Two years ago, World Wide Web pages that combined static hypertext and
graphics looked pretty good, and we enthusiasts widely dispersed Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) documents made with these elements. But soon users are
going to yawn at the thought of browsing such static Web sites. Many new
technologies that promise to breathe dynamic capabilities into the Web are
maturing, promising to forever change the face of the Internet. You will be able
to turn your Web page into a fully functional multimedia presentation by
integrating sophisticated 2D- and 3D-viewing environments with your embedded
graphics and hypertext.
While Web programmers developed, enhanced, and deployed HTML across the
Internet, basic elements of the graphics industry were undergoing revolutionary
changes. Graphical presentation technology, multimedia development, and new 3D
graphics standards, such as the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), began
to intersect with HTML to offer major presentation enhancements to the Web.
System support for new graphics applications also broadened. At one time,
most of these tools required proprietary engines for their operation. Now,
sophisticated graphics capabilities are built right into network operating
systems via standard application programming interfaces (APIs). Microsoft
Windows NT 3.51 includes Silicon Graphics' OpenGL graphics capability, as well
as Reality Labs' API and DirectDraw. These APIs let you develop and display
high-quality 2D and 3D graphics directly from the Windows NT operating system.
At the same time, competition and other market factors have pushed the
cost/performance envelope. Better, faster video accelerators and displays allow
the majority of desktop PC users to create and view the powerful, dynamic images
that these new, open graphics standards deliver. Your NT Server is designed to
take full advantage of these advances.
Browser Extensions
HTML, which was originally defined by the researchers at CERN (the European
Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland), remains the basic vehicle
to deliver information on the Web. HTML 1.0 was the first public manifestation
of that standard, and we have been adding to it ever since. New formatting
capability in HTML 2.0 gave us the flexibility to create more appealing and more
responsive pages.
But the pace of standards development is too slow for many people. The
phenomenal success of HTML and the Web have pushed the pace of Web development
beyond the ability of standards bodies to keep up. The Navigator 1.1 browser,
released by Netscape Communications in 1995, included extensions to the
current standard, in the form of new HTML tags and modifications to existing
standard tags. Later releases have continued to include this extension standard.
Netscape's resounding success in the browser market indicates that others
might adopt its extensions. These extensions might not end up as part of a
future "official" HTML standard, but Netscape isn't the only player
trying to set Web standards. Two other industry players, Sun Microsystems and
Microsoft, also have plans to extend the Web's capabilities. Both are sure to
make a mark on future standards as well.
Java
Sun Microsystems has introduced--or reintroduced--Java as an
object-oriented, cross-platform, client/server programming language. Originally
developed in 1990 for handheld Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) machines, which
were never released to the marketplace, Java has found a new lease on life as a
technology for use on the Web.
Java is both a compiled and interpreted language that extends the
capabilities of client-side viewing environments, such as Web browsers.
Java components include the source code, a compiler (javac), an interpretive
runtime environment, and full-fledged applications and applets. Once you have
compiled Java code into an architecture-neutral form, called bytecode,
your server can deliver it across the Internet to a machine whose runtime
environment executes the code and handles any system dependencies. Java enables
you to embed small programs (called applets) into Web documents. They
load into memory on a client machine and run right in the window of a
Java-enabled browser. Although applets are referenced on Web pages using special
HTML tags, just like sound files and static graphics, they are actually snippets
of executable code that are launched from a Web browser.
Before Java's debut, clients who wanted to view animation on the Web had to
configure at least one, and possibly several, external viewing applications for
use with their Web browser. Many users found the complexity of all this
configuration a little daunting, and many never even tried. But we could
simplify things for the clients by using Java to create special cross-platform
applications that load from a Web server right onto a client's machine. Such
applications would eliminate the need for multiple-browser configurations.
How does all this look on your server? Java applets are dynamic,
distributed, real-time client/server applications, they don't take up any
overhead on the server side and they run thriftily on the client side (a
positive legacy of their PDA roots). Better yet, Java-enabled Web pages aren't
limited to static text content. You can update tables, charts, and fields "on
the fly" and embed video segments, animation, audio, and even SQL
statements on your Web pages when you use Java. If your clients have a
Java-compliant browser, they can actually participate in the creation and
presentation of Java-enabled pages.