[MUD-Dev] Re: (fwd) AD: [custom graphical] whitestar Crossfire MUD

[Matt Chatterley]

On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Ben Greear wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Dr. Cat wrote:
> 
> > I'm really wondering, though - why are they requiring you to download the 
> > Java and run it locally, instead of making it an applet that runs from 
> > the web page?  "Most people" can browse to a web page that runs some java 
> > program or other.  While "most people" could also, conceivably, download 
> > a Java run-time environment, install it, download Crossfire, and then run 
> > it...  I can pretty much guarantee that "most people" won't go to that 
> > much trouble.  Java's benefit of wider availability through 
> > cross-platform compatibility is only actually realized if people can run 
> > the applet by just clicking on a link on the web to start it.
> > 
> > Any word on whether the authors intend to set the app up to run that way?
> > Is there some benefit to doing it the way they did, like better execution 
> > speed?
> 
> The best reason I can think of is that with an application writing to
> the local disk is easy, and much faster than downloading across the net.
> This could allow you to cache graphics and other things as well as
> save state.  You can also do this as a trusted applet I believe, but
> I haven't seen much info on how to do it, and I'm not sure of the
> limitations and speed issues.  To run java 1.1 stuff you have to spend
> the time to download IE 4.01 or NS 4.0[45] and install a java patch
> (on NS).  These downloads are in the range of 20 MEG!!

Also you don't have the additional (very significant) overhead of running
the browser as well, plus you are more likely to get a functional VM - I
still hear complaints that there are things broken in the browsers.

A lot of people do forget that Java can produce powerful applications as
standalone - and the download to install Java is far smaller than it is to
install a new browser. :)

--
Regards,
	-Matt Chatterley
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.." -John Lennon (Imagine)


--
MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.