Re: Netscape the Big Win

[Ray Cromwell <rjc@clark.net>]

> >   The answer is: integration. While TRN is a great newsreader, and 
> >Eudora's a great mail reader, etc, if I read a post in TRN or a message
> >in Eudora, there is no hyperlinking. If I see a link or reference,
> 
> If you used a Mac, all you had to do is click on the URL in your mailer,
> newsreader, even some text editors, and the correct helper aplication will
> open the URL.

  Yeah, but does it fire up 1 browser process everytime you click on it, or
will it command an already running browser to follow the link? Secondly,
this still doesn't solve the problem of interactive content and custom
interfaces. With Java, you can build arbitrarily complex web interfaces
with objects that can be linked together. An example of this is Sun's
Spreadsheet Java App which is connected to a StockQuote app which runs
a cute ticker tape scroller in the page. If you fill out the spreadsheet
with stock symbols and amounts, it automagically updates your net-worth
in real time, and simultanteously updates a line graph of your net worth
in a window below. I can imagine a newsreader app which automagically
pulls ratings down from a server and communicates with other apps in the
same page.

(plus, Tetris, Reversi, and Video Poker running within a web page with
text and links wrapped around them is really cool!)

-Ray