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OSET Applet
Why did we decide to use an applet at all? The
advantages of the client-server model are the following:
- The client will take less time to download than a
full program, because it will be only the front
end.
- If changes are made to the main program or to the
knowledge base, the user will benefit from these
changes without having to download the updated
version. For example, a teacher who is using OSET
in his course can edit the knowledge base to
include only reactions useful to the coursework.
- We hope that once the applet is completed, there
will be almost no changes (quite a different
situation from that of the server, which is
constantly under development).
- The analysis of a molecule requires some
intensive calculations, so it is preferable to
use a compiled program, which is about 20 times
faster than an interpreted program in Java.
The main disadvantage is that the user needs access to
the internet (not a big problem nowadays), and if the
network connection is very slow the program will appear
to be slow (even if the server takes less than a second
to do the processing). It is also possible to run the
client and the server in the same computer. The advantage
in this case is that the server can be compiled for mosts
platforms because it does not have a graphical user
interface. The interface is also platform-independent
because it is interpreted.
Click
here to see the applet in action!
OSET
applet help
Last update: 8/9/2000
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