more on Javascript, Perl, et alia

[JQ Johnson]

As several people on this list have noted, it's useful to distinguish
between server-side and client-side execution (even though some
applications of dynamic web pages might be implemented either way).
Perl is indeed the most popular current language for writing
server-side scripts, but there are alternatives, among them:
   -	Java.  We're starting to see talk of Java "servlets" that would
	run on the server, interact with other Java servlets on other
	servers, and provide a server-side execution environment that
	was very compatible with client-side Java applets
	[see news stories from Sun's JavaOne conference this week for
	details]
   -	database interfaces.  It's now common for commercial vendors to
	offer custom packages that allow server-side programming that
	allows easy integration with server-side databases.  Cold fusion
	is a typical example.
   -	any other programming language supported by your web server.  If
	you have a non-Unix web server, Perl may not even be a viable
	choice.

On the client side, it's more complex.  In addition to Javascript (which is
not, by the way, a subset of Java, though it has a few syntactic
similarities), you should watch for:
   -	Java
   -	Microsoft's ActiveX architecture -- an alternative to Java that
	provides (insecure!) integration with any OLE-compatible
	application, if your browser happens to be running on a wintel
	platform
   -	the programming capabilities built into essentially every one
	of the plugin extension languages currently being touted on the web.
	For example, instead of programming your client-side animation
	in Java, why not program in Macromedia Director?

My personal opinion of the near-term future:
   -	Perl will stay with us for a while as the preferred language for
	quick and dirty CGI applications on Unix servers.  But you won't 
	see the next generation of big elaborate CGI applications written 
	in Perl.
   -	Java will be very very important, both on client and server sides
   -	Javascript will disappear (too many security problems; not
	compatible with MSIE; poor language design)
   -	ActiveX will be important, but more so in corporate intranets
	than in academia (due to security issues and cross-platform
	incompatibility)
   -	the web will fragment, with much more variety of programming
	environment and document formats than we see today.

 JQ Johnson                       office: 115F Knight Library
 Academic Education Coordinator   Internet: jqj at darkwing.uoregon.edu
 1299 University of Oregon        v: 541.346.1746; fax: 541.346.3485
 Eugene, OR  97403-1299           <URL:http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/>