SAX: How many interfaces?

[David Megginson]

Peter Murray-Rust writes:

 > >There remain strong pragmatic arguments for the
 > >everything-in-a-single-interface approach.
 > 
 > I'll leave this to you - but I wouldn't dissent from simplicity

It seems strange to C++ and other traditional programmers that the
number of class files matters so much in Java, but for applets in the
current generation of web browsers, it's critical -- each *.class file
requires a separate HTTP connection, and depending on server load,
there may be several seconds latency for each connection.

I generally give up on a web page after about 10 seconds unless it's
very important to me (few corporate pages get fully rendered before I
hit "Back"), so as an applet writer, I want to introduce as little
delay as possible.  Java 1.1 defines the JAR format, which allows
multiple classes in a single file, but the most widely deployed
browsers (Navigator 3.x and MSIE 3.x) do not support it, and I don't
know if Microsoft supports JARs even in newer versions, since they
have decided to not to upgrade to never versions of Java.  NS 3.x
supports zip files, and MSIE 3.x supports CAB files, but neither works
for both.

Ælfred will continue to support a single-file callback interface, so
perhaps people who need to limit the number of class files will be
forced to use Ælfred's native interface instead of SAX.


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 ak117 at freenet.carleton.ca
Microstar Software Ltd.         dmeggins at microstar.com
      http://home.sprynet.com/sprynet/dmeggins/

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