From Java to Dynamic HTML

or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learned to Love the DOM

To view these samples, you must use Internet Explorer 4.0 or later on one of the following platforms: Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows 3.x, Macintosh, or UNIX.

Dynamic HTML gives developers a lot of power, but we wanted to know if Dynamic HTML could provide the same kind of functionality typically provided by Java applets. The Java samples distributed with the Java Development Kit (JDK 1.1) from Sunsoft looked like a good starting point for our investigation. These samples offer a collection of different types of applets and development problems.

DHTML proved to be flexible, fast, and adept at solving the problems we attacked with it. The full details are in a magazine article we wrote about our investigation. Briefly, here's what we found out about Dynamic HTML:

• Dynamic HTML samples initialized 37% faster
• File sizes were smaller for the DHTML versions
• The Document Object Model provides additional interactivity compared to Java
• Dynamic HTML works well with other development tools, including Java, C++, and Visual Basic
• Dynamic HTML works cross-platform, including Win32, Win16, Macintosh, and UNIX.

Samples are designed for viewing on screens 800x600 or larger. Choose "Show samples in full window" and/or view in full screen mode if you can't see the complete sample.

At left, you'll find a list of selected samples. Click on "DHTML" to see the Dynamic HTML version of the sample, or on "Java" to see the original Java applet.