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Many browsers now disable Java applets by default, requiring them to be enabled on a per-page basis. It seems like applets have not changed much in the past few years. In fact, it seems that client-side Java (applets, desktop applications, ...) is dying completely, and Java is primarily becoming a server-side language.

Except for the sake of compatibility, is there any place where applets are still useful on today's web? As a web developer who is familiar with Java and with JavaScript, why would I ever choose to use an applet instead of some JavaScript?

Tom Marthenal
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3 Answers3

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No, not much.

It might be useful if you don't want to use Flash (i.e. you don't have Flash knowledge and learning it is not worth it because you need to develop just a simple component and your users have Java installed) and need to do stuff which is not widespreadly supported by browsers (i.e. local filesystem access), or you have a significant amount of Java code you can reuse.

Really, with today's processors and RAM, Java is no longer that heavyweight (the F1 live timing app starts reasonably quickly on my Atom netbook, and there are certainly Flash apps which choke more my CPU), upgrades are differential IIRC and the initial install under today's network connections is a shade of what it was back in the day, but still, applets are not the answer to many questions.

Webstart, on the other hand... :-p

alex
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2

Applets are still useful in some circumstances - they are an easy way to embed small Java programs in web pages that might well make sense in the following circumstances:

  • You have Java Swing or AWT skills and don't want to learn yet another language / GUI framework
  • You don't particularly care if the some users get an applet warning

But nowadays anyone wanting to develop this kind of application in Java would probably use either:

  • A proper Java client-side application launched through WebStart
  • JavaFX 2.x - for rich media applications
mikera
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all Java apps requires third party software to work which has to be updated for security reasons very rapidly, each time download is huge and you need to restart browser many times it causes the browser to hang. I used to think java software is must for best experience but then after being tired of all this trouble just removed it. I cannot recall using any Java apps anyway. IMHO Java only useful for some dumb online games.

Long life PHP and other web based stuff that dont make my system slow for no reason.

Besides OP "The JavaScript programming language, developed by Netscape, Inc., is not part of the Java platform." Source http://www.java.com/en/download/faq/java_javascript.xml

MrPepers
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