HTML user interface alternatives - a quick look at Flash, CURL, XWT, and Norpath. We are not impressed and wonder why we wouldn't just use infragistics or roll our own html.
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Error:org.xwt.HTTP$HTTPException: HTTP Error: 404 Not Found . Impressive. By the way, the splash screen is still on my screen and taking up space in my taskbar. Guess I'll have to reboot to make it go away. ... Oh! My bad - I see the process in my task manager. xwt-0268.exe, occupying 6.9Mb of memory.
Here's an excerpt from their documentation:
The Shoehorn this is a very small piece of code that is downloaded the first time a client uses XWT. It displays the splash screen, downloads the XWT engine, verifies its signature, and launches it with the appropriate parameters indicating where to find the initial UI. The Shoehorn works differently on every platform, and is outside the scope of this document.The 'shoehorn', that very small piece of code, is the supra-megabyte thing. Here's a part of a screenshot of the first page of the xwt online documentation:
Maybe that's why xwt.org is so anxious to stop using HTML ? And maybe I'll take another look at xwt when they make their 'sodium' release; or maybe the ununquadrium release.
A piece of advice to the xwt team: white text on black background, with dark graphics, is about what I would expect from a website run by a 16 year old goth girl with staples through her nose. Appearance counts, guys.
Norpath Elements Studio is a new generation, multipurpose authoring system ideal for creating a wide range of interactive solutions including learning applications, rich multimedia presentations, web, interactive kiosks, and simulations. Norpath Elements is a state-of-the-art solution with many powerful and unique features allowing non-programmers to create intelligent, interactive applications without having to write code or learn a scripting language. Norpath Elements Studio includes a comprehensive suite of easy to use object-based tools including drawing, animation, multimedia, knowledge, interaction, and application logic. The free Norpath Elements Player makes it easy to deliver and manage content created with Norpath Elements Studio. The Player is a one time install that can run standalone or as a web browser plug-in. The Player includes many convenient features for live presentations, web, and kiosk environments. The free Player is a Java™ based technology and is available for a wide range of platforms.The IDE is priced at $500 (approximately) and versions are available for Windows and MAC. I'm not sure I like that bit about 'allowing non-programmer to create ... applications'. The interface looks a bit like Visio or VB Soft Wire. The product appears to be aimed pretty specifically at the education market. Their product tour seems to emphasize things like training and testing.
Definition: The Semantic Web is the abstract representation of data on the World Wide Web, based on the RDF standards and other standards to be defined. It is being developed by the W3C, in collaboration with a large number of researchers and industrial partners.-- DaleBrayden - 15 Feb 2003