Re: LYNX-DEV Looking for Java/Javascript Lynx

[David Woolley]

> 
> Fair enough, but to me, the best part about Java is the JDBC drivers..so
> now I can access my databases from Java. If Lynx could support Java to the
> extent required for JDBC, then I need not use PHP, perl CGI's etc to

Define "the extent required".  I can see no natural boundary between
Lynx and JDBC (or ODBC for that matter) other than one which involves
the use of the GUI elements that parallel JDBC.  Once you do that,
you are committed to fully implementing Java (Sun won't let you partly
implement it - as Microsoft's lawyers are currently discovering).

Any mapping of URLs onto JDBC will depend on the invention of a stateless
protocol interface to JDBC, which is unlikely to exist in the natural 
implementation with Java for a GUI environment (generally Java in MSIE, etc.
takes over the browser and does all its own GUI, using the browser only for
things like GUI fetches).

I would think that a text only implementation of AWT etc. might be
possible, but it would have to be implemented on top of curses, or a
lower level, not on top of a browser (I don't think the MSIE Java GUI
is implemented on top of MSIE).  I'm not sure of the exact licensing on
platform dependent parts of the code; you might be able to do that as an
add on to someone else's Java environment and keep within Sun's terms.
However, it would be a Java extension project, not a Lynx extension
project.

If you were to provide JDBC access from Lynx, I would think that the
inteface would have to use CORBA, but there is still a large gap to fill.
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