5 on Windows. I run Netscape
and the most recent IE I have is version 4. If I have time to up grade
one of my machines to IE5 I take a more detailed look.

Anyway here is my take on what I was able to run so far.

It uses Javascript and DHTML (CSS/XML) to generate the user interface.
This is in fact very easy especially with IE5's features. I assume they
are sticking to IE5 since the work required to make it Javascript work
in BOTH IE and Netscape is a real pain.

The main crunching of the applications is performed via CGI and Web
Server modules located on the host machine. That is were all the files
are saved and all of the work is done. That is why you are given 20 Meg
of space. Without it you don't have any place to put your data.

Another way to envision it is that it works similar to X-Windows itself.
You can be accessing an XWindows server that is running the applications
and saving the content on the host machine while all of the visuals, the
windows and components are seen on your machine. VNC comes to mind. It
just uses Javascript and DHTML instead of XWindow stuff.  :-)

You know what the weird thing is? This is starting to go full circle. In
that past everything was run on main frames or mini-computers that were
accessed via dumb terminals. You know the vt100, vt220 kind of thing.
Then the big thing was to push all of the intelligence to the desktop.
Put the power of the computer in the hands of the user. Distributed
computing was the big term. It brought about the death of the main frame
and brought DEC to the point that Compaq could buy them out.

Now look what is going on. They are going back to centralized computing
power. Put all of the applications on one server where all of the
information and data is stored and use dumb PCs, or to use the current
jargen, Network PCs, to connect to these servers to do your work. So if
it continues along this line of development these servers will have to
grow in size to be able to accommodate the growing hord of users. Which
means what. Large clusters or main frame computers. Shsssssssssss.

-- 
==== Programming my first best destiny! ====

Michael A. Hess      Miracle Concepts, Inc.
mhess at miraclec.com   http://www.miraclec.com