Question |
CGI |
Java |
JavaScript |
| In your capacity as managers, should you know about this? | probably yes, esp. if you work on building or changing the company web site (even on the most general level) | yes, certainly; unless/until its popularity fades, you are likely to face many decisions about whether to use Java in its different roles; e.g., whether to base your online store on Java | up to you; you really need it only if you work on the details of the company web site |
| Proprietary? | no | yes, Sun | yes, Netscape |
| Intended applications? | database access, form processing, shopping cart application | interactive web pages, shopping cart, database access, simulations, games, online conferencing; in general, anything: Sun builds computers on which everything is written in Java, including word processors and web browsers | only control of the browser: interactive forms, site navigation, interactive graphics |
| Where can the programs run? | on the server computer | usually within the client's browser; but in general, on any computer that has Java Virtual Machine | within the client's browser |
| Where can we see a nice demo? | DataSpot | Warp Page |
IE-style Site Navigation Interactive HTML Table Tutorial |
| How are applications developed? | any existing programming language can be used; e.g., in order of popularity, Perl, UNIX shell scripts, C, C++. | a full-scale language in its own right; powerful and simple, but very slow | a "toy" language that only allows to control the browser; cannot be compared to real programming languages |
| Makes the pages slower to download/view for the client? | no; only the output of the program is sent, not the program itself | yes; classes may be quite big, and it may take some time for Java applet to start | almost as fast as regular HTML |
| Creates a big load on the web server? | yes | no | no |
| May hang or slow down the visitor's browser or even computer (e.g. due to errors in programming or incompatibility)? | no | yes | no |
| Allows to create complex behaviour? | yes | yes | limited (whatever can be programmed in a couple of pages; anything larger is too difficult to design/maintain) |
| Allows interaction with data stored at the server? | yes | yes, but takes more time (must set up an HTTP connection with the server and wait for data to come to the client) | yes (same comment as for Java applies) |
| Allows graphical output in the visitor's browser? | yes, but all that graphics would need to go through the web, hence may load very slowly | yes | yes |
| Allows changing the page in real time (i.e. without any communication across the Internet)? | no | yes | yes |
| Author can hide their code from visitors? | yes | yes | no |
| Security problems for the server? | yes, but only if CGI program is not written carefully enough | no | no |
| Security problems for the client? | no | yes | yes |
| Requires special compiler to create? | yes, unless the script is in UNIX shell language | yes | no |
| Compatibility problems? | no | slight (Netscape 3.0, IE 4.0 are ok) | slight (Netscape 3.0, IE 4.0 are ok) |
| Where can we find additional information? |
NCSA MSA |
Making Sense of Java Jivin' to the Java Beat Sun's Java Pages Java Programming Resources |
The JavaScript Source JavaScript World |