Building a Web Interface
I would like to build a web browser interface that has capabilities like a spreadsheet.
At the same time, would like to use a tool like OpenROAD from Ingres/CA to do this.
It seems that XUL is the way to go but the entire Mozilla thing is unstable.
Perhaphs [there are] other alternatives ?
There are always
alternatives. There are four processing locations in the architecture you’re
describing:
- On the desktop via
a separate application or component that a user downloads. For example, in
Windows, an ActiveX control can lodge on the desktop, interact with Excel (if
present) and be a spreadsheet, not
spreadsheet-like.
- In the
browser as a Java applet. Some other plugins are possible, also. For non-Java
plugins, the users must download and install the plugin, then your application
will be handled by the plugin. For instance, the Tcl plugin can do this by
creating a Tk interface from the
plugin.
- In the browser as a
complex form with Javascript programming to handle all of the spreadsheet-like
capabilities. This implies a lot of Javascript and little
persistence.
- In the web server
as a complex form. Each interaction will take a while, since it will all be
done by the web server, but every step is now
persistent.
None of these depend
on Mozilla’s XUL.
The issue, BTW,
is not the stability of Mozilla – it is a better-engineered piece of software
than most. The issue is the adoption of XUL; if Explorer doesn’t adopt it, then
it will languish in a nook somewhere with all the other great ideas that never
took off.