[fpc-pascal] Creating FPC enabled websites

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Tue, 3 Mar 2009, Andrew Brunner wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 2:44 PM, Joost van der Sluis <joost at cnoc.nl> wrote:
> >
> > If users use the application constantly, don't use a web-application.
> >
> > So the things explained in this document from IBM is usefull for very
> > large systems which a lot of users (Like Amazon, but they also don't
> > like the idea of a full-blown javascript application) or some idiots who
> > do things in a web-application while they shoudn't.
> >
> > Joost.
> >
> 
> I disagree. I think a migration to web based software development
> offers many benefits over desktop software.  Instant deployment, and
> Object Orientated JS via ProtoType is completely doable.  And if you
> find bugs or memory leaks I'm sure they'll get worked out in the next
> revision.
> 
> I've done some awesome Realtime Apps with my custom Information Server
> (built in Dephi) for the backend, and HTML/CSS/JS for the front.
> 
> Let's not forget the promise of Cloud Computing and its benefits as well.

I've heard all this before since 10 years, and it is only true for small 
applets used by a broad public.

For large applications (1500+ windows) that stay open virtually all day
and are used by a specialized public, the benefits of web-based are zero,
and are even contraproductive. They mostly clog the server with code 
designed solely to maintain some form of user session state on the server.

The sole advantage of web apps is ease of distrubution. It is countered
by the fact that there are still many non-compliant browsers out there.
(or you could require version X of browser Y, but then you're back in
c/s territory)

To prove my point I once did performance tests with AJAX, SOAP and whatnot 
technologies when compared to a specialized C/S protocol. In general the 
conclusion was that SOAP and standards-based applications worked 6 times 
slower. Also something to take into consideration, because it meant that
6 times more people could work on a single server simultaneously.

Michael.