[fpc-pascal] Servlet server for Fpc apps

[Doug Chamberlin]

Michael Van Canneyt wrote:
> What I want doesn't matter. Our clients want rich web 2.0 webapps. 
> 
> I just want to make them in pascal and keep the codebase and know-how 
> I have in my team.
> 
> If it was up to me, client/server would do the job just fine. But I cannot
> ask all parents of all pupils of all our schools to install a client
> application:
> a) They don't want it. They are mostly computer agnostic, but they can surf the internet.
> b) Our helpdesk would find and emigrate to an unknown island somewhere in the 
>    south pacific because of the installation and upgrade problems :-)

This is a position that I have not been able to understand for several 
years now.

(Since Delphi can easily create self-contained, install-less 
applications, I'm assuming FPC can as well.) So why not create a link on 
the web site, where the users start, that downloads the program and runs 
it. The program then talks TCP/IP direct to an application server to get 
all data just like it would talk to a web server.

No installation required. This is what Java Web Start is all about and 
it works really, really well. You can do the same thing.

I believe the only reason customers ask for browser-based RIA is that is 
the only choice they are familiar with because the media are all abuzz 
about it. Other, better choices have been around for a long time that 
solve the same problem.